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Although I'm interested in many aspects of British history, I also love to find out about the towns and villages that I live in. I moved to Reading in 2009 and since then, have delved into some of its past.

If you're interested in finding out more about the history of Reading, I hope you'll find these articles useful...

If there are any Reading subjects you think I should look at for future posts, let me know in the comments and I'll have a dig in the sources...

You might like to read these...

Pincent's Hill in Tilehurst is 2,000 Years Old

The Lost Medieval Chapel of Caversham Bridge

Five Stories from Reading Abbey

Where Was Reading's Lost Castle?

St Laurence's Church, Reading and The Grounded Exhibition at Creativ.Spaces

Don't Be Fooled - Reading Abbey Was a Big Deal

The Secret History of Reading's Market Place

Medieval Treason at Reading Abbey - The Case of Thomas Kerver, 1444

The 1499 May Day Celebrations of St Lawrence's Church

Finding The Ancient Pubs of Reading, Berkshire

Walk in the Footsteps of the Tudors in Reading

Mary I and Philip of Spain Visit Reading, 2nd August 1552

The Case of John Sawnders, 1553

Sir Francis Walsingham's Lost Reading Town House

Sir Francis Englefield: Reading's Rebel Knight

The Tudors of the Village of Tilehurst

The Witches of Reading (1626-1636)

A Riot, a Dog and The George Hotel in Reading (1639) - a guest post for Voyager of History

Wilder's Folly, Tilehurst: An Eighteenth-Century Love Nest

Did Queen Victoria Hate Reading? The Legend of the Victoria Statue in Friar Street

More posts always added, check back for more...

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What Really Made Henry VIII Obese?

A look at Henry VIII's road to obesity in later life. It's often blamed on his diet of meats, roasted birds and fatty fish. But was it all about his meat intake? Or was something else a bigger factor? Henry VIII, (c) British Library, Public Domain. Flickr Archive A big deal is always made of Henry VIII's middle-aged weight gain. One of his coats of armour, made in 1540 (almost certainly just worn for show) measures 52 inches around the waist, making him obese by even today's standards (1) . But as a young king, he was famed for his athleticism at jousting, riding and tennis - and, at the age of twenty-four, was considered by an ambassador "the handsomest potentate I ever set eyes on." (2) Portraits from early in his reign support this, too, showing a focused, pleasantly-smiling and slimmer Henry. So what happened? Prominent historians are quick to point the finger at his diet of fatty roasted meats, poultry and dairy. Phillipa Gregory, writin

Anne Boleyn's Tudor Apple Pie

Ok, so I don't really know if this was actually what Anne Boleyn's pie would have looked like, or even if she ate pie. But honestly, I bet she did. In early 1533, Anne talked of a craving for apples, being that she was now pregnant with her daughter Elizabeth. So an apple pie doesn't seem too far out of the equation, right? The clotted cream in the bowl alongside is a bit (but only a bit) of artistic licence. Clotted cream is thought to have been eaten in Britain since at least the eleventh century, when it was mentioned in sources relating to Tavistock Abbey in Devon - and Thomas Dawson's late sixteenth-century cookbook The Huswife's Jewell mentions clotted cream too, as an ingredient in a cake recipe, which sounds incredible. It's not unbelievable then that she could have eaten apples (or apple pie) with thick, sweet clotted cream in 1533. Because I wanted to create an apple recipe to honour Anne Boleyn, I wanted to find the earliest concise Tudor recipe I

Tudor Tartes of Cheese

How gorgeous do these look? First, a kind of disclaimer. This is one of the recipes I adapted quite a bit to fit in with modern cooking methods: I've used pre-bought, ready rolled pastry. If the Tudors had access to it, they would have used it I reckon, and that's my argument. In any case, if you'd rather make your own shortcrust pastry please go ahead, and you'll get a more authentic Tudor experience because of it. For me, with a husband working shifts, two teenagers and a day job I just prefer the easier route. This is one of my favourite recipes I've discovered in the Tudor archives and one we've made many times. These little cheese pies go well with a sharply-dressed green salad - or cold, as a packed lunch. The original recipe, from A Booke of Cookrye in 1591, calls for clarified butter to be added to the inside, but I left this out, judging it to be rich enough. It also calls for egg yolks - I've used whole eggs to avoid waste. Here's

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As history lovers, we can sometimes get a little protective over our favourite subject, can't we? Like when we overhear someone say that Richard III was nothing but an evil hunchback (why, hello, Mr Shakespeare) or that the British Empire was, without exception, a really good thing for everyone. We want to share what really happened and back it up with evidence. I guess we feel like these inaccuracies just aren't representing the truth. And then there are historical movies. Like Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves . It's the one film my husband and I can't watch on date night after sixteen years together, because Robin Hood's American accent, travelling on foot from Dover to Warwickshire via Hadrian's Wall and, I don't know, Maid Marian's helpless simpering. Before the end of the opening credits I've already started gesturing at the screen, he's rolling his eyes and we turn the telly off and order a takeaway. Photo by Ricardo Cruz on Unsplash B

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