Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: UK

  • Fleet – Prince Arthur

    Fleet – Prince Arthur

    I’ve now completed all the Good Beer Guide listed pubs in Farnborough, although there are only three and one of those is effectively in a shed that the council has stopped the public from visiting. Going to Fleet for the day, there’s only Good Beer Guide pub listed there and it’s the JD Wetherspoon outlet, Prince Arthur.

    I’ll use JD Wetherspoon’s history of the reason for the pub name:

    “Fleet’s development as a town was due, in large measure, to the nearby army camp at Aldershot. In the 1890s, its commanding officer was Prince Arthur, third son of Queen Victoria. During his time in charge, Prince Arthur lived in Fleet. This was the first shop in Fleet with two entrances and had ‘a good turnover of groceries, including butter and tea’.”

    There’s an odd thing about JD Wetherspoon pubs that you can, after several years of training by going in them so regularly, get the vibe almost as soon as entering. There are the glossy new pubs with shiny plugs, dimmer switches, every style of menu at the door, then there are the pubs that look as though they’re near to falling down, mostly the older ones in London that they’re straining to use every inch of space as they’re so busy. There are fabulous interiors in historic buildings and then pubs such as this, mostly from the turn of the century, when they were a little less decadent in the design amidst a wave of new openings. And these ones tend to have the best staff, they’ve almost moulded into the community in which they serve, the staff knew the customers and most of these are locals. These pubs are not flashy, but they’re reassuringly present and it’s noticeable that some of their most loyal older customers sit near to the entrance excited to see their friends come in. I like these pubs.

    That egg looks far from ideal and I’m not quite sure why they’re serving them over easy in some attempt to perhaps replicate dining in the United States, but fortunately, the yolk was still runny. I’m not saying that my morning would have been ruined if I couldn’t dip the toast in the egg, but I would have muttered quietly to myself (and would have probably sent the egg back as I’m annoying like that). All else was fine with the breakfast and for the money it was entirely fine, we’re looking at under £5 for unlimited coffee and a traditional breakfast.

    Half a pint of Illustrious from Irving & Co Brewers, a small brewery from Portsmouth. Quite a fruity pale ale, this one had a pleasant aftertaste, was well-kept and was priced at the ridiculously good value of £1. The staff here were friendly and personable, with more conversations between team members and customers than I’ve seen in a JD Wetherspoon outlet for quite some time, it had the feel of a community pub.

    It’s a relatively large pub which stretches back some way, with numerous power points dotted around the place which is quite handy.  The online reviews of the pub are quite reasonable, although they’ve annoyed the usual selection of customers over the years, including the:

    “Shoddy short shelf life beers which often run out due to them buying up leftover stocks. Poor quality, end of life produce.”

    Which is a persistent lie that only recently seems to be dying out…..

    I’m conscious that some people dislike JD Wetherspoon, but the quality of the service, the range of the products, the cleanliness of the venue and the value combines to form a reliably positive experience. This particular pub does need a refurbishment at some point as it’s getting a little tired, but it seems a very sensible addition to the Good Beer Guide to me.

  • Farnborough – Prince of Wales Pub

    Farnborough – Prince of Wales Pub

    On my continued trek around pubs listed in the Good Beer Guide, the Prince of Wales is located around a fifteen minute walk from the centre of Farnborough, although is quite near to Farnborough North railway station.

    There’s a mixture of traditional and modern design in the pub, I think it all works well.

    The cask and keg options. There was a friendly welcome from the member of staff at the bar, with the surroundings being warm and peaceful.

    Some effort has been made with the bar snacks, I approve of this arrangement.

    The selection of real ales, a colourful and well presented bar. Interestingly, there are Siren Craft Brew and Brewdog bar mats, another touch of modernity.

    The Princely Porter from Ascot Brewing Company, a decent porter with a pleasant chocolate flavour, although I’m not sure that I got much of the dark berry fruits that the brewer mentioned. The Roast Ox crisps complemented it beautifully.

    I can’t say that the situation with dogs here is ideal, although it’s not really for me to criticise as pubs at the moment can’t really afford to turn away custom (I more mean dog owners rather than dogs themselves). However, the dogs here were being unruly, jumping on tables and barking loudly and for a prolonged period. The environment soon switched from cosy and welcoming to a place which was considerably less appealing. There was a craft beer that I was going to have from Brew York, but I decided to leave it as the environment lost its excitement for me.

    There were no particular problems with the pub, as the staff members were polite, the surroundings were clean and comfortable with the beer range being really quite decent for a pub on the edge of a town. They’re not currently serving food, but I’m not sure it would be ideal for customers trying to eat a Sunday roast whilst navigating around the dogs. It’s also well reviewed on-line, so they’re clearly consistently pleasing customers. They do seem to have abandoned their social media accounts though, leaving Twitter untouched and deleting Facebook, and they’re not responding to reviews, so it’s difficult to get an understanding of what is going on here in terms of events and menus.

    The pub is though not just in the Good Beer Guide, but it has been in for over forty years, it has won numerous local awards and their offering craft beer is a really positive development for such a pub with long cask traditions. Dogs aside, this is a very decent pub and I’m sure that it’ll remain in the Good Beer Guide for some time to come.

  • Basingstoke – The Angel

    Basingstoke – The Angel

    I didn’t have long in Basingstoke, but I made time to pop to one Good Beer Guide listed pub and the nearest was the JD Wetherspoon operated Angel. This is an odd pub, it’s really not that big and was at its capacity in terms of tables taken when I visited, so they were losing customers who couldn’t find a seat.

    Service was friendly and welcoming, I went for half a pint of the Lowry from Hydes Brewery, who are based in Salford and that came to the grand total of £1. Rather than rewriting the history, this is what JD Wetherspoon say about their pub:

    “This former Lloyds No.1 bar opened in 2002. In 2015, it was renamed The Angel after The Angel Inn which stood behind Barclays Bank, in Market Place. The historic inn was the venue for dances which were attended by the novelist Jane Austen. The Angel closed in the 1860s. A new Angel was built soon after, on the corner of Wote Street and Potters Lane, but was demolished in the 1960s, during the rebuilding of the town centre.”

    I stayed at the bar which was bright and colourful. I spent most of the time people watching, as it was hard to get lost in a world of reading when trying to ensure I wasn’t in the way of any customer. Although I carefully avoided standing near the real ale options, as a new pet hate of mine is when people sit there and block the view of those (terms and conditions apply, such as when the pub lists their beer on Untappd…..). Anyway, I digress again.

    The Lowry beer was fine, although unremarkable, a few Citra hops shining through an entirely drinkable beer.

    The reviews for the beer are around average for JD Wetherspoon outlets, perhaps slightly above average. I noted this review:

    “Enjoyable evening, having met up with friends, enjoying catching up laughing tell jokes. Bar staff than comes over and says, we are not serving you anymore your table is too noise too much laughter coming from it, we thought they were having a joke, but no they wouldn’t serve us because we were too noisy. Really!!”

    Good.

    “We ordered 6 breakfasts and waited 1 hour 20 minutes for it. When it arrived it was cold, rubbery and tasteless. The portion of beans consisted of 18 – it was so funny we counted”

    I fear there might be a Facebook group about beans soon, as if the one about chips isn’t enough…..

    “Staff just out of nappies no social skills. Serve youths before more mature customers even when you been waiting longer just to get noticed”

    I can’t imagine why the staff ignored this customer…..

    “Our evening was spoilt by an over zealous manager….. Who got upset when we sang happy birthday to our friend. It put a dampener on the rest of the evening. It was not rowdy. It was a quick song song. You run a pub not a library…..”

    I’m liking the pub more and more….. Unnecessarily raucous.

    “Haha we got told to stop laughing . We’re in the world can’t you go out for a beer and have a good time . This is weatherspoon not the bloody Ritz”

    Marvellous. Anyway, I’ve got distracted again….

    There’s not much else I can note about the pub as I wasn’t there for long and everything was quite busy, but the staff were seemingly enjoying themselves, or as much as they could. I can see why the pub is listed in the Good Beer Guide as there were seven or eight different real ales and that’s enough to justify an entry, although the surroundings weren’t particularly cosy (but that’s often the case in these former Lloyds venues). There is another JD Wetherspoon outlet in the town, the Maidenhead Inn, and I suspect that the surroundings there are a little quieter and more sedate.

  • GWR + South Western Railway : Reading to Farnborough (Delayed and Cancelled Trains)

    GWR + South Western Railway : Reading to Farnborough (Delayed and Cancelled Trains)

    After a rather pleasant few days in Reading, it was time to return to the railway station and to try and leave. In the centre is the Three Guineas pub which was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, although as a station building rather than a hospitality outlet. On either side is Reading railway station, much developed over recent years following the arrival of Crossrail. I was conscious in advance that this journey would be at least slightly challenging, as GWR had cancelled trains and issued a “do not travel if you can avoid it” notice, although I couldn’t much avoid it.

    My rail ticket was for Farnborough North, which is a short direct journey operated by GWR, but the rail network was faced with a large number of cancellations and delays given the weather situation. GWR told me online that I could use any route to get to Farnborough, which adds some excitement to proceedings to work out what is possible. It transpired that the direct line to Farnborough North didn’t re-open for 24 hours, so waiting for that service would have been a mistake, I’d need to loop around into the main station in Farnborough.

    I went and asked a staff member how I could get to Farnborough and he said that it was best to go via Basingstoke. I mentioned that the line from Basingstoke to Farnborough was seemingly closed, so after a little conference and debate with a number of other staff, the friendly staff member said that it was indeed currently closed but they were very optimistic that it would reopen soon. He agreed that although it was possible to go into London and back out, that was a much longer route, involved crossing the city and was on the same line as Basingstoke to Farnborough anyway, so it’d be open or shut whatever way I went.

    So, I thought that I’d go to Basingstoke. There’s not a huge amount of jeopardy here really, in a worst case scenario I could have got a taxi (although I’d have recalled the cost for some years no doubt) and wouldn’t have been entirely stranded. I’m not sure that I’ve ever been to Basingstoke, but it seemed the best plan that was available. As an aside, one of the many unfortunate outcomes of the destruction of the rail network in the 1960s was that many lines were removed that would allow passengers to divert around any issues. Fortunately, the situation in this part of the country still allows that flexibility, otherwise my journey would have been impossible by public transport. It seems as fast as Network Rail staff were removing trees and branches from lines that more were falling elsewhere, so it was a challenging day and a reminder as to why they pro-actively cut down trees near to railway lines (even if that does annoy the locals sometimes).

    It wasn’t an overly busy train from Reading to Basingstoke and it was running nearly enough to schedule. A guard was checking tickets, although he seemed to be just making very cursory checks.

    It seemed a shame to be in Basingstoke and not go and pop into the town for a little bit. I went and asked the member of staff at the gateline if I could pop into Basingstoke and she seemed surprised that anyone would really want to do that, but she willingly let me through and thanked me for asking.

    And there’s the station, a modern frontage constructed in 2012 hiding the older building behind it, which I’m not entirely sure is that aesthetically pleasing.

    A slightly blurry photo unfortunately, but these the bushes outside of Basingstoke railway station. This will mean little to anyone unless they have heard the story told by the comedian James Acaster about his time there, but it’s a tale that is worth listening to. It felt quite an honour to be in the same location, or at least in the same area, I didn’t climb into the bushes.

    The same staff member at the gate line let me in after my sojourn around Basingstoke and it transpired that the information provided by Network Rail was complete nonsense. I thought I’d better just ask a staff member and he said that they had abandoned trying to get Network Rail data to match up, so the screens were mostly wrong, but they’d make clear announcements to assist passengers. He told me where to wait as the service I had hoped to catch wasn’t running, and it transpired the information that he gave was correct. There were plenty of customer service staff about, I thought that they were dealing with the problems with trains with some confidence and accuracy.

    This screen was vaguely up-to-date, but nearly every “please enquire” was for a destination where the trains had been cancelled.

    I was faced with the potentially confusing situation that I needed a train to London Waterloo, but only the 17.34 stopped at Farnborough, so I had to avoid the one at 17.31.This was made easy as they shifted my train to another platform and there were frequent announcements.

    It’s always a relief to see any form of public transport which is the one that goes to my final destination and here’s the South Western Railway thunderbolt coming into London.

    It wasn’t very busy and passengers could have an entire carriage to themselves if they wanted.

    I’ve often wondered what people have tried to plug into these power points in the past to warrant stickers saying laptops only. I remember an edited sign on a train several years ago which said “no microwaves”, so I can only imagine that someone tried that once.

    A fair bit after I was meant to arrive, here we are. As a station, it’s a little quirky as there was once a central platform island, but this has now been removed, and more about that in another post.

    The exterior of the station building at Farnborough.

    And welcome to Farnborough, late, but safely there. Given the mess that the railways were in because of the storms, I thought that the whole situation was handled well by the rail companies and it all added a little adventure to my day.

  • Reading – Reading Museum (Arm Bone)

    Reading – Reading Museum (Arm Bone)

    And another post about things that interested me in Reading Museum.

    A bit of bone this time. This is what most people do on a Saturday isn’t it? Go and look at bits of bone in provincial museums? If they don’t, then they probably should.

    It’s a woman’s arm which dates to the medieval period that was found in the 1890s, near to where King’s Road and London Road meet in the town. I’ve managed to spend (or waste, depending on how you look at it) thirty minutes discovering that there is a lot of nonsense written about where the leper hospital was in Reading, as it wasn’t in the abbey precincts as numerous writers have suggested. It was likely located to the east of the abbey, near to where the Hope & Bear public house is located today and the hospital was constructed between 1131 and 1135.

    There’s already a problem though, it was thought that the leper hospital was for men only, so they shouldn’t be finding a woman’s arm here, but the cemetery might have been for those suffering from a wider set of ailments. The copper had been bent around the woman’s arm which have likely been covered with an ivy leaf dressing.

    But, all that aside, I thought that this was quite intriguing, the bone of a woman from 800 years ago or so, likely who only coped because of the generosity of the abbey who felt that they should assist those with leprosy (although help them from some way away, as there was a fear of it spreading).

  • Reading – Air Raid of 10 February 1943

    Reading – Air Raid of 10 February 1943

    Reading was mostly free from air raids during the Second World War, with one tragic exception which is marked by this plaque next to St. Laurence’s Church, when 41 people were killed on 10 February 1943.

    The plaque is located in the gap visible in the centre of the photo between the church and the house and there’s a lot more about the events of the day at the website of Reading Museum as well as an interview with the late Michael Bond, the creator of Paddington Bear.

    This isn’t a particularly clear image, but it shows the damage in front of the church and is what was used in the Reading Standard to report the incident. It’s actually a little odd, as the Reading Standard must have been operating with some censorship limitations as they had to explain that the bomb had hit a “Home Counties town”, but I think it’s fair to say that most people reading the Reading Standard would be aware which town it was, but perhaps they wanted that a secret kept from the Germans. Focusing on the positives in terms of the swift return to normal, the newspaper reported, still not naming the town:

    “A number of people were killed and injured in a hit and run enemy raid on a Home Counties town, with several men and women still unidentified. The raid was soon over. One of the bombs fell in front of a church, partially wrecking it and adjacent office buildings. A police constable on street duty nearby was killed outright. Other victims included people who had rushed into the church when the enemy raider came over”.

    Part of the damaged church, from the main tower, which is now in the churchyard. This could have easily been destroyed or ended up being flogged off to a private collector, I like the foresight that someone had in securing it at the rear of the church.

    The plaque is just visible towards the left of this photo, an understated reminder of the tragedy that happened on that day. The German planes had tracked the railway line and had already attacked Newbury, with the bombing of Reading likely a failed attempt to hit the town’s railway station.

  • Reading – Reading Museum (Crossrail Helmet)

    Reading – Reading Museum (Crossrail Helmet)

    And continuing with my irregular series of posts about what I liked in Reading Museum.

    Yes, it’s a helmet and I’m justifying an entire post about this, and not even to please my friend Liam who I think craves more content about civil engineering. But this is what will likely transform Reading and although Crossrail trains already reach Reading, the full service across London isn’t yet in operation as it stops at Paddington Station. There was no inevitability about the line going to Reading and that was only confirmed in 2014, with earlier plans having the service terminating at Maidenhead.

    I’ve seen a lot of exhibits relating to railway mania in the middle of the nineteenth century and items were often kept by forward thinking individuals as they knew they would be seen as important for future generations. The National Railway Museum in York has huge piles of such exhibits in their stores and the railway did transform many towns and cities. Crossrail reaching Reading will also likely mean that the authority can justify another wave of house building in and around the town, given how easy it will be to get the service into the centre of London and beyond.

    So, although this might be one of the most intrinsically dull exhibits in the museum, in 100 years I’ll wager (and I’m not at risk of paying out here) that this helmet is still in the collections as a reminder of the transformational moments in Reading’s transportation history. This post is definitely a flight of fancy, but there we go…..

  • Reading – Ibis

    Reading – Ibis

    Not to be confused with the nearby Ibis Styles hotel, this complex was built on the site of the Boar’s Head pub and also contains a Novotel. But Novotel is a bit expensive for me in the UK, I’m not back in Poland now to afford that sort of decadence….. The welcome from the staff member was, well, memorable and she was so enthusiastic, but full marks for that, it’s nice for staff to make an effort. The staff member mentioned she saw my Accor profile asked for rooms higher up, but she said on this occasion she was going to give me a lower floor as they were banging about higher up with the ongoing refurbishment programme. I very much liked her “if there’s absolutely anything we can help with, just let us know”, it reminded me of Christian from Channel 4’s Hotel series (he ended up in prison though, I have much higher hopes for the kind staff here). There was a WhatsApp number that anyone could message and I’m a fan of this, I hate phones (they’re very last century) and I prefer messaging complaints using text based services, not that I had any on this occasion…..

    It’s reassuringly brand standard and that’s by no means a negative comment. Clean, functional and the same as most other Ibis hotels. The window opened, the television was modern (I actually turned it on to cast Only Fools and Horses to it from my Britbox account) and the temperature was just as I wanted it.

    The bar and lobby area, this is nicely done given the space that they’ve got available to them. The atmosphere was cosy and I liked listening to the conversation of the Polish guests nearby. Not in a nosy way, as I struggled to have a clue what they were talking about, it just reminded me of Poland, which anyone who reads this blog occasionally (and few read it regularly, so I’ll take the occasional readers) will know I frequently miss. They do offer a basic menu of food, although there is so much competition locally that I suspect they don’t have many takers.

    The welcome drink of London Pride and this is OK with me, it’s a nod towards having a proper beer and not offering me Bud or Corona.

    “We kindly ask you not to be alarmed”, seems a reasonable request.

    There was a blandness to this hotel which I found really quite reassuring, it’s a corporate and peaceful location and I didn’t have any noise issues either internally or externally. The customer service was excellent, a friendly welcome which made me feel welcome, and the prices are towards the lower end of the scale. The management felt competent, the surroundings were clean and everything seemed in its place, other than I had no idea where the stairs were to reception and got caught having to take the lift.

    I’d stay here again (and probably will) and there’s more about the hotel here.

  • Reading – Ibis Styles

    Reading – Ibis Styles

    The reviews of this Accor hotel in Reading are, being honest, dismal and they’re sitting at 3.2 out of 5, which is about the sort of territory that the dreadful hotels operated by Britannia are running at. I wasn’t expecting the most decadent of stays, as there didn’t seem much that was pointing in the right direction for this hotel.

    On the morning of the booking, the hotel phoned me, and unusually I thought I’d better answer as I didn’t want to discover that my hotel booking had been cancelled. It was the hotel asking if I really wanted two rooms, and I replied that I didn’t, but it seems that Accor took a duplicate booking due to a technical error. I should have noticed this as they did email me, but it was easy to miss and the booking didn’t duplicate on my future Accor bookings which I would have seen. Anyway, the staff member was really quite charming and said the hotel was happy to cancel one room, I just needed to phone Accor.

    And Accor were bloody dreadful. They said they couldn’t do anything about it, although they were polite whilst being annoying. This is the problem with this awful global call centre operation that they have, their call handling staff have no discretion or flexibility. If the call centre for each country was actually within the country in which their hotels were, then their call staff could have a much more personal relationship with the hotels they’re meant to be serving. In short, Accor said they couldn’t help as they had no way of contacting their own hotel. I mean, by phone I would have thought was a possible way, but apparently call centre staff aren’t allowed phones. I wasn’t best pleased with Accor at this stage.

    Anyway, I phoned the hotel back and the wonderful lady I had been speaking to answered and she clearly wasn’t going to accept this sort of nonsense from Accor. Within about three minutes an email came through from Accor confirming the cancellation of the duplicate room and the hotel called me to confirm that they’d fixed it. My impressions of the hotel had now firmly shifted from sceptical given the reviews to really liking their customer service. As an aside, Accor should have a set-up which allowed them to do this, but I was just pleased that it was all resolved.

    It’s an interesting building, it’s an old hotel that was originally known as the Ship and then became the Royal County Hotel.

    And here’s the plaque at the hotel’s entrance to prove it. The member of staff at check-in was personable and helpful, giving me all of the information that I needed about my stay. At this point I was really struggling to establish why they were picking up so many bad reviews.

    In the area at the base of the stairs, I can’t imagine when this would have last been used for coats, but it felt like part of the hotel’s history. The hotel is old and so there are windy and twisting corridors all over the place, I thought it was all quite charming.

    I stayed at this hotel twice and was given the same room on both occasions, it was Indian themed and that seems to be a throwback to before it became an Accor hotel. The decoration was quirky, but the room was clean and comfortable, so I was still wondering why the reviews were poor.

    The bathroom which wasn’t exactly modern, but it was clean and functional.

    The welcome drink arrangement is unusual, it’s offered by the Indian restaurant that now seems to be separately owned, but was once the hotel’s main restaurant area. On the first occasion a staff member asked what beer I’d like and an interfering manager behind said “it’s Cobra only” which was an unnecessary intervention I thought as I’d already said Cobra would be fine. On the second occasion, I asked for a Cobra and was surprised to see I was being given the much larger bottle. The interfering manager looked horrified, but the bottle was already open before he could stop it. There’s clearly a customer service issue here, but I’m not going to blame the hotel for that.

    As the hotel’s breakfast room now has an Indian restaurant in it, there’s a free takeaway bag offered, which unusually includes a refrigerated carton of milk instead of some odd slightly chilled UHT arrangement. I thought that the breakfast was entirely adequate and there’s a room where guests can get free coffees and teas at any time, although these facilities are also in the room.

    The customer service throughout at the hotel was impeccable and the staff here were as good as I could have expected at a higher end Accor property. Indeed, I very much liked this hotel, so I felt that a closer look was needed as to why so many other guests were annoyed at their stay.

    “If I could rate this 0 I would. The worst hotel I have ever stepped foot in. Do not waste your time or money. Staff are rude and their customer service is appalling. All rooms are awful, they were that bad I made other arrangements to stay elsewhere as I physically could not stay there. Shocking”

    This review is from a couple of days before I visited. All the rooms are clearly not awful, but I’m puzzled how one person manages to find all of the staff rude whereas the four staff that I encountered were all very customer service focused.

    “Probably the worst hotel I’ve stayed in, and i travel a lot. Broken shower holder, so water went everywhere . Water either very hot or cold. Very squeaky floor boards. Dated room and had to keep my shoes on when moving about. A-lot of drunks in the hotel keeping us awake during the night and close to the main road so also kept awake by local traffic. If you want a cheap room for a night out and don’t care where you sleep this is ideal. If you’re with your family then I suggest elsewhere. Definitely won’t recommend to anyone.”

    It is possible that this is why I had a different experience, or at least to some degree, as the room they gave me was at the rear of the hotel and near the end of a corridor, so I was far away from any noise. But perhaps I just got lucky….. There are also several reviews annoyed that no tea and coffee facilities were included, but my room had a kettle and it’s not as though I was upgraded to a suite.

    I do have some history with this hotel, as they cancelled a booking on me last year, which was disappointing, but it was a fair way in advance of the booking. They tried to transfer me to the nearby hotel but there was a mess-up with the bookings and I just gave up, which is partly why I came back this time. I’d be surprised if they remember those interactions, although I found the staff helpful then as it wasn’t their fault they were closing, but maybe they wanted to be helpful after the problems of last year.

    Either way, I liked this hotel and would happily return. It is though an older building and the set-up is old fashioned given that, it reminds me of the Ibis Styles Croydon which has a similar old hotel arrangement. For anyone who likes new and shiny, there’s the Novotel and Ibis hotel which is just around the corner, so something for everyone (or nearly everyone).

    There’s more information about the hotel here.

  • Reading – Reading Abbey (Burial Place of King Henry I)

    Reading – Reading Abbey (Burial Place of King Henry I)

    Monarchs have had a variety of outcomes with their burial surroundings, as many found themselves buried in buildings that were torn down following the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Several are buried in France, such as William I, and some such as William II were fortunate that their burial location in Winchester Cathedral has been left relatively intact. Richard III ended up under a car park before his recent move to Leicester Cathedral and some such as Richard II got lucky and are at Westminster Abbey.

    King Henry I, the son of King William I, died in France and was brought back to Reading Abbey, which he himself had funded. He died on 2 December 1135 and it’s said that this was because he ate too many lampreys, which isn’t an ideal way to go. His body took some time to be brought back to Reading, but the grand funeral took place on 3 January 1136. The great and the good turned up for this, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of Winchester and the Bishop of Salisbury to name just a few. And he would have remained buried here with some grandeur if it wasn’t for the Dissolution of the Monasteries and the ultimate destruction of the abbey buildings.

    And there’s no happy story here about finding King Henry’s remains in a car park, although that’s actually potentially where he is. His burial site is now used by a school and there is a car park, so stranger things have happened. People have looked for his grave, but it’s likely long gone, probably shattered soon after the Dissolution from pesky locals wanting to have a peer into what remained. There’s a stone plaque here now which is dated 1921, although was heavily restored recently so it looks modern. During the recent restoration work the archaeologists did think they might have found the former Monarch’s grave, but it transpired to be a religious burial that was from a later period. There’s a chance that King Henry is under the Victorian school, but it feels excessive to take the school down to have a quick look, although I suspect some historians would think it was a sacrifice worth making.

    If King Henry could look down on the current arrangements, I think he’d be annoyed. He financed one of the grandest abbeys going, bigger than some cathedrals today. His grave would have been pride of place if the building had survived, something of a tourist attraction and it would have likely been given a lovely big slab of some expensive marble to put him under. But, history went another way, and his remains are lost, but at least not forgotten. But I don’t think that he’d think that the situation is ideal.