Bell Tower Community Association

We are pleased to announce the date for our street party this year – Saturday 17 June, starting at 1.00pm – and we hope to hold it in Newport Road again if residents agree. As in previous years we are choosing the Big Lunch weekend because this is our opportunity to apply for a street closure without having to pay the usual fee.

We had live music for the first time at last year’s street party, along with a drumming workshop that many people enjoyed. We hope to have more live music this year, along with another music workshop, and are still looking for more musicians that would like to join us and perhaps play on the day – please get in touch if you are interested.

Would you like to help us? We always need extra helpers, whether it’s for putting up bunting, setting up the tables, organising activities – whatever you can help with we’d be delighted to hear from you. If you’d like to set up a small stall that would be great too – we just ask for a small donation if you are a commercial organisation.

If you would like to help or have any suggestions please contact David on 07890 118167 or by email at david@bell-tower.org.uk.

As with many older areas of town, the Bell Tower area has plenty of history. We’ve been doing some delving into our area’s heritage and have found out plenty.

Do you remember St Paul’s Church, which stood where New Hope is today?

You may have read about the proposed ‘Foundry Quarter’ development for the Wickes and Iceland site in Weldale Street, but our area’s where many of the foundries were around the turn of the century, producing parts for the railways and items such as our old cast iron lamp posts.

Caversham Road has a rich industrial history – Warricks, for example, made ‘stop me and buy one’ tricycles, and Bucklers made sports cars.

And then there’s E P Collier School (originally Swansea Road Board School) – did you know that its architect also designed several pubs and hotels, and the Cox & Wyman works?

We’re always keen to hear from anyone who remembers the area from years ago – perhaps you have some old photos or stories that you’d like to share? Please contact us at info@bell-tower.org.uk if you are interested.

Here are the three presentations given at our recent ‘History in our backyard’ event – we hope to have more local history features soon:

Caversham Road and St Paul’s Church
The real Foundry Quarter?
Swansea Road Board School to EP Collier School.

The fly tipped fridge outside the former Cox & Wyman printing works in Addison Road has been reported to the council.

Have you ever wondered how to report street problems such as fly tipping to the council? The easiest way if you have an Android or Apple smartphone is to use the Lovecleanreading app — search for it in your app store.