Published: Thursday, 5th June, 2008 07:00
Life was all peaches and cream
By David Cliffe
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IT WAS on the afternoon of Good Friday that I decided to take a walk along The Warren in Caversham, despite the hail showers.
By chance, in St Peter’s churchyard, I met a friend who wanted to show me a wall, just past the churchyard, where The Warren goes down a slight slope towards some boat-houses.
The brick wall, recently stripped of ivy, appeared to have a row of chimney-pots along it, at regular intervals – all very curious!
A look at an old, large-scale Ordnance Survey plan shows that the wall was the back wall of a long glasshouse, now long since gone. It is described in the Caversham Court sale catalogue of 1931 as “a lean-to, bow-shaped, two-divisioned peach house, about 150 feet long”.
Then, some weeks later, I came upon this photograph, taken by Francis Frith and Company. From the serial number, I can work out that it was taken about 1920.
It takes a while to orientate yourself, because so much has changed in the interim – and because you can’t quite see the River Thames, though you can see the boat-house with a boat in it. The view is northwards over a paddling pool by the Thames Side Promenade, over the river to Caversham.
The tower of St Peter’s Church is unmistakable, and in front of it, a little to the left, is the gazebo, in front of which is the boat-house. The white-painted peach house stands out among the surrounding greenery, reminding us of a past age.
The Simonds family of Caversham Court must have employed gardeners who lived on the premises or nearby, and who kept watch on chilly spring evenings. When frost threatened, they must have gone and lit fires in the row of fireplaces below those chimney-pots, to heat the air in the glass-house and stop the frost nipping the buds of the precious peach and apricot trees.
What luxury!
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