The pub can be found at 45 Denmark Street. Wokingham. RG40 2AY (map here) and you can call the pub on 0118 978 0309.

As part of the campaign we want to be able to prove how important the pub is to the local community.

To do this, we really need to hear from you, we would love to hear about your memories of the Jolly Anglers, good and bad, (but mostly good I hope). )  Were you involved in events run from the pub?  Did you meet someone special there?  How important was the pub for you?

When you have a minute could you write just a few lines on the subject ‘What the pub means to me’. If you’ve got any photos of the pub, press clippings or anything else, we’d love to see that too. 

We might put your memories on the website, or use them when we contact the press. (We will always check with you first).

Most importantly your opinions and memories will help when we object to planning permission.

They will help us show the council how strongly people feel, that this pub must be reopened.

“For me the pub is a place where I can relax and meet people. I love to know that if I am a bit down, and need a bit of company I can always just drop into the pub and I’m bound to meet someone I know.”

“People don’t always live near their families nowadays, and a lot of people live alone.  

For me the pub is a bit like my family.”

You can send your memories and thoughts to me at cathymars@yahoo.co.uk

Or use the Contact Us page on the website.

Or post or deliver them to: Jollydarity. Memories of the Pub.  22 Cumberland Road, RG1 3LB.

Cathy

Looking forward to hearing from you, and thank you for your support.

To add your voice to the campaign, print off this petition slip and send it to The Chronicle or email it to Rose Harland at the Chronicle (rharland@berksmedia.co.uk).

I call for The Jolly Anglers to be reopened as a pub for the Newtown community.

Name:

Address:

Postcode:

Post to the Reading Chronicle, 50-56 Portman Road, Reading, RG30 1BA.

To see the original post on the Reading Chronicle’s website, visit http://www.readingchronicle.co.uk/news/roundup/articles/2009/07/15/40365-petition-save-the-jolly-anglers.

The Black Diamonds

On Sunday 19th July, residents of Newtown and customers of the Jolly Anglers held a street party outside their closed local as part of the Big Lunch celebrations.

They shared food, music and laughter. The pub was suddenly closed down on June 16th. Local residents are furious, and organised the Street Party as part of their campaign to get the pub reopened.

Music was provided by the fantastic skiffle band The Black Diamonds, accompanied by Colm Daly and Peter Crowther.

The Big Lunch was started by members of the Eden Project with the aim that throughout the UK, people will sit down to have lunch together with neighbours in streets, and on every patch of common ground. See http://www.thebiglunch.com.

Local Cumberland Road resident and campaigner Rob White said:

Sunday was a really positive community event. Having 50 to 100 people turn up over the afternoon shows what strong local support there is for getting the pub reopened. The food was also really tasty and the music held the afternoon together nicely.

Newtown resident Adrian Evans said:

An excellent turn out in spite of the weather. The girls who took charge of the petition were very helpful; we got well over 100 signatures, some were passers by but many also had received a street party leaflet or read about it and come down especially to sign it.

I attach below an e-mail of support received from an American who lived in Reading for several years and has recently returned to New Jersey.

Please add my name to the petition to reopen The Jolly Angler. I used to drop in there for a pint now and then as I walked along the canal. Even though pub life in Reading is a mere shadow of its former self, Shelley and I loved the pubs when we lived there.

It sometimes takes a foreigner to see a place’s beauty. I marvelled at Reading every day I lived there. Combine the age of Reading’s three oldest churches and they predate Christ. Raise your eyes above street level and feast on the brickwork. Visit, say, Sweeney and Todd’s, or Everest 53, or any of Reading’s many other character-filled nooks and crannies. And afterward, go for a pint of beer — beer, mind, rich and strong, not the weak, anaemic yuckwater that typically dribbles from the taps on my side of The Pond. The pubs in Reading often serve two drinks for the price of one — the first to slake the throat, and the second to soothe the spirit.

Sadly, Reading has lost one of its best when the Jolly Angler closed.

There will always be an England, but will she have pubs? Here is one Yank who hopes that she will.

Sincerely yours,
Eric Mintz

The food, entertainment and decorations will be grown, cooked, and created by the participants. This will be a day to break bread with friends and neighbours, to make common cause to get the pub reopened, and to put a smile on back on Newtown’s face.

The event will take place between 12 and 4pm on Sunday 19th July on Kennetside Near the Jolly Anglers. There will be an eclectic mix of music from Newtown musicians, fun and frolics.

The Big Lunch was started by members of the Eden Project with the aim that throughout the UK, people will sit down to have lunch together with neighbours in streets, and on every patch of common ground. See http://www.thebiglunch.com.