Coley Talking: Realities of life in old Reading

Nineteenth and twentieth century Reading prospered from the canal, the railway, brewing and biscuit making, but the explosion of the population in the early years of the nineteenth century had its murky side. Coley Talking lifts the lid on a dark aspect of Reading, and England's, history. Through memories, photographs, maps and archives, the story is told of life in one of its harshest communities. Workhouses, chronic disease, insanitary back-to-back housing - all the symptoms of extreme poverty are displayed in grimy, 'this is what life was like' detail. Ragged schools, sanitation, Harry and Lorenzo Quelch and the early days of the Labour Party, along with resilience and a strong community spirit all had their parts to play in bringing about change. Through the microcosm of Coley, the transformations brought about by slum clearance, the NHS, state education, and trade unions provide a vantage point to look back on the initiatives that make life better today.