Mon Dieu - Bayeux

The story of my day is encapsulated in these four photographs. This was my second visit to Reading in this visit to Twyford, and true to my word I did take the train this time. Twyford station is not quite as immaculate as it once was, and could certainly do with some paint on some of the exterior surfaces of the awnings.

Reading station is rather chaotic, and I am not quite sure where the original exterior of the station has gone. I remember I used to drive past the station on occasion, I don't think I could do that now, not legally in any case. The station is very central however and I walked in the direction of the Town Hall, The architecture is particular but not much to my taste, but then very little about Reading is to my taste. The Town Hall, and the adjacent Museum is the focus of the next two photographs.

When I went into the Museum I must have looked a bit lost as one of the staff approached and asked if I had been there before. I admitted I had not and she told me about the layout and what I could expect to see on each floor.

One floor is dedicated almost entirely to the Roman town of Calleva Atrebatum, or Silchester as it is called now. There are some impressive mosaics lifted from the floors of a couple of the Roman villas. On the next floor there is a full sized replica of the Bayeux Tapestry. I was completely unaware that reading had a replica of the tapestry. This replica is 70 metres long. It was made by 35 skilled Victorian women embroiderers in 1885 so that Britain should have its own copy of the tapestry, another fact of which I was unaware.

I have wanted to see the Tapestry, but Bayeux is not on my normal route to anywhere. So Reading has saved me a trip. I would recommend this as well worth a visit to anyone passing Reading and who would like to see the Bayeaux Tapestry, without going to Bayeux. In addition admission is free, which in the case of Bayeux it may not be.

By this time I was famished so I made an obligatory stop at the John Lewis cafe before returning to Twyford in the late afternoon.