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After over 25 years in
Wilton Road, at St Andrew's House (pictured below) Age Concern Berkshire has moved.
During
December, 2006, we moved in to our new home on three floors of 119 London Street,
Reading. 119 London Street is
also known as Huntley House, where a certain J Huntley and Son opened a biscuit
bakery back in 1822 (the premises were then known as 72 London Street.)
Transport was, of course, very different in those days. London Street, Reading was then on the main stage coach
route from London to Bristol, Bath and the West Country.
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A favourite stopping point was The Crown Inn, which
was then just opposite Huntley House. This gave Mr Huntley an excellent
opportunity to sell biscuits to hungry travellers, and the business
flourished. Joseph Huntley was something of an innovator. On learning
from the travellers that the biscuits tended to break on the journey
over the bumpy roads, he started selling them in a metal tin – and hence
the biscuit tin was born.
The firm was passed from father to son in 1838, and
George Palmer joined as a partner in 1841.
The company soon outgrew its original
shop and moved to a factory on King’s Road in 1846. The rest, as they
say, is history – a worldwide success story, which only came to an end
for us when the Reading factory closed in 1972 – the year of their 150th
anniversary. |
