There are several Facebook Groups that are a mine of social & historical information. Try Old Reading – or – History of Coley
If you would like to learn more about the local area and like a walk, contact Terry Dixon through this FB page . All the money he earns doing these fascination walks goes to charity.
The National Brewery Heritage Trust is a charitable organisation, established to protect, preserve and make available to the public the extensive collection of archives and artefacts of brewing held in the National Brewery Centre
The National Brewery Archives The National Brewery Centre is home to an unrivalled array of historical collections that relate to brewing – well worth a visit!
The Brewery History Society
Have an interesting links section on ‘defunct’ pubs HERE where you can scroll down to Simonds and see some lovely old faded images.
Reading Civic Society, who supplied the images of Queen Victoria & George Palmer whose statues were sculpted by George Blackall Simonds.
Royal Berkshire History – by David Nash Ford, this link for an entry about the Simonds Family
Reading Museum holds more archives from H&G Simonds and you can use the search function to find some of them HERE
The May Family History – by David Nash Ford
Arborfield Local History Society Many generations of the Simonds family lived in Arborfield and nearby Hurst, most being buried at St Nicholas Church, Hurst.
The Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) – Reading
The Falconer statue – by George Blackall Simonds, Central Park, New York
The Association for British Brewery Collectibles – The society for anyone interested in collecting beer memorabilia.
The Labologists Society – The International Society for Beer Label Collectors and Brewery Research.
British Beer Mat Society, a society for Tegestologists which was founded in 1960.
The John Soane Museum
Has on-line archives of the original Brewery drawings of 1879 HERE. With some later alterations HERE.
Some sites with ‘Lost Pubs’
Bristol has 2 sites: HERE & HERE
Reading: HERE
Reading: HERE
Coadb is a US site with a huge database of Family Crests. You can find something about ours HERE
If you would like your organisation listed here – or removed from here, please contact me.