77 years ago today, 18 September 1948, Jack and Mary got married 💖

This was an extra special wedding, though, as it was the very first to be held in the village's Methodist church some 72 years after the church was opened. Why, exactly, it took so long for the first wedding to take place, I don't know - but I've previously written about it in a #52Ancestors post here: https://cjhearn.co.uk/blog/love-and-the-first-marriage

The second photo shows the commemorative bookplate inside a bible that was presented to the happy couple to mark the occasion.

#JackAndMaryArchive #ThreeMileCross #RDGUK #weddings #OnThisDay

These hot air balloons caught Jack's attention #OnThisDay 34 years ago, 17 August 1991. One of the photos has the handwritten caption "17 August 1991. Air balloons - unusual to see 2 so close during the evening at Three Mile Cross, near Reading."

#JackAndMaryArchive #HotAirBalloons #RDGUK #ThreeMileCross

This is my grandad, Bob, standing outside the family garage in Three Mile Cross, Reading, in a photo developed in July 1973 according to the datestamp along the edge. Bob was Jack's slightly older brother.

What I find most fascinating is the road itself. In the distance, the road is rising up and bending slightly round to the right to junction 11 of the M4 motorway, which opened up to 18 months before this photo was taken. When the A33 Swallowfield Bypass was later opened in 1980, this road, Basingstoke Road, was redirected to the left to join it, approximately where the red car is in the distance, leaving a short, access-only section of road for residents.

#JackAndMaryArchive #FordCortina #OldCars #ThreeMileCross #RDGUK

As we enter a new month, let's welcome some nice July weather with this undated photograph of Mary sunbathing next to a petrol pump at the family garage and petrol station.

I say undated, it is captioned "July 1973", and mentions it's a Sunday afternoon - so it could be on this day, or the 8th, 15th, 22nd or 29th!

#JackAndMaryArchive #ThreeMileCross #RDGUK

Wisteria Cottage has had a dominating appearance at the Three Mile Cross crossroads for well over a century. In the 1990s, I remember looking over at it as I walked past it on the way to and from secondary school. I was usually on the opposite side of the road as my friends lived in Grazeley Road around the corner, and it was usually easier to cross the main road on the south side of the roundabout than it was on the north.

In the summer, on the rare occasion I walked on the north side, you'd have to walk right along the edge of the pavement as the wisteria flowers billowed over the fence.

This photo, taken #OnThisDay 13 May 1998, shows Wisteria Cottage and neighbouring Wheelwright Cottage, and the purple-pink blossoms covering most of the red brick wall.

Also amongst the #JackAndMaryArchive photos are two postcards of the village as seen in the early 1900s, the wisteria consuming the front of the cottage as it was in 1998.

The last photograph is of Jack's sister, Christine, as a young girl dating it to the late 1920s. Behind her, Wisteria Cottage can be seen but the plants are no more than thick, woody stems meaning it's most likely late autumn or winter.

Comparing the old photos with the newer, I noticed that the little picket fence and the gate with the distinctive arch, although replaced, has kept the same design throughout.

#ThreeMileCross #RDGUK