Pupils at the Forest County Secondary School, Winnersh, claimed they saw an Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) during their aircraft spotting lunch break, in 1977.

The eleven members of the school’s Aviation Society were ‘watching the skies’, when 15-year-old Stephen Burke noticed a ‘big black blob’ landing in a field nearby.

He told the Chronicle:” It was going with the wind at first and then did a 90-degrees turn, the object was so hard to follow that I just kept staring at it.”

The boys later reported the incident and a message was sent to the R.A.F., a spokesperson for Wokingham police confirmed that they did receive sighting reports but admitted:” We have passed this on to people who are responsible for this kind of thing.”

The new replaced the old in Orts Road 42 years ago, when a foundation stone was laid for the replacement Parish Centre of St. John the Evangelist with St. Stephen.

The centre was due to replace two school buildings of the adjacent junior school and serve as a family and nursery unit with extra facilities for youth work and an informal play area.

The whole of the Orts Road area was being developed by Reading Borough Council and the new complex was to be incorporated into a housing scheme.

Model railway enthusiast Michelle Dore won the raffle prize of her dreams at a Reading Town Hall exhibition in 1977, when she scooped the winning ticket for a £100 rail layout.

The event was organised by the Reading Town “B” Division of the St. John Ambulance Brigade and raised more than £200 for the group.

Eleven-year-old Michelle’s ticket was drawn by acting divisional office Rodney Hayward and presented to her by Royston Love, manager of Trents Model Shop.

A unique production of the hit musical “Oliver” combined actors from Rivermead School, Reading Theatre Workshop and the Reading Youth Orchestra marked the schools double Jubilee celebrations.

The first performance was due to be held in Ashmead School’s drama studio and was being directed by teacher Ned Milne and musical director Tony Knott, a well-known Southern Television camera operator.

Nine members of a Reading family gathered together for the first time in 40 years in 1977, despite the party clashing with the F.A. Cup final.

The Forrest families nine brothers and sisters had travelled from Argentina and Canada to stage the reunion in Liebenrood Road and realised that the last time they had all been together was at their sister Dorothy’s wedding.

Reading’s Guild of Artists’ annual exhibition was being hailed as one of the very best in its history and was dominated by an oil painting by Woodley’s Marianne Hellingwoth.

The canvas, which dominated most of one wall, depicted eight members of a family in vertical strips, making the surrounding works appear slightly insignificant.