Self-guided audio tour of Reading's industrial working history, starting from Reading Railway Station and following public streets around the town.
Biscuit Town is a self-guided audio tour of Reading's industrial past, starting at Reading Railway Station on Station Road, RG1 1LZ. It's part of Heritage Open Days, and the whole thing takes about two hours, following public streets and pavements around the town.
The walk centres on King's Road and the Kennet, the working heart of the town, and it's built around the everyday labour of the people who made Reading the industrial capital of Berkshire. At the world's largest biscuit factory, five thousand hands mixed dough, painted tins and stoked ovens; draymen rolled barrels from the Bridge Street brewery; and seed-packet sorters worked through the night at the Market Place. It's the kind of history you usually walk past without noticing, the sort of work that went on in the background of the town for generations.
Along the way, the tour brings to life people whose names were seldom recorded. There's Henry West, a navvy killed by a gust of wind on a station roof six days before the trains first ran, and the last abbot of Reading Abbey, hanged at his own gatehouse for high treason. It also tells of the working women dismissed in the winter of industrial unrest, and the tin-printing apprentice who helped make the biscuit tin a national institution. It's framed by the Heritage Open Days theme 'Everyday Histories', and it gives voice to the people who did the actual work.
Every week we pick 🏆 the 5 best 🏆 things to do in Reading and send them to your inbox. Just one weekly email, no spam.
By submitting your email, you accept our Privacy Policy
It's a self-guided tour, so you set your own pace. It starts at Reading Railway Station, and from there you follow the route on foot through the town. It's available anytime, with no fixed dates, so you just book on the day. It costs from £3.99, and the whole thing takes about two hours.
