Where did Flora meet her husband?

The original biography of Flora stated that she met her future husband John Thompson at a Penny Reading on the Surrey/Hampshire borders. Heatherley, her book about her life in Grayshott, ended in about 1900 and she married in Twickenham in 1903. The next known record was of her living in Bournemouth with her husband. Until last year no-one knew she had worked in Yateley Post Office. Her whereabouts between 1900 and 1903 was something of a mystery. It had always been assumed that after leaving Grayshott she moved to Bournemouth, and she met her husband there. But with the release of the 1901 census on the internet, we now know she was working as a Post Office clerk in Yateley.

The biography of Flora, written in the early 1990s, said John Thompson worked at Bournemouth Post Office from 1896-1916. Sarah Farley, an Archivist at Hampshire Record Office, who discovered Flora in the Yateley census, also found that John Thompson was working at Aldershot Post Office in 1901. So Flora could have met John Thompson in our area, but where? If she did meet her future husband at a Penny Reading in this area, which village held Penny Readings, and indeed what was a Penny Reading? This board attempts to explain some of the answers.

Back to 2003 Exhibition Main Page

Page written by Peter Tipton for the Yateley Society's 2003 Exhibition: Adult Education in Yateley mounted in Yateley Library during Local History Month, for which the theme was Adult Education. This exhibition was held in conjunction with Yateley Workers Education Association (WEA) -- now in 2008 defunct. Pages may have been updated as a result of recent research.

(C) The Yateley Society, 2003 and 2008