Introduction
This website is mainly a historical and nostalgic look back into the early days of Coley Park estate and some of the surrounding older Coley areas. It is not intended to provide up to the minute information on current issues but there are some recent events and images to keep the site in perspective.

For those readers who are new to Coley Park, it is a regional (suburban) area of the Town of Reading located approximately one mile southwest of the town centre. Reading is located some 38 miles (61 km) west of London in the royal county of Berkshire, England.

Coley Park (as an estate) has been in existence since at least the 13th century. Yes, we are looking at over 700 years of occupancy and history surrounding this small estate. The Vachell Family resided here for the longest period from 1309 to 1727, a total of 418 years.

According to current historians there is no real evidence to support any earlier settlements in the area other than a few flour mills and fisheries dotted along the nearby Kennet river as recorded in the Domesday book of 1086. However there is a chance that Romans passed through here when travelling between Reading (used as a possible river port) and the nearby Roman town of Silchester (known as Calleva). According to hearsay, there were a number of Roman coins dug up during the excavations for the Coley High Rise Flats.

Today, Coley Park is just another urban area of Reading, where the residents live, work, shop and play and could be forgiven for not knowing the importance and prestige that Coley Park estate once held - being unaware that many previous occupants of the estate were prominent and distinguished Members of Parliament or Mayors of Reading. Many being married or buried at St. Mary's Church in Reading.

Hopefully through this website others will learn and be amazed by what has passed before them in this seemingly small and almost insignificant part of England which thanks to the Kennet Water Meadows will always remain green.

Coley Park Flats and the Holy Brook
©Uli Harder - May 5 2007

So where did the name come from?
Coley Park mainly encompasses the earlier estate owned by the Vachell family and many others. The name was an expansion on the neighbouring locality of Coley, which is a much older inner district of Reading. Coley was also known by many variants over the years. In 1250 it was known as Colleya. In 1270, it had reverted to Colley. By 1384 it had been shortened again to Colle. Then later in John Speed's first map of Reading printed in 1610, it shows the spelling as Coly.

The name may have Roman origins, where Colle relates to a 'small climb or small hill'. Older Coley definitely has many small hills throughout its area.

Where is it?
To view a general street map of the Coley Park estate <click here> - thanks to MultiMap.

Other famous snippets ...

Oliver Cromwell was a apparently a regular visitor to old Coley House and was supported by the Vachell family in his quest to remove King Charles I from the throne of England.

Coley Park had its own Volunteer Corps rifle range in the late 19th century, as well as major Pottery and Brick Kilns that supplied Reading with much of its red and brown brick buildings, and later during WWI had an Aerodrome and Pilot Training School.

In 1847, the world's most famous railway engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, built a railway that cut a decisive path between the estates of Coley Park and Southcote and forever separated them.

For these and many more interesting facts and articles on Coley Park, please enjoy browsing the site.

Coley Park Flats from Wensley Road - March 14 2008
©Andrew Smith - CCL

The website is updated fairly regularly as new material is located or gratefully received through reader contributions. You can contact the author by emailing to the address at the foot of every page.

Contributors and Acknowledgements are listed on the Links page

Any use of copyrighted images is unintentional, and any such material will be promptly
removed from this site upon notification from the copyright holder.
Copyright images are acknowledged where possible.
Please note that some older images suffer from quality.