Brunel’s Great Western Railway arrived in Reading on the 30th March 1840. The history of railway building states that railways destroyed property when the railways were built, and always resulted in huge economic growth for those towns it reached, but was this true in Reading? In this talk, historian Richard Marks, will look at the impact the railway had on the town when it arrived, and how this compared to other places. We will also look at how the first train service compared to the service Re... See more >