Reading Old Cemetery: Beyond the Junction Arch

If you travel across East Reading, you will most likely pass through Cemetery Junction, a bustling crossroads where Wokingham Road meets London Road. The name points to the significant site that gave the junction its name: the cemetery located between these two roads. Now commonly referred to as Reading Old Cemetery, it served the town for over a century and was mainly active between the years 1843 to 1959.

With over 250 war graves from both World Wars, four Grade II listed monuments (including the impressive Bath-stone gatehouse), and five trees registered in the Woodland Trust Ancient Tree Inventory, it has received formal recognition as a heritage asset by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, as a Grade II listed park and garden in the Register of the Historic Parks and Gardens by Historic England, and as a designated Local Wildlife Site by the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust.

Reading Old Cemetery is a much-loved community site, valued for its natural beauty, rich biodiversity, and historical significance. This beautifully illustrated book shares insights into the history of the cemetery, its graves and monuments, its plants and wildlife, and much more. We hope to encourage readers of all ages to connect more closely with this remarkable place.