Ben Wheeler is a former Reddam House Berkshire student who just completed A Levels at Reddam House. He is leading a fascinating student-led historical project to preserve and share the magnificent history of the Bearwood mansion and estate, ensuring it can be cherished by future generations of students, alongside the wider community. Reddam House occupies the magnificent Victorian Bearwood mansion, built by John Walter III, grandson of The Times’ founder. The mesmerising mansion has lived an extremely varied existence, not only as a stately home for The Times proprietors, but also as a Canadian Convalescence Hospital in WW1, an orphanage for the children of Merchant Seamen and, now, a school. Furthermore, the wider Bearwood estate has an illustrious heritage of its own, which can be traced back to the time of the Norman conquest in the 11th century.
The inaugural exhibition will be housed in our school's most opulent rooms on 19th September. The event, chronicling various pockets of time from across Bearwood’s history, will be attended by numerous guests from The Times, including the Executive Managing Editor and Head Archivist, whom we have collaborated with significantly.
We are very fortunate to have Dame Harriet Walter (currently filming Killing Eve) speaking at the event, alongside Chris McKane. Harriet’s grandfather was John Walter V, the last Walter to own the Bearwood mansion, and she has some fantastic stories to tell! Chris McKane is a fount of knowledge regarding The Times and Walter family, having been Deputy Managing Editor of The Times and a former Master of the Stationers’ Company.
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