Town Hall

Bikes, Balls & Biscuitmen - Our Sporting Life

Saturday 12 May - Sunday 28 October

Cheering on Reading at the Madejski Stadium, running in Palmer Park or watching Anne Packer surge to Olympic gold on television in 1964 - sport gives many of us great enjoyment.

The Museum has worked with local sports clubs and stars to produce an exhibition that examines the wide-ranging sporting life of Reading. From Olympic gold medals to sports club trophies, a sculling boat or pre-war bikes, there is something to inspire everyone.

Bikes, Balls & Biscuitmen - Our Sporting Life provides an opportunity for Reading’s sporting communities to join the Museum in celebrating local ‘sporting lives’ through their own memories, objects and photographs, telling the story of sport in Reading from grass roots to Olympic podia. It is unique to Reading, and features a huge variety of sporting activities linked to clubs, societies, schools, local personalities and unsung heroes.

This exhibition includes stories from all kinds of sports, for example: swimming, running, rowing, cycling, motorsports, martial arts, snooker, hockey, and of course football, rugby and cricket. Did you know the first British triathlon took place in Reading, that there was a cycle race on the IDR before it opened, that the West Indies played Berkshire in a charity cricket match at Kensington Road, or that championship-winning go-karts were built in the town? These are just some of the many sporting stories to discover in Bikes, Balls & Biscuitmen - Our Sporting Life. You may be surprised to find out just how many world-famous sports personalities began their careers in Reading!

Highlights on display include a torch from the 1948 Olympic Torch Relay through Reading and one of the last go-karts made by Barlotti.

You can keep up to date with all the latest news and events by becoming a fan of our exhibition facebook page.

Our exhibition will complement a display on rural sports being developed by the Museum of English Rural Life.

Subject to booking fee