History of Northcourt Avenue (book)

[This is correspondence between Annette and Penny Kemp, most recent first]
Hi, Annette, thanks for your response.
There are links between the University and Northcourt Avenue at many levels. If more evidence of those links between the University and the local community is needed, I could readily provide it. I just included a flavour in the application.
NARA , the Northcourt Avenue Residents’ Association, which published the original history, is very active in representing the local community to the university.
Committee members meet regularly with the university Community Relations team to encourage closer relationships.  A NARA sub-committee met the Vice Chancellor, Matthew White and other university members in negotiations over changes to St Patrick’s Hall. Molli Cleaver, the present Community Relations Manager, is in regular contact with our chairman and met the NARA committee at St Patrick’s Hall just this week.
A final year student in the Typography Department was responsible for designing and typesetting the original publication which was printed in the department. I have approached and received a positive response from James Lloyd in Typography about the reprint  and we hope we might be able to give the new work to a current student.
A member of the Friends, Brian Richards, has used information from the book in his research into the history of the University Sanatorium, which has been at 3 different locations in Northcourt Avenue, and his work on Professor Allen Seaby.
University buildings are very much part of the Avenue and the publication provides historical detail about numbers 12, 14, 16, 18, 20 and 22 which are all currently university property as well as number 5 and the University Health Centre.
I would like to think that the renewed availability of this research will be useful for
any historical study of the university and its members.
Please let me know if you need any further information.
Best wishes
Penny
 
On Wed, 8 Mar 2023 at 10:39, The Friends UoR <vrs02mt@reading.ac.uk> wrote:
Dear Penny
thanks for your email.
I’m not absolutely sure whether it will meet the criteria the Friends have for grants – we do accept bids from outside organisations that have a strong association with the University though if the project furthers the University aims.
…
Annette (Haworth)
From: Pen Kemp <pjkick13@gmail.com>Sent: 02 March 2023 12:41To: The Friends UoR <vrs02mt@reading.ac.uk>Subject: Grant application – History of Northcourt Avenue
I am a long time resident of Northcourt Avenue and I  wrote and in 1996, published, a history, ‘Northcourt Avenue: its history and people’ in collaboration with artists Robert Gillmor, Susan Norman, Elizabeth Heydeman and architect Matt Andrews who all live or have lived in the avenue. It was set and printed for us by Claire Harrison, a final year student  at the Typography department at the University.
There is still considerable interest in the book which has long been out of print – the original run of 500 copies sold quickly. There is new material which could be added.
We are therefore looking to have the book reprinted at least and if possible, updated.
There are strong links between the local community of the Avenue and the university;  St Patrick’s Hall, locally listed, is part of our community, the grounds were for many years used for the annual ‘odds and evens’ rounders match; Molli Cleaver, Community Liaison officer, has invited the residents’ association committee to meet at the new cafe there next week. 
Outstanding academics have lived in the road – Professor Percival had no.66 built and Allen Seaby lived at no. 28, to name but two – and it is the home of many staff and students.
A Community Grant from Reading Borough Council helped us to fund the first edition and we do have  a small amount of money left from sale of the first edition. Our residents’ association has some funds which can be used too and we would plan to sell the book to cover at least some of the cost.
We are in the process of finding out whether the Typography Department would be willing to help again.
We appreciate that you will need some clear costing of the project but I wanted to approach you to let you know our plans and to see whether some help might be a possibility.
Amanda Titmas, also a resident of Northcourt Avenue and our residents’ association treasurer, who is the administrative assistant of the University Chaplain, Mark Laynesmith, suggested I should approach you.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Thank you.
Penny Kemp
07831423000