The idea of the club started sometime in 1953 when Geoffrey Van Hoven (seen on the left) and his wife Gillian came across a photograph of two BSAC divers emerging from a lake at Laughing Water in Kent.
Geoffrey got in touch with Oscar Gugen at BSAC H.Q., and soon after he and Gillian joined the BSAC and started to acquire equipment including dry suits. The nearest BSAC club at the time was miles away in Northampton so they both joined the branch to train.
In April 1955 they got the BSAC chief diving officer, Jack Atkinson, to do a demonstration of diving for people in the Reading area, held at the Arthur Hill Baths on 27th May 1955. This was followed by an inaugural meeting of 20 people interested in forming a diving club. The meeting was held at Watlington House on Tuesday 21st June 1955.
At this meeting a committee was formed consisting of John Bradley, John Fobester and Geoffrey. The club also obtained permission to use the Arthur Hill Pool in Kings Rd Reading for training.
Reading BSAC Branch 28 was officially formed on 7th November 1955 and the first official wet meeting was on Friday 4th November at the Arthur Hills pool.
The first Branch AGM was held at the Abbey Gatehouse in January 1956 with 35 members attending.
The first official no pool dive was the 15th April 1956 at the Oval Pond, Ufton Nervet with most in wet suits with a few with trunks only. At this point the club owned two scuba sets.
Geoffrey and Gillian then got involved in helping form Oxford BSAC.
Diving was mostly done in the Thames (Including repairing lock gates) and lakes until 1957 when the club started going to Lulworth and Durdle door to dive. Six members of the branch went to Du Drammond in the South of France to dive with one of Cousteau’s lieutenants, Andre Portlatine.
Members increased steadily until they reached 33 in 1958 and by 1960 the club did over 100 man dives on a two week holiday.
The HQ of the club was considered to be the ‘Curzon’ Club in the Oxford Road until it moved to the Salisbury Club in Kings Road, which was more convenient after the pool meetings.
By now the club had acquired 6 x 165 cu ft BOC cylinders and manifold, used as a bank, which were stored in various members garages and barns. Air was difficult to get and cylinders came as large (40cu ft) and medium (25 cu ft). This bank weighed 1000lbs with each cylinder being 5 ft long.
1960’s
Many new inland dive sites including: Mytchett, Burghfield, Ufton Nervet, Molly Miller Lake and the Thames. A monthly film night was introduced covering all water sports. The 60’s were mostly spent spear fishing with most members caching food to eat.
By 1962 the membership had risen to over 60 and divers were now doing 130 ft dives both at sea and Stoney Cove.
Club holidays were now as far away as Salcombe using a portable compressor.
In 1962 Reading BSAC were one of 16 Branches who attended the World Underwater Congress in London with the star being Cousteau.
Divers were winched down 80 ft in the Basing House well in search of treasure supposedly put down there by the Royalists in the Civil War. A number of small arms as well as plenty of rubble was recovered.
1964 saw the introduction of the ‘bonds’ in order to raise money for a compressor. The £200 raised plus a further £200 grant enabled the Branch to purchase its own portable ‘Bernard’ compressor which remained in use for at least nine years.
In 1969 the Branch has its first trip to the ‘Lizard’ at Easter, a location which has been re-visited every Easter since.
As the result of surveying a wreck in Penberth Cove at Lands End, the Branch won the Triton Trophy and were awarded a Wardell & Davenport proton magnetometer.
1970’s
In 1971 club member Fred Clark found a sword whist diving in the Thames. This can be seen in the Reading Museum.
Up until 1972 the club was dependent on small private inflatable boats but now the club bought its own larger inflatable which sometimes carried 10 divers.
In the 70’s the Diving Officer, George Cooke, had been using a magnetometer to help find the Mary Rose. He was also developing a submarine. The club was featured on Blue peter at Fort Bovisand and George appeared on the BBC in 2013 explaining how he found the Mary Rose.
A ‘Supporters club’ was formed in 1971. Its function was to raise funds by organising events. The money raised was given to the Branch in order to purchase capital equipment. It raised over £1000 which was used to purchase three boats and two Johnson 35 outboards. The Supporters club was limited to 200 members with a subscription fee of £15 per month. Every quarter there was a draw for £50 as well as the annual draw of £500.
In 1972 the club moved to the new Reading Central pool for training and from 1974 to 1979 Reading BSAC negotiated with the council to obtain a lease on a suitable building to use for club nights. This culminated in getting a 10-year lease on the King Meadow swimming pool complex. This was using £2000 of club money as well as a £2000 grant from the Sports Council. The ten year lease included the provision for the branch to make the pool operational for diver training. The following is an extract from an article that appeared in the ‘Southfed’ magazine at the time. The Southern Federation of Sub-aqua clubs consisted of 20 dive clubs in the south. “One of the largest grants of 1978 in the Southern Sports Council area was towards the conversion of an old swimming pool into a regional training centre ,with lecture rooms, compressors, and a bar. Here John Cobb of Reading BSAC gives an outline of the project. Some clubs dive, some clubs booze, and some clubs fester. Reading BSAC is an exception: not only does it do all three but it takes on winter projects such as the refurbishment of the ‘Kings Meadow’ swimming pool.
In the 70’s two of the club members Gordon Richardson (DO) and John Astley joined Vickers Oceanics to become pilots of the “Log out” diver submarines Torus and Pisces. Both eventually worked for Odyssey Marine Exploration.
1980’s
During the 80’s and 90’s Reading BSAC were involved in try dive sessions to the public but also organisations such as the scouts. Many events were run around Berkshire.
During the late 70s and 80s regular expeditions were carried out to Scapa Flow, mostly diving inside the flow itself. If the boat ever needed a spare part, Lyness pier was the place to visit.
From the late 60’s until the late 90’s the club organises a charity event involving a 3-mile swim down the river Thames. This was originally to pay for coal, for the old people of reading but later the money was used for the Swanage lifeboat and DDRC.
1990’s
The 90s saw the introduction of different gasses into the club with some members moving to using Nitrox as well as Trimix. 1997 saw the Branches first expedition to the Northern Isles (the Orkney’s) where the majority of divers were making extensive use of Nitrox. A ship’s Bell was found and offered to the owners.
The Branch itself, as well as individual members, took advantage of the wreck amnesty in the 90s. This provided an opportunity to clarify ownership, as well as supplying some museums with new items, and giving those requested items back to the owners. One particular porthole was donated to the Bayword Museum in Port Elizabeth South Africa.
2000’s
Easter 2003 sees the Branch still based at Kings Meadow, making use of its indoor facilities for bar, equipment and lectures, although the branch are in communication with the local council with regard to looking at a more modern facility.
2004 saw the first hiring of large liveaboards, enabling any level of diver in the club to experience the Southern Red sea.
By 2005 the club’s premises at Kings Medow was in a very poor state and frequently broken into. Following negotiations with Reading Borough Council (RBC) an alternative site in Palmer Park was agreed and a new 25-year lease issued. The building consisted of a former park’s storage shed and needed a new roof, internal block lining, electrics, plumbing and fitting out. Work started the following year and was mainly completed by club volunteers. After two years of hard work, we moved into the new club which we enjoy today.
2019 Received a sport England grant for new equipment.
2020 We still managed 315 dives and many zoom quizzes despite Covid restrictions.
We have our own compressors, air and Nitrox, the latter being installed in 2021.
In 2023 We modernised website and logo.
2024 The club membership remains stable at approx. 76. The club has better boats, two XS RiBs on trailers and a 4×4 to tow and transport kit and divers. We have a bar and training facilities. And enjoy a good social programme. The club is open every Thursday evening. The club remains active and frequently completes in excess of a thousand dives a year. Club trips extend to locations all round the world and frequent expeditions with our own boats.
On the 26th January 24 the club had a dinner to celebrate it’s 70th anniversary.
