Dr Joseph Stevens' Diary
1883 to 1898
'A peculiar form of gypsies' tent as seen on the Reading fairground December 24, 1883' on page 104
Dr Joseph Stevens was a medical doctor by profession and a geologist and antiquarian in his spare time. When he retired from medicine he moved from St Mary Bourne, Hampshire, to Reading. There he spent a very busy retirement building up Reading Museum, which he did as the honorary or unpaid curator from 1884 to 1897. He retired as curator of the museum at the age of 79, and died shortly afterwards in 1899.
Stevens found many archaeological objects and sites in and around Reading. He also excavated various archaeological sites, including one at Gas Works Lane where medieval pottery was discovered, among other earlier artefacts, and another near Cemetery Junction (Jack-of-Both-Sides cemetery) where he described what he thought was a Saxon cemetery, although in fact it was later medieval. He kept careful and beautifully illustrated notes of all his finds, investigations and visits in this diary.
Museum object number