Dreadnought Reach

Dreadnought Reach is said to be named after the Dreadnought Inn [see below].
[ It occurs to me that 'Dreadnought' was a likely name for a Sea Training establishment of which there were certainly several examples in Reading. The pub might have been named after a training ship Dreadnought? Does anyone know?
The old name over the door looks as if it might have been over the paddle of a paddle steamer?
]

Broken Brow

May have been the site of a Saxon Cemetery.
Broken Brow Lock (Brokenburghlok) was the old name of a lock, I think, near what is now Blake's lock on the Kennet & Avon Canal.
Once the railway came through isolating the area from the bulk of Reading and using it as a place of gravel pits for the great embankment, it became a place convenient for betting and other illegal proceedings.
It maybe that the Dreadnought Pub was previously called "The Broken Brow".

Former Dreadnought Inn, Broken Brow

The former Dreadnought pub by the Thames at Newtown still called The Dreadnought, it is now owned by the University of Reading and used as an admin centre by its rowing club. Many of their boats can be seen in the former pub garden. There is a flat within the building. Until 1999 it had been a Students Union bar. Now though a new future could be in the pipeline. Planning permission exists for it to be turned into tea rooms, although those plans have yet to be progressed.
Richard Picton's painting of the Dreadnought Inn and the Reach, seen from upstream

Dreadnought Reach and former Inn
The former Dreadnought Inn and Reach by Richard Picton

Former Dreadnought Inn in 2015
The former Dreadnought Inn in 2015?

Dreadnought Inn Sign
The Dreadnought Inn Sign

1881: George Leslie, "Our River" -

... the “famous town of Reading” becomes unpleasantly visible, and the embankment of the Great Western railway nears the river.  The stream is sluggish, the water dirty, and the punting anything but good, many of the banks on the tow-path side being fringed with the soft sedges so frequently mentioned in this book as a bad sign for the punter.

Green Park - Thames Valley Business Park

A striking modern architectural development on the Left bank
Green Park (Reading Business Park) Phase 2 Excavations 1995 Neolithic and Bronze Age Sites by Adam Brossler & Robert Early -

In 1995 a second phase of excavations was undertaken by Oxford Archaeological Unit (OAU) at Reading Business Park in advance of development. This volume reports on the evidence they found for occupation, dating to the Neolithic, Bronze Age and medieval periods.
The Neolithic features included an unusual segmented ring ditch, and a number of pits and postholes. The ring ditch was radiocarbon dated to the middle to late Neolithic, and an interesting flint assemblage from all features on the site was dated mainly to the later Neolithic.
A field system, composed of rectangular boundary ditches, was laid out in the area prior to the establishment of a late Bronze Age settlement.
The evidence for the late Bronze Age settlement included five roundhouses, and a number of post-built structures. The excavators also found numerous deposits of burnt flint that were made in one area in the later Bronze Age, and over time these grew into a substantial and unusually large elongated burnt mound.

Redgrave & Pinsent Rowing Course

On the Right bank over a low bank the rowing course in the gravel pits

Redgrave and Pinsent Rowing Lake
Dreadnought Reach, the Rowing Course and the Marina

The Redgrave and Pinsent Rowing Lake (see Oxford University Boat Club) -

[The Rowing Course] has been constructed by Sport England on land either donated or previously owned by David Sherriff, a keen OUBC supporter and benefactor, who has made the project possible through a great act of philanthropy. The course is for the exclusive use of the British National rowing squad and Oxford University Boat Club and - David's personal wish - the 1st VIII's of University College, Oxford, and this state of affairs has been contractually covenanted for all time.

Along Dreadnought Reach are speed calibration markers.  There are two red triangles on black and white poles.
If, in a mechanically propelled boat, you pass the poles in less than one minute you are speeding.
i.e you are exceeding an over the ground speed of 8kph = 4.97 mph = 4.32 knots
Some boats are perfectly safe and friendly to banks and small boats alike at that speed.
Others are already too fast and risk damaging banks and moored craft.
If in doubt you are too fast!

You ought to be in more doubt than you think you are ...

Port Fonty, Right, north Bank

The Thames Traditional Boat Society has a base in the Marina at Port Fonty.

Port Fonty
Port Fonty landing
TTBS Port Fonty landing stage
Port Fonty slipway
TTBS Port Fonty slipway
TTBS
Thames Traditional Boat Society
Port Fonty Picnic site
TTBS picnic site

Kennet Marina, North Bank

Reading Town Regatta and Thames Valley Park Regatta

Reading Regatta capsize
Reading Regatta double scullers capsize 2017