Sepia-tinted photographic postcard showing a view of the bandstand and the Maiwand Memorial in Forbury Gardens, Reading. Pencil: [personal message] [address in Southampton supplied]. Forbury Gardens, Reading, was originally part of the grounds of Reading Abbey, and after the Reformation used as a gun emplacement, a parade ground, etc. Part of the site was sold to the Council in 1854, and a pleasure garden created, the remainder being used as a fairground until it was also bought by the Council in 1860; the two areas were amalgamated and formally opened as Forbury Gardens in 1873. A monument to the soldiers killed at the battle of Maiwand (1880) was constructed by George Blackall Simonds and erected in 1886