| Plaque marks Britain's first petrol station (1919) Posted by Marlburian at 18:02, 14th November 2026 |     |
A new plaque marks a pioneering filling station on the A4 Bath Road near Aldermaston Wharf that was established by the Automobile Association in 1919.
Archive footage
I suspect that there has been a re-think about the precise location, as the parish council website has a modern sketch map showing it a couple of hundred yards to the west. There were, and are, two bridges over the railway at Aldermaston Wharf, and perhaps the wrong one was taken as a positioning landmark.
Coming from Reading, the sign is in the first layby after the A4/A340roundabout. Best reached on two or four wheels: this morning I approached it on foot on the wrong side of the busy road. There is no pavement on the other side.
There is no trace at all of the original structure which, I think, was removed in the late 1920s.
