Latest news with #StationHill
BBC News
21-06-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Time capsule buried as Reading landmark development opens
Schoolchildren have buried a time capsule at the heart of a town's new landmark development to mark the site's official £850m mixed-use Station Hill development was being launched to the public on Saturday, amid live music, an artists' trail and tours of residential opening comes after an investigation into a blaze in a high-rise building on the Berkshire site said the construction industry had shared "lessons learned" from the incident "to prevent future occurrences".A worker on the development was rescued by crane operator Glen Edwards when it caught fire in November 2023. On Thursday, pupils from Civitas Academy buried the time capsule beneath a fountain next to the One Station Hill with artwork, a newspaper, a train ticket and the bottom of a Christmas tree, it was sealed in the ground to be opened again in 2060. Children from the primary school had worked on the project since returning to their classrooms after the Covid pandemic. More than 50 Year 5 students took part in the capsule burial, which was also attended by local MP Matt Rodda and Reading Borough Council leader Liz Frain, head of school at the academy, said they began working with local charity JellyArts on the project in said: "It was quite fresh after the pandemic. A lot of our children and families were rebuilding, not only relationships with each other but also relationships with places and spaces that had changed a lot."So for our children to be part of something in the wider community, particularly in the town centre which not many would have been in throughout that time, was really important to them feeling safe and confident in building those relationships again." Ten-year-old Lily helped to bury the capsule and told the BBC: "It's very exciting, knowing I'm part of something special."Her classmate Thivigka, 10, said she was "really proud of myself because I never knew I'd do this". You can follow BBC Berkshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
Daily Mail
17-05-2025
- General
- Daily Mail
'Bruce Willis of Reading' who rescued man from blazing £750m tower block gets bucket list wishes fulfilled as he battles incurable cancer
A terminally ill crane operator who became a national hero after rescuing a man from a burning £750 million tower block is set to have his bucket list wishes fulfilled. Glen Edwards, 66, was dubbed 'the Bruce Willis of Reading' after he used a cage to save a worker's life at the Station Hill construction site in the town in 2023. Tragically, Mr Edwards revealed last year he had been diagnosed with an incurable spine cancer shortly after the rescue. After being told his cancer had grown Mr Edwards' wife, Kate, asked Bucket List Wishes for help 'to make some lasting treasured memories together whilst we can'. The charity will first help the couple and their teenage son move home, before organising several other wishes, including a family photo shoot, for Mr Edwards and his loved ones once they are settled in. Mr Edwards told the BBC: 'Things are not too clever... I've got diagnosed with terminal cancer. 'I had cancer in the tongue in February when I rescued the guy... I got that cleared up with radiotherapy but then in the next breath, after I had a full body scan, the consultant told me that I had cancer in my spine in five places. 'I have been undergoing chemotherapy... but it has grown, to cut a long story short.' Mr Edwards, 66, was dubbed 'the Bruce Willis of Reading' after he used a cage to save a worker's life at the Station Hill construction site in the town in 2023. Tragically, Mr Edwards revealed last year he had been diagnosed with an incurable spine cancer shortly after the rescue Gini Hackett, founder of the charity that grants wishes for terminally ill adults in Berkshire, said that she remembers watching Mr Edwards' BBC Make A Difference Awards nomination and thinking, 'Wow.. he's incredible, what an incredible thing to do for another human.' Speaking about her reaction to being contacted by Kate she added: 'We found this humbling but also we've been emotional about this because we know how much of a hero Glen is. 'Hopefully we have gone over and above and made a quite simple but stressful thing of moving a lot easier for him.' The charity has organised the house move, along with carpets, flooring, blinds and kitchen essentials, including an oven, as well as a new shed, and food shopping and bedding vouchers. Thanking the charity, Mr Edwards described Gini as an 'angel.' Alongside supporting the move, the charity has also helped the Edwards family set up an online fundraising page to achieve any further wishes. Mr Edwards was thanked by Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue for his 'incredibly skilful rescue.' His actions were filmed on video and quickly went viral, leading to him appearing on Good Morning Britain (GMB), collecting a string of awards and receiving £10,000 from the public following a fundraiser to 'buy him a pint'. He manoeuvred the crane and its personnel transportation cage into the smoke and fire to dramatically give a trapped worker on the eighth floor an escape route at the last moment. Remarkable footage showed the man stranded at the top of the £750m One Station Hill development in Reading as the building is engulfed in flames Recounting the unbelievable events, Mr Edwards said he has never experienced a rescue as 'dramatic' as this one on the job. 'Never at all. I have cradled a couple of guys off - [when they] damaged their leg and things like that so they could get in an ambulance - but nothing as dramatic as this,' he said. Mr Edwards said he was concreting when someone shouted up to him that a man was stuck on level eight of the development. 'I was actually concreting at the time, I had the concrete skip on. So I was in that area and then one of my banksmen on the ground said there is a fire and the fire alarm was going off. I was in the crane operating. 'So I had to get the concrete skip off, I was hoisting up and then someone shouted out ''there's someone on level eight'' which is that level where the guy was, and I stopped hoisting up, I was about 20 metres up in the air. 'As I slewed round I could see the guy out my left window - he was waving his coat, waving his coat. You can see there the wind was absolutely terrible.' He added: 'I knew the radius [...] I decided I was going to come down on top of that radius. As I was coming down the cradle was swinging backwards and forwards and catching the wind. 'When it comes off the fence it kicks off the fence and he just managed to grab hold of it.' The heroic crane driver said he was 'really shaking' during the ordeal, adding: 'I was alright when I got down and everything and I needed a quiet minute to get myself together. 'When everyone was about - when everyone come up to me and said ''well done, well done'' - that's when the penny dropped.' The dramatic three-minute rescue undoubtedly saved the builder's life as all around him blazing cladding caused massive clouds of toxic smoke. Incredibly despite the severity of the fire, only two people needed to go to hospital with smoke inhalation, including the workman saved by Mr Edwards. The 16-storey office block is situated opposite Reading rail and Crossrail station, and it was the site of another fire five months prior to the incident with Mr Edwards. A carpenter, who was working nearby, said onlookers below applauded as the man clambered into a metal basket attached to the crane and was carried away from the flames. The witness, who did not want to be named, said: 'I was in the next door building, there was a guy standing up there (on top of the building), luckily the crane came in just in time. 'He was coughing [when he came down], from the smoke, you know what I mean. 'When he got inside the crane and the crane put him down everyone was clapping. 'The crane driver was very fast. He was still in the crane while the building was on fire.'
