A ground-breaking exhibition charting the rise of Reading’s role in the UK’s ‘Silicon Valley’, on at Reading Museum until December 2025.
Welcome to Reading’s DIGITAL Revolution, a major project and exhibition celebrating the diamond jubilee of the computer company Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) opening its first UK office in Reading - a moment that would redefine the future of our town and region.
You can find out more about the project by viewing the Reading’s DIGITAL Revolution trailer film, produced with our project partners at the National Museum of Computing thanks to a generous grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
This short trailer film gives an update on our current Lottery funded project marking the 60th anniversary of Digital Equipment Corporation opening its first UK office in Reading.
A Network of Exhibitions
We began to explore Reading's digital history with our community cabinet display entitled A Brief History of DEC in Reading, which ran from June-October 2024 on the Museum’s ground floor, Story of Reading gallery.
And now - our team has created a digital version of A Brief History of DEC in Reading, available to the public on our website.
Digital Britain: The Road from Reading
Our community display was timed to coincide with the National Museum of Computing’s DEC anniversary exhibition at nearby Bletchley Park.
Digital Britain: The Road from Reading took a tour of the locations across the UK that - from humble origins in Reading – were to play such a vital part in establishing Britain as DEC’s most successful national operation; leading to it becoming the world’s second largest computer company, after IBM.
Digital Britain: The Road from Reading ran until 28 February 2025.
For more details of opening times and to plan your visit follow this link to the National Museum of Computing’s website www.tnmoc.org.uk
About our Partners
The project has received a National Lottery Heritage Fund grant of £87,000 and generous donations from DECUS and local charity RGSpaces. This is enabling Reading Museum and The National Museum of Computing to tell the DEC story through a series of exciting and authentic exhibitions, education programmes and outreach activities.
We are hugely grateful to DEXODUS (the association of former DEC employees in the UK). Their committee and membership have kindly supported this project from the start and continue to provide guidance in our quest to reveal more about the previously unchartered history of the computing industry in Reading.
We also look forward to developing the project further with help from Digit (All), Reading University's Institute of Education, New Directions College, Blended Past, South Central Institute of Technology, Reading College, and Berkshire Education Business Partnership
