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Reading Abbey is a large, ruins abbey in the centre of the town of Reading, in the English county of Berkshire. It was founded by Henry I in 1121 "for the salvation of my soul, and the souls of King William, my father, and of King William, my brother, and Queen Maud, my wife, and all my ancestors and successors." In its heyday the abbey was one of Europe's largest royal monastery. The traditions of the Abbey are continued today by the neighbouring St James's Church, which is partly built using stones of the Abbey ruins.
Reading Abbey was the focus of a major £3 million project called "Reading Abbey Revealed" which conserved the ruins and Abbey Gateway and resulted in them being re-opened to the public on 16 June 2018. Alongside the conservation, new interpretation of the Reading Abbey Quarter was installed, including a new gallery at Reading Museum, and an extensive activity programme.
Abbey Ward of Reading Borough Council takes its name from Reading Abbey, which lies within its boundaries. Now HM Prison Reading is on the site.
Following its royal foundation, the abbey was established by a party of from Cluny Abbey in Burgundy, together with monks from the Cluniac priory of St Pancras at Lewes in Sussex. The abbey was dedicated to the Virgin Mary and St John the Evangelist.Charles Tomkins, Views of Reading abbey, with those of the churches originally connected with it, 1805 The first abbot, in 1123, was Hugh of AmiensC. Warren Hollister, Henry I (2001), pp. 282–3. who became archbishop of Rouen and was buried in Rouen Cathedral.
According to the twelfth-century chronicler William of Malmesbury, the abbey was built on a gravel spur "between the rivers Kennet and Thames, on a spot calculated for the reception of almost all who might have occasion to travel to the more populous cities of England". "History of the Abbey Quarter", Abbey Quarter The adjacent rivers provided convenient transport, and the abbey established wharf on the River Kennet. The Kennet also provided power for the abbey , most of which were established on the Holy Brook, a channel of the Kennet of uncertain origin.
When Henry I died in Lyons-la-Forêt, Normandy in 1135 his body was returned to Reading, and was buried in the front of the altar of the then incomplete abbey.Hollister, C. Warren (2003). Frost, Amanda Clark (ed.). Henry I. New Haven, US and London, UK: Yale University Press. p. 474,
Because of its royal patronage, the abbey was one of the pilgrimage centres of medieval England, and one of its richest and most important religious houses, with possessions as far away as Herefordshire and Scotland. The abbey also held over 230 including the hand of St James. A shrivelled human hand was found in the ruins during demolition work in 1786 and is now in St Peter's Catholic Church, Marlow. The song Sumer is icumen in, which was first written down in the abbey about 1240, is the earliest known six-part harmony from Britain. The original document is held in the British Library.
Reading Abbey was frequently visited by kings and others, most especially by Henry III who often visited three or four times a year staying several weeks on each visit. It also hosted important state events, including the meeting between Henry II and the Patriarch of Jerusalem in 1185, the wedding of John of Gaunt and Blanche of Lancaster in 1359 and a meeting of Parliament in 1453.
The abbey was mostly destroyed in 1538 during Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries. The last abbot, Hugh Faringdon, was subsequently tried and convicted of high treason and hanged, drawn and quartered in front of the Abbey Church. After this, the buildings of the abbey were extensively robbed, with lead, glass and facing stones removed for reuse elsewhere. Some twenty years after the Dissolution, Reading town council created a new town hall by inserting an upper floor into the former refectory of the hospitium of the abbey. The lower floor of this building continued to be used by Reading School, as it had been since 1486. For the next 200 years, the old monastic building continued to serve as Reading's town hall, but by the 18th century it was suffering from structural weakness. Between 1785 and 1786, the old hall was dismantled and replaced on the same site by the first of several phases of building that were to make up today's Reading Town Hall. Around 1787, Henry Seymour Conway removed a large amount of stone from the wall and used it to build Conway's Bridge near his home at Park Place outside Henley-on-Thames.
St James's Church and School was built on a portion of the site of the abbey between 1837 and 1840. Its founder was James Wheble, who owned land in the area at that time. Reading Gaol was built in 1844 on the eastern portion of the abbey site, replacing a small county Gaol on the same site. James Wheble sold the rest of his portion of the abbey site to Reading Corporation to create the Forbury Gardens, which were opened in 1861.
In late 2010, Reading Borough Council was reported as estimating that the ruins could cost £3m to repair, but it was also stated that the extent of the damage was yet to be determined. A survey was carried out in October 2010, using three-dimensional scans to build up a detailed view of each elevation, thus helping to identify the extent of the conservation required. In April 2011 plans for an £8m revamp were unveiled, with the aim to create an Abbey Quarter cultural area in Reading. In June 2014 the Council secured initial funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF); more detailed plans for the project, Reading Abbey Revealed, were then developed and submitted to the HLF in September 2015.
In October 2014, a temporary scaffold roof, not visible from ground level, was installed on the Gateway to allow the building to dry out until funding for more permanent repairs was secured. The HLF confirmed that the second round application had been successful in December 2015. The HLF supported the project with a grant of £1.77 million, with Reading Borough Council match funding of £1.38 million. Historic England provided additional grant funding for initial work to the Abbey gateway and the conservation of the refectory wall. Work began in September 2016 and the ruins reopened to the public on 16 June 2018.
Britain’s kings appear to be making a habit of this. First it was Richard III, whose bones were found under a car park in Leicester. Now it appears that Henry I may have met a similarly undignified fate.
However, the borough council's press release stated, "The graves are located behind the High Altar in an apse at the east end of the Abbey. They are located east of the area where King Henry I's grave is believed to be. No direct connection between these features and King Henry can be made using these results alone."
The gateway was heavily restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott, after a partial collapse during a storm in 1861. It was extensively restored again after some decorative stonework came loose and fell into the street in 2010, reopening in 2018. The room above the gateway is now used by Reading Museum as part of its learning programme for local schools, whilst the arch below is available for use by pedestrian and cycle traffic.
The mill was built straddling the Holy Brook which marked the southern boundary of the monastic enclosure. It continued to grind corn into the 1950s. Today, all that remains is a section of wall, pierced by three arches. The wall is built of flint with caen stone ashlar dressings and brick filling. The two side arches are round headed, whilst the centre arch over the Holy Brook is larger and pointed.
The Holy Brook is a long, largely artificial, watercourse which flows out of the River Kennet near the village of Theale, passes just to the south of the Abbey, and returns to its parent river just downstream of the Abbey Mill.
In the late 1980s, the food art and performance collective La Grande Bouche organised a cabaret under marquee in the ruins. The evening offered music and performance acts combined with food, much of which cooked by contributing performers.
In 1994, a large scale performance event "From the Ruins" Andrew Lewis. Video of 1994 performance 'From the Ruins', shot on Hi-8, later digitised was held in the abbey ruins, the finale event for the "Art in Reading" (AIR) festival, funded in part by Reading Borough Council. This was organised by and featured a large number of artists and performers living or working in Reading, Contributing organisations to From the Ruins as listed in contemporary project documentation in 1994 and combined specially created music, dance, paintings, poetry and culminated in a spectacular evening performance involving large scale puppetry and pyrotechnics loosely based upon the history of Reading Abbey from the foundation by Henry I through the rise of the merchant classes to the dissolution and eventual sacking of the Abbey under Henry VIII.
In 1995, the ruined South Transept was used as the setting for the first Abbey Ruins Open Air Shakespeare production by MDM Productions and Progress Theatre in partnership with Reading Borough Council. In 1996, the outdoor production moved to the ruined chapter house and since 1999 has been staged by Progress Theatre in partnership with Reading Borough Council. This annual event expanded to the "Reading Abbey Ruins Open Air Festival" in 2007. Because of the access limitations during the restoration project, the 2009 and 2010 festivals could not be held, and the event has since relocated to the gardens of Caversham Court. "Shakespeare in the Ruins" returned to the Chapter House in July 2018 after the ruins reopened to the public after extensive conservation in June 2018.
Hospitium
The abbey's hospitium, or dormitory for pilgrims, also survives. Known as the Hospitium of St. John and founded in 1189, the surviving building is the main building of a larger range of buildings that could accommodate 400 people. Much of the remainder of this range of buildings was located where Reading Town Hall now stands. Today the surviving building occupies a rather isolated site, with no direct street access. It abuts the main concert hall of Reading Town Hall to the west, and the south of the building opens directly onto the churchyard of St Laurence's Church. The building is surrounded to the north and east by a modern office development, with a small intermediate courtyard.
Abbey Mill and Holy Brook
Some remains of the former Abbey Mill are visible alongside the Holy Brook at the south of the abbey site; they consist of a ruined former watermill on the Holy Brook, a channel of the River Kennet. The ruins are grade II listed. It is situated just to the south of the ruins of the Abbey itself. The water mill originally belonged to Reading Abbey, whose monks are believed to have created the Holy Brook as a water supply to this and other mills owned by them and to the abbey's . (2025). 9781901677348, Two Rivers Press. ISBN 9781901677348
Open-air theatre and performance
The ruins of Reading Abbey have a history of live performance. From early impromptu artist-led events, the site has established a history of open-air theatre.
Abbots
As an abbey, Reading was ruled by an abbot. The abbey had 27 abbots between 1123 and 1539.
1123–1130 1130–1135 1136–1154 1154–1158 1158–1165 1165–1173 1173–1186 1186–1199 1199–1213 1213–1226 1226–1238 1238–1262 1262–1269 1269–1290 1290–1305 1305–1328 1328–1342 1342–1361 1361–1369 1369–1378 1378–1409 1409–1430 1430–1445 1446–1486 1486–1519 1519–1520 1520–1539
Notable burials
See also
Further reading
(2025). 9781909747395, Two Rivers Press. ISBN 9781909747395
External links
Categories: Cluniac Monasteries In England, Benedictine Monasteries In England, Abbey, Monasteries In Berkshire, Grade I Listed Monasteries, History Of Reading, Berkshire, Ruins In Berkshire, Tourist Attractions In Reading, Berkshire, 1538 Disestablishments In England, Christian Monasteries Established In The 1120s, Gates In England, 1121 Establishments In England, Ruined Abbeys And Monasteries, Grade I Listed Churches In Berkshire, Monasteries Dissolved Under The English Reformation, Burial Sites Of The House Of Plantagenet, Henry I Of England, Burial Sites Of The House Of Normandy
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