Reading Abbey

To Find Out More

Further reading on Reading and its Abbey can be found in:

Slade, C., 2001 'The Town of Reading and its Abbey 1121-1997', MRM Associates Ltd.
(Available in the Museum shop)

Phillips, D., 1980 'The story of Reading', Countryside Books, Newbury.
(Available through our on-line shop)

Kemp, B.R., 1968 'Reading Abbey, an introduction to the history of the Abbey', Reading Museum & Art Gallery, Reading.

Kemp, B.R., 1986/1987 'Reading Abbey cartuleries: I & II', Camden Fourth Series volumes 31 and 33, Royal Historical Society, London.

Hurry, ].B., 1901 'Reading Abbey', Elliot Stock.
(The standard work but now out of date in some of its details)

Hawkes, John W. & Fasham, P.J., 1997 'Excavations on Reading Waterfront Sites, 1979-1988', Wessex Archaeology Report no. 5.

The text used on these pages is based on the 1988 Reading Museum and Art Gallery's Reading Abbey booklet written by the then Keeper of Archaeology and Social History, Leslie Cram. The booklet is out of print but reference copies are available at Reading Central Library.

The Local Studies Library at Reading Central Library in Abbey Square holds copies of the publications listed above, early maps and copies of the Berkshire Archaeological Journal where excavation reports and historical articles appear. The Museum of Reading has displays on the Abbey. It also holds the material from archaeological excavations, the major collection of sculptured stone, early paintings, engravings and photographs of the remaining Abbey buildings. For information on the School loans collections, which includes material from the abbey, visit the 'Hands-on Learning' section.

Many Benedictine monasteries have remains that are more complete than Reading and are well worth visiting, such as Chester, Durham, Glastonbury, Gloucester and Westminster.

The story of Reading Abbey, dramatic in itself, is only part of a wider story of monasteries in and around Reading. A nunnery was founded near St Mary's Butts in An 978, a friary was built at the west of Friar Street in 1233 and monasteries stood along the Thames at Bisham, Hurley, Medmenham, Goring, Wallingford, Dorchester and Abingdon. After lying dormant for nearly 400 years after the Dissolution, monasticism in Berkshire reawakened with the founding of the Benedictine Douai Abbey near Woolhampton in 1903.

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