Reading Abbey

I finally managed to visit the ruins of Reading Abbey in December 2018, now it is not the first time I have been here, I used to go to school next door and visited on many occasions but after I left it was only once or twice after that. Reading Abbey was founded by Henry I in 1121, when he died in 1135 he was brought back to the Abbey and buried in front of the High Altar

 So this is a model of the Abbey Quarter

 The Abbey I think the area to the top of the picture is where Forbruy road is today

This is what the abbey looked like in height. All that is left of it now is the Abbey gateway just towards the bottom of the photo below the abbey and the area to the right of the South transept

 Above the memorial to Henry Ist and you would have been looking down the nave here.



Right the restored Abbey Gateway

The information board at the entrance to the ruins

The entrance to the Abbey Ruins which for years was shut

 A restored gateway, this takes you along what was the dormitories I'm stood on part of the Cloisters

Another of the information boards and  above the Founders Chapel this would have been the chapel you see to the right of the South transept in the models at the start

A plaque telling you Henry Ist was buried nearby, most Kiley under the school on the other side of the wall

 

Above the Founders Chapel and what the wall would have looked like, the south aisle is to the left

Another of the info boards

This is the base of one of the Huge support pillars that supported the  church and stood around six meters high (nearly 20 foot)

These board are all around the ruins, they never were when  I was a kid

The end wall of the Treasury

Looking across to the chapter house

Above St James school as I knew it when I used to go there. The school is built around the centre of the cross towards the chancel so the High Altar is around there

 The Chapter house

 The song is Summer is a cumming in


The plaque shows the founding of the Abbey

A memorial to Hugh Cook Faringdon the last Abbot of the Abbey who was put todeath in a most barbaric fashion in front of the Abbey. From what I read he died of hear failure before they could do any thing which is more than could be said for the two others who were killed with him

The end of the Chapter house

This was the monks dormitory 

Looking back up to the chapter house. This part was dug out in the English civil war and during the second world war an air raid shelter was built for the children of St James school. I think it is still there

The dormitory walls, the holes you see in them were where the scaffolding was placed when the built the building

 This takes you along the side of the dormitory towards the chapter house

The chapter house 

Going back to the Abbey

As you walk along here you can see these exhibits 

The show parts of the doorway and the carvings on them

They were found in the grounds

And a picture shows where they went

  Back along the walk

On the way back out you pass more parts of the Abbey

Above a last look of the ruins and left a view down Abbots Walk towards St James school now a children's nursery 

Part of the Abbey remains
near St James Church

 Looking across the Forbury gardens towards the Abbey, St James church is to the left and the school on the right, the Abbey ruins are over to the right between the school and the houses on the right. Reading Prison is in the background.

That's my little walk around the Abbey ruins, if you find yourself in Reading then the ruins are worth the time to look around to see what little remains of them. Next week I will be taking you to Wessex and back to King Alfred's kingdom and the Churches around that area.