Reading, Berkshire - Abbey Ruins, Dormitory - real photo postcard 1928

Postcard
• Picture / Image:  Dormitory, Abbey Ruins, Berkshire - real photo type
• Publisher:  none given
• Postally used:  yes
• Stamp:  George V red 1d.
• Postmark(s):  Bracknell, Berkshire
• Sent to:  Hill View, Egham Hill, Egham, Surrey
• Notes / condition: 

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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

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Reading Abbey is a large, ruined 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"".^[1]

The abbey was founded by Henry I in 1121. As part of his endowments, he gave the abbey his lands within Reading, along with land at Cholsey. He also arranged for further land in Reading, previously given to Battle Abbey by William the Conqueror, to be transferred to Reading Abbey, in return for some of his land at Appledram in Sussex.^[2]

Following its royal foundation, the abbey was established by a party of monks 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.^[3] The first abbot, in 1123, was Hugh of Amiens^[4] 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"". The adjacent rivers provided convenient transport, and the abbey established wharves on the River Kennet. The Kennet also provided power for the abbey water mills, most of which were established on the Holy Brook, a channel of the Kennet of uncertain origin.^[1]

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. Other royal persons buried in the abbey include parts of Matilda of Scotland, William of Poitiers, and Constance of York.

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 relics including the hand of St James.^[5] A shrivelled human hand was found in the ruins during demolition work in 1786 and is now in St Peter's RC Church, Marlow.^[6] The song Sumer is icumen in, which was first written down in the abbey about 1240, is the earliest known four part harmony from Britain. The original document is held in the British Library.^[7]

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 weddings of John of Gaunt in 1359 and Edward IV in 1464, and a meeting of Parliament in 1453.^[8]

The abbey was largely destroyed in 1538 during Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries. The last abbot, Hugh Cook 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.^[1]

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.^[9][10]

St James's Church and School was built on a portion of the site of the abbey between 1837 and 1840.^[11][12] 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.^[13][14][15]

type=real photographic (rp)

theme=topographical: british

sub-theme=england

county/ country=berkshire

number of items=single

period=inter-war (1918 - 1939)

postage condition=posted