reading abbey rediscovered - booklet

8/3/2019 Reading Abbey Rediscovered - booklet

1/23


2/23

~(}in9 A66ey IRe(}iscoverecL

,.. ~, ~ r ,

. ~--' - - . '"


3/23

REDISCOVERED

A summary of the Abbey's historyand recent archaeological excavations

Compiled by the staff ofthe Trust for Wessex Archaeology and Reading Museum and Art Gallery

Sponsored by MEPC pic


4/23

Financial support:MEPC pic, Berkshire CountyCouncil, The Department of theEnvironment gave financialsupport to the 198Iexcavations.This publication was sponsored byMEPC pic.Text:Peter Fasham and John Hawkes ofthe Trust for Wessex Archaeologywith a contribution on the Kennetand Avon Navigation by MikeCorfield of Wiltshire CountyCouncil.Graphics:LizJames and Jane Timby of theTrust for Wessex Archaeology andMartin Andrews of ReadingMuseum and Art Gallery.Reconstruction drawing on pages14 and 15 and picture research LizJames.Design:Martin Andrews, ReadingMuseum and Art Gallery

ContentsThe Foundation of the AbbeyThe Abbey and the Town 4The Excavations 8The First Hundred Years 12The Later Abbey Period 13The Dissolution and After 18Cover illustration:Manuscript illustration (c. 1250)by Matthew Paris, a monk ofSt Albans, showing Henry Iholding a model of Reading Abbey.Previous page:An eighteenth-century engravingof the Abbey Gateway.Below:An eighteenth-century engravingof a view of the Abbey ruins.

Reproduction of illustrations bypermission of:The National Portrait Gallery forthe portrait of Henry I on page 3.The British Library formanuscript illustrations onpages 4, 13 and front cover.All other illustrations fromReading Museum and Art Galleryand the Trust for WessexArchaeology.Copyright Trust for WessexArchaeology, 1983Typesetting by JH Graphics Ltd,ReadingPrinted by Entroform Ltd, Reading


5/23

---The FoundationftheAbbey--Reading Abbey was founded byHenry I in 1121 'for the salvation ofmy soul, and the souls of KingWilliam, my father, and of KingWilliam, my brother, and QueenMaud, my wife, and all myancestors and successors.' The hopeof salvation was a common motivefor endowing monasteries withmoney and land in the early middleages, but such royal patronage wassufficient to make Reading one ofthe richest and most importantreligious houses in England, withpossessions not only in Berkshirebut as far afield as Herefordshireand Scotland. When Henry died inFrance in 1135 his body wasbrought to Reading and laid to restin front of the altar of the yetuncompleted Church.On 18thJune, 1121, a party ofmonks from the great French abbeyof Cluny together with monksfrom the Cluniac priory ofStPancras at Lewes, Sussex, arrived atReading. Thus began monastic lifein Reading which was to end inviolence with the Dissolution andexecution of the lastabbot 418 yearslater.

. :. . I ..) '.The second seal of Reading Abbey,

1328, showing King Henry I holding amodel of the Abbey Church.

3


6/23

---The Abbey and the Town ---The Domesday survey of 1086records only one church inReading, presumably St Mary's atthe junction of the roads fromOxford to Winchester and Londonto Bath. The old market layimmediately to the west of thechurch and it was around this thatthe late Saxon and early medievaltown developed before thefounding of the Abbey. An Anglo-Saxon nunnery which may havestood nearby has entirelydisappeared, but the rebuilt churchofSt Mary and the market, nowSt Mary's Butts, still survive.The founding of the Abbey to theeast had a profound influence on thesubsequent development of thetown. The old market wassuperseded by a new one outsidethe Abbey's Compter Gate.Travellers seeking the Abbey'shospitality and people journeyingalong the main roads passing thegate were attracted to the newmarket. The town centre wasbeginning to attain its recognisablemodern form; New (now Friar)Street and Broad Street linked theold and new commercial centres.Reading was fast becoming animportant town strategically placedon the junction of the major east-west and north-south roads.According to the rwelfth-centurychronicler William of Malmesburythe Abbey was built on a gravelspur 'between the rivers Kennetand Thames, on a spot calculatedfor the reception of almost all whomight have occasion to travel to themore populous cities of England. '

The gravel spur on which theAbbey was situated had not alwaysbeen a place of tranquillity. Thestrategic importance of the site hadalready led to its military usage onmore than one occasion. It wasalmost certainly the site of theViking winter camp of870 andpossibly again in woo, and theburial of a man together with hishorse and a ninth-century Vikingsword in the Vastern watermeadows belongs to this period.N or did the consecration of the areaas an abbey prevent profane use; inI ISO during the civil war with hiscousin, the Empress Matilda, KingStephen raised a castle within theprecincts of the Abbey. Themound, still a prominent feature inthe Forbury Gardens today, is mostprobably all that remains of thiscastle.Some 500 years later civil war againencroached on the now defunctAbbey. It is this period that wasresponsible for much of thedestruction of the Abbey buildings;the Church was finally demolishedand defensive earthworks werethrown up across the cloister areawhile Reading was occupied byboth Royalist and Parliamentaryforces.The hilt of the Viking sword found withthe burial of a warrior near the ninth-century encampment on the Abbey site.Medieval travellers. from a fourteenth-century manuscript.

4


7/23

Reading: the medieval town and Abbey. Vastern water meadows

1 Friary 13 Refrectory and cellarer's office2 St Mary's Church 14 Cloisters3 St Laurence's Church 15 Chapter House4 Hospitium 16 Church5 Mill 17 Reredorter6 Possibly the site of the town whart7 North gate8 South gate9 Compter gate10 East gate11 Inner Gateway12 Stables

The popularity of Reading as avenue for trade, travel and warfareowed much to the waterways. Theremote gravel spur bounded ontwo sides by the rivers Thames andKenner was ideal for the quietcontemplative seclusion of amonastery, but more importantlythe adjacent rivers provided aconvenient form of transport.Medieval roads were difficult andnotoriously dangerous, andvaluable or heavy cargoes could becarried more easily and safely bywater. As the town would havebeen frequently cut off from theThames by the seasonally floodedVastern water meadows the Kennetwas to become the site of wharvesfor both Abbey and town; it waswith the discovery and elucidationof the Abbey wharves that thearchaeological excavations of 198 1were principally concerned.

Site of the 1981 excavations of thewatertront.A broken medieval ivory crucifix fromReading.A medieval bronze badge in the form of agriffin as worn by pilgrims. Found in theruins of Reading Abbey.


8/23


9/23


10/23


11/23

In 1964litde detail was knownabout the Abbey layout and the sizeof the buildings. Most of the areabetween Abbots Walk, KingsRoad, Abbey Street and the AbbeyRuins was scheduled forredevelopment, and although thismeant that much of the belowground remains of the Abbeywould be destroyed it did providearchaeologists with theopportunity to record and collectinformation concerning the date ofvarious parts of the Abbey and thepossibility of reconstructing theoriginal layout lost after theseventeenth-century Civil War.Accordingly Dr C. F. Slade ofReading University began acampaign of excavations in anattempt to reveal the buried secretsof the Abbey. The mill was shownto have been in use since the twelfthcentury and the precise position ofthe cloisters was located. They

were rectangular in shape,measuring 45 metres north to southand 35 metres east to west. Thecloister walk was paved withdecorated tiles. The intricately andbeautifully carved capitals whichsurmounted the columns of thecloister had previously beenidentified by Dr Charles Keyser asearly as 1916 in Sonning to wherethey had been removed followingthe demolition of the Abbey. Thenorth wall of the refectory waslocated by Dr Slade and the east endof the church was examined. Thedetails and plan of the Abbey werenow being filled out.

In 1979 excavations directed byMr A. Vince discovered a medievalbuilding which stood between therefectory wall and Chestnut Walk.At the same time, two woodenposts were discovered by the RiverKennet; the first indications that themedieval timber wharves mighthave survived.For seventeen years archaeologicalinvestigations had considerablyexpanded knowledge of the Abbey,bu t details of the refectory plan,kitchen and cellarer's offices werestill not known. Neither was it clearwhether further buildings survivedsouth of the refectory wall, andnothing was known about thewharves or the Holy Brook and itsconfluence with the Kennet.

Tiles which once paved the floors ofReading Abbey.Carved stone capitals from the cloistercolonnade, c. 1130.

9


12/23

In 1981, an imminentredevelopment scheme threatenedto destroy forever much of theburied evidence that still survivedwithin the Abbey precinct and itwas decided to mount anexcavation to try to learnsomething of the layout anddevelopment of some of the Abbeybuildings, paying particularattention to the Abbey wharves, inthe hope of confirming theirlocation and development as theywere related to the Abbey and thetown.Excavation south of the refectorywall demonstrated that all Abbeyremains had been destroyed byeighteenth-century gravel digging.West of the cloisters only a smallarea was found to have survivedand here a flint-walled cellar wasre-discovered, some 4 metres deep.The cellar, which was completelyempty save for a small amount ofmodern rubble, had been roofedover with brick in the Victorianperiod and subsequently coveredby the modern car park of theformer Council offices. Although itwas not possible to date itaccurately, the cellar almostcertainly belongs to the Abbeyperiod, probably to the cellarer'srange which had never before beenA structural engineer being loweredthrough a man-hole in the V ictorian roofin to the m edieva l Abbey ce lla r.

examined. Here would have beenstored the provisions required forthe Abbey community.Exciting though such a discoverywas, the major importance of the1981 excavation was thewaterfront. The excavation, thefirst large-scale investigation of amedieval inland waterway in thecountry, uncovered preservedtimber wharves enabling acomplete sequence from c. 1200 tothe present day to be reconstructed.Such information, when fullydigested, will change ourperceptions and understanding ofan important part of medieval life;the more immediate importance toReading of the waterways and theirdiscovery is already beginning to beunderstood.

At the time of the disso lu tion of themonasteries in 1539 rubb le was tippedin to the river a t this po in t.

. :; .,. : :

;.:

.......

The channel of the Holy Brook after theredesign of the waterfront in c. 1300.

. . . .

From about 1150-1300 the Holy Brookflowed in to the Kennet at this point.

10


13/23

The excavation revealed a longsequence of activity with the RiverKennet gradually moving eastwards.

General view of the excavation site,1981, showing the remains of thewaterfronts. The Kennet Navigation Act of.1715 ledto the construction by 1724 of this

revetment with its large back brace.

;"

.....

," ," ....

.. ; 'J: ..

_____ About 1300 the waterfront wasredesigned with a new layout including aplank built frontage. The planks are6 It long.

II


14/23

----The FirstHundredYearsThe church, the cloisters, thedomestic buildings and the millwould have been amongst the firstbuildings of the Abbey. In keepingwith the importance of the Abbeythe church was enormous, only 50feet shorter than present day StPaul's. The scale of the otherbuildings is likely to have beenequally impressive; the mill wassituated on the Holy Brook, one ofthe many streams which passthrough Reading. It is not known ifthe Holy Brook, which joins theKennet at the Abbey waterfront, isa natural or artificial channel, but itwas certainly extant in the earliestexcavated phase, its outflow beingmarked by a break in the waterfrontrevetment and a turn in thealignment of timbers.

Seven phases of waterfront activitycan be dated to the first century ofthe Abbey's existence, each havingan average lifespan of 15 years.They aU consist oflandreclamations from the RiverKenner, which contain rubbish,including fragments of black,thin-walled cooking pots andgreen-glazed tripod pitchersbelonging to the later twelfth andearlier thirteenth centuries. It ispossible that planks from earlierwaterfronts were reused in laterphases, the frequent replacementbeing due to changes in water leveland silting of old channels ratherthan dilapidation of the timbers.These structures are probably notwharves as such; there is noevidence that they were on the sitewhere loading and unloading tookplace and they are best interpretedas revetments to the banks of theKennet and Holy Brook.

Although the pottery evidence doesnot suggest that these structuresbelong to the earliest years of theAbbey, there are good reasons forthinking that a wharf must havebeen amongst the earliest featuresbuilt, since the importation ofbuilding stone and other supplieswould have been the first necessaryrequirement of the smallcommunity during its initial hecticbuilding period. Such a wharfwould almost certainly have beenthat which received a more sombrecargo in 1136, when the body of theAbbey's founder, Henry I, waslanded from a cortege of black-draped barges.Fish traps by a mill from a medievalmanuscript.

12

Twelfth to thirteenth-century waterfronts.Towards the end of this period,sometime in the early years of thethirteenth century, a weir wasconstructed on the north side of theHoly Brook. A cluster of birchstakes was placed in front of a hardstanding formed by dumps offlintand other stone. This would catchany flotsam floating down the HolyBrook from the mill and prevent itentering the main channel. It couldalso have operated as a fish trap(called a kiddIe) providing aframework across which nets couldbe thrown to catch fish as theymade their way downstream.Elsewhere in the Abbey otherbuilding work was taking place.The church was completed in 1164and by this time the Abbey hadinstituted various charitableprogrammes; Abbot Anscherha ving established a leper house inthe early twelfth century and AbbotHugh II having founded a secondhospital, that of StJohn the Baptist,in the later years of that century.Medieval pot from Reading.Medieval birch stakes which may haveformed a fish trap.


15/23

----The Later Abbey PeriodThe great royal patronage of theAbbey at its foundation continuedin to the thirteenth and fourteenthcenturies and it was often visited byroyalty as well as other guests andpilgrims. Although the Abbeysucceeded in maintaining goodterms with the Crown, theseactivities, together with thecharitable obligations, proved to bea serious drain on the Abbey'sresources and by 1286 it had fallenso seriousl y into debt that theadministration was brought underdirect royal control by Edward I,until 1289.The late thirteenth and earlyfourteenth centuries weresomething of a boom time inEngland, urban expansion anddevelopment resulting in a spate ofnew building, both monastic andsecular. Many religious houses hadgrown at such a rate that thenecessary and inevitable buildingand repair works severely depletedresources. When, in 1305, Nicholasde Quappelode became Abbot, itwas again found to be necessary toreduce the number of Abbeyservants as part of a campaign ofeconomic stringency.During this time of fluctuatingfortunes a large-scale rebuildingand expansion of the Abbey

waterfront took place. Theconstruction of the new wharfinvolved the realignment of theKennet and Holy Brook channels.A wattle silt trap retained dumps ofsand and rubble to re-claim the oldchannel, in front of which wereplaced substantial vertical piles withtimber planks nailed across them.Some of the piles seem to have beenreused, possibly coming fromrepairs to Abbey buildings, as amortice joint found in one of thepiles suggest the reuse of a formerroof timber. The Holy Brook wasreverted by timber on the south sideand by a stone wall on the northside and there are also traces of awharfside building. It is clear that inthis period, the waterfront was thesite of a busy and bustling quayside.

The fifteenth-century north side of theHoly Brook strengthened by a wall.

Prefabricated wattles were used to trapriver silts as part of the majorreorganisation of the area in about 1300.Medieval builders from a fourteenth-century manuscript.

13


16/23


17/23

Fourteenth-century life at the Abbeywharf.


18/23

Cargoes arriving at the new wharfwould have included the essentialsupplies necessary to sustain a largecommunity. Although flour andbeer were probably producedwithin the Abbey, the necessaryraw materials may well have beenimported via the river, as wouldsuch luxuries as wine. Casual lossesinto the river at a this time includenot only a range of metalwork andpottery objects but also leathershoes, belts and other items.Leather normally perishes rapidly,but due to the waterloggedconditions it has been preservedand gi ves us a clearer picture ofobjects that rarely survive,increasing greatly our knowledgeof an important local industry. Astudy of this material suggests thata leather working site may havebeen situated close by at this time.The east side of the new MarketPlace adjacent to the Abbeyprecinct wall was known ashoernakers' Row in late medievaltimes.

Water level in metres

The town already had a separatewharf upstream at Highbridge foruse by the town merchants, and by'404 traffic had increased to such anextent that some formal agreementbetween the Abbey and merchants

Medieval objects found during the 1981excavations at the waterfront.Diagram showing the rising water levelof the River Kennet by the Abbeywaterfront.

was necessary. It was agreed thatnavigation might proceed toHighbridge between sunrise andsunset, but that barges would haveto apply to the Abbey for the lockto be opened. A toll was leviedwhich may have gone some waytowards recompensing the Abbeyfor the inconvenience caused and anapparently necessary strictureordered that the sailors 'mightmake no play, riott or noyse'.The appearance of this lock in theearly fifteenth century is of someinterest and may explain why thelater Abbey wharfis at a higherlevel than earlier frontages.Estimates of the water level frominformation recovered in theexcavation show a dramatic riseover the 400 years of the Abbey'sexistence which suggests that locksand weirs may have been common.Archaeology hints at a degree ofriver management not recorded indocuments causing changes moredramatic even than the building ofthe Kennet and Avon canal in theeighteenth century.

1100 .200 ' JOo .600 1700 '980400 .500 '800 '900

16


19/23

Medieval nails used in the constructionof the waterfronts.Medieval shoe found in the river silts.


20/23

---The DissolutionndAfter---At the Dissolution in 1539, the lastAbbot of Reading, Hugh CookFaringdon, was found guilty ofhigh treason by Henry VIII and wasdragged through the streets ofReading, hanged, drawn andquartered in front of the AbbeyChurch. Although some of theAbbey buildings were retained as aRoyal residence, occupation of theAbbey precinct effectively endedwith the dispersal of the monks.By 1549, only ten years after theDissolution, documents record thatthe buildings were being robbed.Lead was stripped from the roofand windows by agents of the Kingand some of this was melted downin the ruins of the refectory. The1981 excavations revealed a hearthand pit used for lead melting on thesite of the refectory. The facingstones from the walls wereremoved and used in otherbuilding and their flint cores weremostly carried off.Most of the church and the cloistershad been razed by 1642, whenthe Civil War defences wereconstructed across the area. Sincethen, the site has been used not onlyas a source of building stone, but asa gravel pit for the townspeople.Numerous gravel pits, datingfrom the seventeenth to the laternineteenth centuries have beenlocated.

View of the Abbey ruins from the RiverKennet from an engraving after a workby William Havell, c. 1810A Lobster helmet from the Civil War.Hugh Faringdon the last Abbot ofReading Abbey.


21/23

In the river, silt was allowed toaccumulate in the fourteenth andfifteenth cenrury channels, andeventually a large dump of soil andrefuse was thrown over the disusedwharf and landing stage. The Millcontinued to be used until 1959,and during the sixteenth andseventeenth cenruries would stillhave been grinding com for thetown, so the Holy Brook channelwould, of necessity, have been keptopen to provide power for the millwheels, although the Kennet mayby then have been scarcelynavigable.However, by the late seventeenthcentury, the silting problemappears to have become sufficientlyserious to merit a formal attempt to

Eighteenth-century waterfronts.

overcome it. By the addition of atimber revetment and reclamationusing roof tiles and large chunks ofAbbey masonry, the old HolyBrook channel was filled and a newone cut further north.Elsewhere, the main KennetChannel was dredged several timesto keep the route to the town'swharves open; silt-traps wereinstalled and a back-braced timberrevetment was added to the wharf.Access to the river was still throughan inconvenient flash lock whichwas probably constructed at thesame time as the later Abbeywharves. The growth ofmanufacturing industries in theseventeenth and eighteenthcenturies led to proposals formaking the Kenner navigable toNewbury, which, with the supportof towns as far away as Trowbridgeand Bradford on Avon culminatedin the Kennet Navigation Act of1715.

Bridge over the River Kennet, c. 1820,with the spire of St Giles' church in thebackground.

19


22/23

The Navigation scheme wasvigorously resisted in Reading as itwas widely feared that the openingof a navigable channel to Newburywould have a disastrous effect onthe status and wealth of the countytown. While construction workwas still in progress a mob of 300 ofthe townspeople, led by the Mayor,destroyed one of the locks. Later,when the Navigation wascompleted, the Bargemen ofReading tried to prevent tradersfrom elsewhere using the river,sometimes with dire threats.Des pi te these and other earl ysetbacks, the Navigationprospered, and with it so did thewharves along the Kenner. In 1794the plan to join the Kennet with theBristol A von by the Kennet andAvon Canal met with theenthusiastic support of the town.The old industries, the mills,sawmill and leather worksdependent on water power havelong since disappeared.The archaeology of the Abbey isalso largely the archaeology of thetown. It has been estimated thatdevelopment of the town centre,involving the construction ofcellars in the Victorian period andmassive redevelopment since thesecond World War, has destroyedover 90% of medieval Reading withvirtually no recording of thearchaeology. It is to be hoped thatthe excavations portrayed in thisbooklet are not the last to be carriedout in Reading, for with only such asmall part of the archaeology ofhistoric Reading surviving everyopportunity needs to be taken. Itwould be fitting if the excavationsof Reading Abbey, an institutionwhich once so dominated the town,should lead to an upsurge of interestin the history of Reading.The arch of the Abbey M ill still spans theHoly Brook.


23/23

reading abbey rediscovered - booklet

Documents