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REAPING DIRECTORY— 1919.

3

Poitou and Cornwall, brother of H enry H I . d. c2nd A p ril, 1272 ; Con­
stance, daughter of Edmund Plantaganet, of Langley, D u k e of Y o rk , and
wife of Thomas Despencer, E arl of Gloucester ; and Anne, Countess of
W arw ick : at the time of its dissolution its revenues were not less than
£1,938 13s. 3id. yearly : of its buildings, w ith the exception of the gate­
way, hardly more than enormous and shapeless masses of flint and rubble
now remain ; the chapter house is now almost the only apartment
remaining to a certain extent entire, although masses of walls denuded
of their stone facings and now covered w ith ivy extend in various
directions, and one or two bases of the piers of the great church are
yet in situ ; the garden of the monastery stretched from the present
county police courts nearly to the M arket place, an<f the stables, which were
very extensive, occupied a site adjoining H o ly Brook : the conventual
church was a Norm an structure : the wainscoting of the refectory is now
in the hall of Magdalen College, Oxford : the catalogue of the library in
the reign of H enry H I. is still extant ; it then comprised 100 volumes, 38
of which contained the H o ly Scriptures or portions thereof. H u g h Faringdon, 31st and last abbot of Reading, sturdily refusing to acknowledge the
supremacy of H em y V i l i , or to surrender his house, was, with two of his
monks, R u gg and Onyon, hung, drawn and quartered within sight of his
own gateway, N ov. 14th, 1539 : the great gateway, which originally gave
access to the inner court of the abbey, has been very carefully restored,
and is a rectangular structure of two stages, constructed of flint with
stone dressings ; a wide pointed archway pierces the lower stage ; in
the upper are small trefoil-headed windows, surmounted b y a plain parapet
and at the angles are octagonal turrets rising above the whole. The ruins
are the property of the Corporation, and, together with adjoining property
known as the Forbury, are used as public walks and pleasure grounds.
In the ruins and in the Free Public L ib ra ry are exhibited plans and
chronological charts of the ancient abbey, and there are fixed on various
parts of the abbey descriptive tablets indicating the ancient uses of various
portions of the abbey. T w o mural tablets, to the memories of the Erst
and last abbots, were placed on the w alls of the Chapter House in 1911.
O f other monastic establishments once existing here, the most important
was that of the Franciscans or G rey Friars, who established themselves in
Reading in 1233, b y permission of Pope Gregory EX. and in 1285 moved to
a new site, upon which, w ith the help of E dw ard I . who furnished them
with timber, they erected their convent : its church, completed, as is sup­
posed, about 1311, is one of the finest examples of this period extant, and
has been restored : this house was surrendered to Henry V i l i . 13th Sept.
1539, by the warden, Peter Scheflord S .T .B . and eleven friars: in 1540
the domestic buildings were granted to Robert Stanshaw, a retainer of
the King, and in 1543 the Corporation obtained possession of thè church,
which they converted into a town hall ; in 1560 it became a workhouse,
and in 1613 a prison, which purpose it continued to serve until it was
purchased in 1863 b y the late V en. Archdeacon Phelps, and b y him
restored to its original uses, at a cost of over £12,000.

Hugh, who became eighth abbot about 1180, founded another hospital,
dedicated to St. John the Baptist, for the relief of strangers and pilgrims,
near St. Laurence’s church, and conducted by a sisterhood of 13 w idow s :
Abbot Thorne, in the reign of E dw ard I V . suppressed this hospital and
at the imperative suggestion of H enry V I I . it was convert:d in;
grammar school, A .D . 1485.
BRAD.