Church of St Mary

Summary

A church, originally of C11 date and much enlarged and altered in the C16, C17, C19 and C20.

Reasons for Designation

The Church of St Mary, Reading, also known as Reading Minster, is listed at Grade I for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* containing fabric of many periods including C11 Romanesque and C14 material, to which an impressive tower was added in 1551-1555 which includes stone from the medieval abbey church, and which is a notable example of stone and flint chequerboard flushwork;
* including work by several prominent Reading architects including JB Clacy, W Clacy and Joseph Morris and the nationally recognised architect, Sir Charles Nicholson, who created the Lady Chapel and the Chapel of St Edmund.

Historic interest:

* a large and ancient church at the centre of the town, whose foundation pre-dates the Norman conquest, the building includes material from Reading Abbey brought to site following the dissolution including parts of the nave roof, material for the tower and possibly the southern nave arcade.

History

The first written record of Reading dates from the ninth century when the name seems to have referred to a tribe, called Reada’s people. Reading’s position at the junction of the Thames and Kennet was crucial and it is possible that there was a river port here during the Roman occupation. The first mention of the town as a royal vill came in 870 due to a Viking camp, and by 1086 there was a thriving urban community, recorded in the Domesday Book. Reading Abbey was founded in 1121 and this transformed Reading into a place of pilgrimage as well as an important trading and ecclesiastical centre with one of the biggest and richest monasteries in England. By 1525, Reading was the largest town in Berkshire and the tenth-largest in England when measured in taxable wealth due to its trade in wool and cloth.

The dissolution led to the monastic complex becoming a royal palace and by 1611 the town’s population had grown to over 5,000. A number of the timber-framed houses from this period survive in Castle Street and Market Place. The Civil War caused a defensive ring of earthworks to be built around the town and caused much damage.

During the C18, Reading became a prosperous market town and administrative centre, due to the development of the town’s waterways and road links. In 1723 the River Kennet was transformed into a canal, linking Reading to Newbury, further extended by the opening of the Kennet and Avon Canal in 1810, to create a route between Reading and the Bristol Channel. Turnpike roads were also improved, establishing major coaching routes from London to Oxford, the West Country and the southern coast. Iron works and brewing caused the expansion of the town further west along the Oxford and Bath Roads and in the older part of Reading, many older, timber-framed buildings were refaced in fashionable brick. A new town hall was built just northeast of the west end of Friar Street in 1786.

In the C19 the town expanded further; three separate railway companies ran routes through the town to London, causing a rapid increase in population (9,400 in 1801 to 21,500 in 1851 and over 70,000 by 1900) as well as the development of Reading’s famous Three B’s industries: beer (Simonds Brewery, 1785-2010), bulbs (Suttons Seeds, 1837-1974) and biscuits (Huntley and Palmers, 1822-1976). Growth during this period was characterised by the proliferation of brick terraces, made from the area’s fine clay deposits, and Hardy referred to Reading as ‘Aldbrickham’ in his novel Jude the Obscure. In 1869 the town was confirmed as the county town for Berkshire.

Today, Reading is one of the largest urban areas in the UK without city status. The town centre was considerably changed in 1969 when the Inner Distribution Road opened.

A royal nunnery founded by Queen Elfrida in 979 is believed to have stood on the present site of the Church of St Mary, or close to it. The ransacking of Reading by the Danes in C11 and the consequent rebuilding led to the earliest fabric in the present building which includes two Romanesque door surrounds and, possibly, the pillars of the southern nave arcade. The south aisle was added around 1173 and in 1372 the Colney Chantry was added by Thomas Colney at the eastern end of the south aisle. The Jesus Chantry was also added in the position of the present north transept at roughly the same time.

Following the dissolution of Reading Abbey in 1539, material from the demolished abbey church was used in a reconstruction and the work in aggrandising the building is a reflection of Reading's wealth at this time. An inscription in the south porch records that the church was rebuilt in 1551. Churchwarden accounts record the materials brought from the Abbey to the church site and include the roof, pillars and a door that stood in the cloister. The west tower of St Mary used some of the stone in its rebuilding from 1551-1555. This work on the tower may still have been in progress by the time of a gift from William Kendrick towards pinnacles in 1624, or the work may have been a result of the rebuilding of the upper parts after its steeple blew down in a gale in 1574. The 'pyllers' carried from the abbey site may be a reference to the present south aisle arcade, although as Pevsner points out, these pillars seem to be a type more commonly seen in less-prestigious work of around 1200. The timbers of the abbey roof appear to have been re-used in the nave roof of the church.

The chancel was rebuilt by 1853, probably by JB Clacy, a Reading architect and County Surveyor for Berkshire. JB and W Clacy restored the south aisle in 1863-1864 and JB Clacy’s pupil, Joseph Morris, added the north nave aisle in 1871-1872, partially replacing the medieval north transept in the process. The small chapel of St Edward was added by Sir Charles Nicholson in 1918 and entered from the church through a repositioned Norman doorway. Nicholson also remodelled the eastern end of the south aisle to create a Lady Chapel in 1913-1914.

Details

A church, originally of C11 date and much enlarged and altered in the C16, C17, C19 and C20.

MATERIALS AND PLAN: stone and flint walling with a plain tile roof. The church has an aisled nave of four bays and a chancel of three bays with north-eastern vestries, a northern transept which was largely subsumed into the north choir aisle in the C19, a western tower and a south porch.

EXTERIOR: the west tower of 1551-1552 has chequerboard walling with square blocks of limestone alternating with panels of squared, knapped flints. It has three stages marked by string courses running around the structure and polygonal buttresses to the corners with an octagonal stair turret to the north-eastern corner lit by rectangular openings. The west face has a central doorway with four-centred head set in a stone surround with hood mould. Above is a four-light window with intersecting tracery. The middle stage has a two-light window with Y tracery, above which is a convex metal clock face. The top, belfry stage has a triple opening with louvres and Perpendicular tracery head. The north and south faces are blind to the lowest stage and have similar openings to the middle and upper stages. The east face has a similar belfry opening. The parapet is battlemented and the corner pinnacles are crocketed.

Much of the rest of the exterior along the south side repeats the chequerboard patterning of the tower and appears to combine ancient material with C19 restorations. Window tracery has mostly been replaced, but apparently to the original patterns in some cases. The south aisle is gabled at its western end and has a four-light window with cusped heads and tracery. The south side has five bays divided by substantial buttresses with angled buttresses to the corners. The gabled porch is at the centre with two windows at the right and one to the left, each of three lights with C19 tracery. The Lady Chapel is slightly recessed and has two windows of three lights with tracery heads showing cusped arcuated triangles to its east flank and a similar window to its gabled east end.

The chancel of 1853, probably by JB Clacy, has three lancets to its north and south side and a stepped trio of grouped lancets forming the eastern end, with colonettes to the side of each light.

The grouping of vestry buildings, which includes the organ chamber is placed on the east side of the northern transept. This includes a polygonal structure facing east with swept roof, angle buttresses and lancets and the gabled range which runs parallel to the transept and has a window of two lights with plate tracery to its northern gable end.

The north transept has a Tudor-arched doorway to its gable end, above which is a three-light window with Perpendicular tracery to its head, similar to the eastern window of the Lady Chapel. To the right of this, the north aisle has three bays divided by buttresses with offsets. The Chapel of St Edward projects in front of the lower walling of the central bay and has two, two-light windows with Perpendicular heads and a parapet which includes chequered patterning. The window to the left of this has three lights with cusped, reticulated tracery to the head. At right a two-light window has ogee-arched heads and appears to be a reset C14 piece.

INTERIOR: the nave roof has scissor-beamed trusses with moulded, arched blades which rise from wall brackets and posts. All the common rafters have ashlar posts and angle braces connected to collars. The southern nave arcade has pie-crust and ball capitals and plain round drums to the columns with plainly chamfered arches. The roof to the south aisle has varied forms of truss and appears to use members salvaged from elsewhere. The eastern end of the former north transept, which is now incorporated into the north nave aisle, has a wide archway of around 1300 to its eastern wall, leading through to the vestry. This formerly led to a chapel devoted to the Fraternity of the Guild of Jesus. The Chapel of St Edward, intended as a war memorial, has a panelled stone flat vault of stone and a reredos showing the Crucifixion. It is entered by a repositioned Norman doorway with simple, stepped moulding.

FITTINGS: the western gallery beneath the tower was installed in 1631-1632 and is supported on brackets showing animals playing instruments. The Father Willis organ was installed in the western gallery in 1864 and moved to its present position on the north side of the chancel in 1876. The arch of around 1300 in the north transept which formerly led to the chapel devoted to the Fraternity of the Guild of Jesus now has a richly-painted, late-C19 door screen showing figures from Chronicles. The stained glass includes windows by Clayton and Bell and monuments include that to William Kendrick of 1635/6, signed by John and Matthias Christmas, John Monk by Flaxman of 1809 and a collection of C18 and C19 wall plaques in the lobby entrance beneath the western tower. The Font was gifted in 1616 and has an octagonal bowl with quatrefoils. The reredos behind the high altar is of 1935, by HS Rogers and shows the crucifixion flanked by gilded angels.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

39156

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Bradley, S, Tyack, G, The Buildings of England: Berkshire, (2010), 444-445
, Anon, Reading Minster of St Mary the Virgin, (2020)
Arnold, HG, Victorian Architecture in Reading, (1976), 23, 24
Gold, Sidney, A Biographical Dictionary of Architects at Reading, (1999), 36-39; 117-120

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