{"id":2106,"date":"2020-02-17T10:59:05","date_gmt":"2020-02-17T10:59:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/travel\/?p=2106"},"modified":"2021-03-30T13:42:18","modified_gmt":"2021-03-30T13:42:18","slug":"reading-the-five-minutes-spare-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/travel\/reading-the-five-minutes-spare-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading; The Five Minutes Spare Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Five Minute Reading Guide To Reading<\/h1>\n

Reading, did you read them differently, or not? Now that you are in a state of suitable confusion, let\u2019s bungle up your brain even more with one of our bamboozling city guides. Reading is on today\u2019s menu, so strap in, buckle down, and let\u2019s see what this fine town brings us\u2026<\/p>\n

A quick overview of Reading<\/h2>\n

This is one large town, located in the\u00a0Thames Valley Berkshire and world-famous for its music festival. However, there is so much more to it and as you will see, it has more than its fair share of history. Reading sits at the meeting place of two major rivers the Thames and the Kennet,\u2026One of the most populace stretches of water in Britain. It is about 40 miles west of London<\/a> on the M4 so well within the capitals commuter belt, but much closer to Oxford, which is roughly 20 miles to the north.<\/p>\n

Reading made fame throughout history as home to one of the richest monasteries in Europe. Around the 8th<\/sup> century, it was a noted market town of strong faith. Up until the Civil War, it was one of the biggest towns in England. It grew again in the industrial revolution but has shrunk since. One of the other things it has been most famous for throughout history is the brewing of beer. So it had the biggest monastery and the most beer.<\/p>\n

We wanted to get deep down and dirty with the Reading town history. We\u2019ll also cover famous faces, tourist attractions, and where to go for a night out on the town in Reading.<\/p>\n

Reading Long Ago<\/h2>\n

Speculation is that people have occupied the area here since the Roman occupation, which was around 80AD. Some sources have it as a town as early as the 6th<\/sup> century. Certainly, the position between the two rivers made it ideal for trading. Local Histories<\/a> point out there was a recorded Saxon leader named Reada Ingas who settled in the area in the 6th<\/sup> century. This seems like a good enough coincidence for us.<\/p>\n

In the 9th<\/sup> century, the town\u2019s name had become Readingum. We know this because of records of a Danish attack ain 871. The Vikings were invading Wessex and used Reading as a camp to attack from. They made a fort to the east of town before winter forced them back. Reading doesn\u2019t pop up again until 1006 when the next lot of Vikings burned it down. Silly, since they built some of it. Luckily they didn\u2019t burn it all because it is mentioned in the Domesday<\/a> Survey of 1086.<\/p>\n

By the time of Domesday, the town was a borough with 6 working mills. After 1066 and the Norman Conquest, some of the land around Reading was passed on to the Benedictine Abbey in East Sussex. They owned the land until Henry the I was buried in 1121 at Reading Abbey. As part of his death, he left his Reading lands to the Abbey. That East Sussex Abbey was known as Battle Abbey. Although Reading got the land back, Battle Hospital remains to this day as a testament to this period of history.<\/p>\n

Wool was treated in Reading; it grew in reputation as a manufacturing town. Cloth was woven here. Since the town is on the road connecting London with Cornwall and Wales there was a steady supply of trade passing through. The town filled with goldsmiths, carpenters, joiners, bakers and butchers. There were smiths and watermills, even a few slaves.<\/p>\n

During the 11th<\/sup>-13th<\/sup> centuries, the town worked under the leadership of the Abbot. After Henry VIII declared war on all religions except his own the town passed to the hands of the merchants\u2026 but that wasn\u2019t until the 16th<\/sup> century. By then, the merchants had elected a mayor of their own and were largely ignoring the abbot, anyway. Henry VIII tried and hanged the last abbot. He was drawn and quartered in front of his own church. Gruesome.<\/p>\n

Up until this point, there were three churches, the Abbey, a hospital run by the monks and a leper colony. The King had to make an example of at least one of them. St Mary\u2019s still stands to this day but most of the rest were destroyed.<\/p>\n

The Gap in Reading History<\/h2>\n

This is normally the part where we tell you that the 1348-9 plague killed 75% of the population \u2013 but there is a bit of a gap in Reading history at this point. There are not a lot of records from the time. The most likely reason for this is that anyone left alive was unable to write. We do know that they lost the abbot in 1361, so there must have been a later outbreak.<\/p>\n

We took this break anyway because of a handful of articles we found regarding Cholera in Reading. People in the Thames Valley have been coming down with a spate of Victorian illnesses since 2017. You can read more about it here<\/a>, but the diseases include Cholera, Gout, and Rickets. Words cannot express how sad it is that we seem to be going backwards.<\/p>\n

Fun Facts About Reading!<\/h2>\n

We thought we ought to lighten the mood a little after that. Here at Five Minutes Spare<\/a>, we like to keep things fun. With that goal in mind, here are some interesting facts about Reading, to keep things light\u2026<\/p>\n

Reading fun facts:<\/p>\n