Settling In - My First week in Reading

I continue on from my previous post...

August 22, 2006:

Well I was finally at my new homebase of Reading - convieniently located in the heart of the Thames valley at the joining of the Kent and Thames rivers.


A strategic spot on the map in ancient times (with a Roman fort nearby), Reading was first settled permanentely by a Saxon tribe in the 6th Century CE. Reading (pronounced Redding) is (probably) named after this tribe, which had the rather delightful name of, "the Redders" or "Readda's People".

My new teaching job wasn't starting until the 4th September, so I had a couple of weeks to explore my surroundings and get some of that touristy travelling underway. For the first few days I decided to start in the town centre of Reading itself - where incidently I could also get some food shopping done. The centre of Reading contains some buildings of note and beauty, I was quickly able to discover the remains of Reading Abbey, St Mary's Church, Forbury Gardens, St James' Catholic Church and the Museum of Reading.

St Mary's Church - the first church built in Reading and probably over a thousand years old. Most of the current building however dates from 1551, when in the aftermath of the dissolution of Britain's abbeys by Henry VIII, much of the material of Reading Abbey was reused for nearby buildings.

And here is some of what is left of what was once one of the largest and most prosperous Abbeys in all of England - Reading Abbey.

Reading Abbey was started in 1121 by King Henry I who chose the site for an abbey. The Church was roughly the same size as Westminster Abbey or St Paul’s Cathedral and was dedicated to the Virgin Mary and St John the evangelist. 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 Scotland.

The abbey also claimed to hold over 230 relics, such as the hand of St James the Apostle. Interestingly a shriveled human hand was actually found in the ruins during demolition work in 1786 and is now in St Peter's Church, Marlow. The song "Sumer is icumen in", which was first written down in the abbey in about 1240, is the earliest known four part harmony from Britain and the original document is now held in the British Library.

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, drwan 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 - such as St Mary's Church.

The Maiwand lion in Forbury Gardens — the largest statue of a Lion in the world and the unofficial symbol of Reading. The Lion commerates the Royal Berkshire Battalion, which was almost completly destroyed at the Battle of Maiwand in 1880 by the Afghans under Ayub Khan.

This was my first week in England and I knew that on Friday August 25th (my birthday incidently) I had an induction day in London coming up. So I decided to spend the 23rd and 24th August exploring and wandering around the town centre of Reading. I of course found the local library as soon as possible, joined up and found that they had an extensive Sci Fi and Fantasy section - me happy, hehe... I spent some time exploring the Museum of Reading, finding out some of its interesting history and examining artifacts ranging from Roman occupied Britain, the invasions and settlements of the Saxons and those ever pesky Vikings to the time of the English Civil War, Henry VIII and of course the omnipresence of Victorian England. Of course, as with anything to do with history, I was in heaven.

Funnily enough I had my first major cultural misunderstanding when I embarked on my first grocery shopping experience at Sainsburys (in the town centre). I had done my shopping, thought I had done pretty well on the price, and lined up to pay for for the reasonably extensive list of products. Well lo and behold I made two mistakes, firstly I noticed that the cashier for some inexpliciable reason was piling all my food at the end of the counter without packing it for me. She looked up at me, looking rather annoyed and asked me if I was going to get around to packing my food away. Needless to say the concept rather surprised me, but I set to as quickly as possible, all the while realising that I had delayed the line and people were going to be annoyed with silly old me. The 2nd mistake I made was to ask for some cash out with my purchase, the cashier looked at me blankly and asked me to repeat myself. I did, she looked at me blankly again, and I explained the concept further (feeling a little flustered by now it must be said). Finally she clicked and said, somewhat condescendingly, "Oh, you mean Cashback". Needless to say I have not made either of those mistakes again - I can be a quick learner at times after all...


Well that's it for the moment folks, I shall do another post soon describing the week following. This post will feature such highlights as the Notting Hill Carnival, the idyllic surrounds of the Thames River and the village of Pangbourne and finally, but certainly not least, a grand old time visiting Oxford.