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- 1. Abingdon Abbey, Berkshire, England
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Former Benedictine Abbey. Nothing of the abbey church remains in situ, and the surviving abbey buildings all post- date the 12thc. In the Abbey Gardens, where the church once stood, is an artificial ruin constructed of fragments from the site. Reset in the S wall of this are the voussoirs described below.
- 2. Reading Abbey Mills, Reading, Berkshire, England
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Former corn-mill All that remains is a section of wall running N-S, pierced by three arches. They are described under section III.3.d. below.
- 3. St James RC church, Reading, Berkshire, England
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RC church St James’s stands on the site of the N transept of the Abbey church; now on Forbury Road immediately E of the Forbury Gardens. The original church of 1840, built of flint from designs by Pugin, consisted of an aisleless nave with a S sacristy off the E end, and a semicircular E apse. There was no tower, but a simple bell-turret on the W gable. A major enlargement by Wilfred Mangan of 1925-26 added a S aisle, a narthex (Pugin's doorway being moved west), and an ambulatory around the apse. The sacristy was extended eastwards at this time. Finally a N nave aisle was added by H. Bingham Towner, work completed in 1962. The complex also includes a Priest House, S of the church, and S of this a school (now Forbury Gardens Day Nursery), parallel and similar in form to the church, even to the bell-turret. Access is through an arch at the end of Abbot's Walk into a path running along the W side of the complex. Walls on either side of this path include reset abbey stones. The complex was built on the site of the N transept of the Abbey church, and two masses of rubble marking angles of the transept may be seen at the front of the Priest House. The S boundary wall of the school is built on the line of the N choir arcade, and includes two pier bases. A respond base, belonging to a N transept chapel, may be seen in the Priest House garden. All these remnants of abbey fabric still in situ are dealt with more fully in the entry on the abbey itself. The present entry describes two capitals inside St James's, one remodelled as a font, and fragments of carved stone from the abbey built into the external walls of the church, the Priest House and the walls of the path running along the W side of the group.
- 4. St Andrew, Sonning, Berkshire, England
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Parish church As it stands the church consists of a rectangular nave and chancel with N and S aisles throughout, the chancel aisles, slightly wider than those of the nave, forming chapels and a vestry. There are nave doorways covered by porches to N and S, and a W tower. The fabric is all of flint with ashlar dressings. The VCH identifies a complex building history beginning in the 13thc., but the overall visual effect is of Woodyer's extensive restoration of 1852. The interest of the church lies in the carved stones, presumably from Reading Abbey, set into the tower (which became unstable and was rebuilt at the Reformation), and in an elaborate pillar piscina, repositioned against a pier of the N arcade opposite the N doorway.
- 5. St James, Sotwell, Berkshire, England
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Chapel Aisleless nave and chancel with timber bell-turret capped by a short broach spire, all of 1883-84 by S.R.Stevenson. It incorporates several features from the church demolished in 1883, among which are a reset 12thc. respond capital and a reset chip-carved window head.
- 6. All Saints, Sutton Courtenay, Berkshire, England
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Parish church The present church has a 13thc. chancel, a 4-bay nave of c.1300 and a 12thc. W tower of two storeys, the first divided by a string course at the level of the apex of the W doorway, to which a Perpendicular third storey was added. Inside the nave, however, the first bay of the S arcade is a pointed arch constructed from a carved semicircular arch of greater span, which Pevsner suggests was the 12thc. chancel arch. The present c.1300 chancel arch is supported on 12thc. responds and capitals.
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