The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
Reading (now)
Hospital, former
The former Hospitium of St John stands to the north of St Laurence's Church, at the edge of the churchyard. The north aisle of the church formerly served as the hospital's chapel. The building is of flint and limestone rubble with ashlar facings, and several carved stones, presumably from the abbey, are incorporated into the rubble walls.
Parish church
St Laurence's is in the centre of Reading, originally standing beween the W gate of the Abbey and the Hospitium of St John. It now faces Friar St with the Town Hall to the N. It consists of a nave with a N aisle only, a chancel with a N chapel and a 16thc. W tower. Construction is of flint. The original church on the site may have been early 12thc., but according to VCH all that remains standing of this is the S nave wall, the lower part of the tower S wall and a window reset in the SW of the nave. The foundation of the Hospitium of St John in 1196 may have acted as a spur to enlarge the church by demolishing the old tower to extend the nave, and at the same time new N and S doorways were added. The S is still in place, and fragments from the N are set in a blocked arch in the N nave aisle. The N aisle itself and the chancel chapel apparently followed in the 13thc. The N arcade was rebuilt in 1522, and the church was repaired and reseated by Joseph Morris of Reading in 1867-69. Late 12thc. sculpture is found on the S nave doorway and in a blocked arch in the N aisle wall, but more interesting is the folly in the churchyard NE of the church, centred on the former W window of St Laurence's but also including carved stones from the Reading Abbey site.
Parish church
A large flint and ashlar church with an aisled nave, the aisles extending some way along the chancel. The S aisle is an addition of 1878, and in this year the W tower was also rebuilt. The chancel has a N vestry and was extended in 1924–25 by Ninian Comper. There is a 12thc. S doorway under a porch, and the font might also be Romanesque. Finally the N aisle wall incorporates a variety of reused material including a stone carved with chevron.
Museum
Reading abbey stones
1. Holme Park, Sonning (Keyser)
In 1912 Charles Keyser was engaged in excavating the site of the palace of the bishops of Salisbury on the Holme Park estate, Sonning. While the excavations were in progress, Keyser took the opportunity to look around the house (now Reading Blue Coat School) and its gardens about a quarter of a mile away, and he noticed some Norman capitals lying about in the flower-beds. He soon discovered that the stones had not been in the gardens at Holme Park for very long, but had come there from an outlying part of the estate called Borough Marsh, some two miles down the Thames. He obtained the owners' consent to remove them from Holme Park, and by 1916 the fifteen capitals and two voussoirs had been deposited in Reading Museum. Keyser (1916) illustrated all the stones, and numbered the capitals from 1 to 15. He did not number the voussoirs.
2. Shiplake House
In 1889, twelve voussoirs and fourteen double springers were erected by the Rt. Hon. Sir Walter Phillimore, Bart. to form an arch over the path between Shiplake House and the church, and a decorative coping on top of the wall to either side. Keyser discovered their provenance while he was at Sonning. One Mr Palmer, the owner of Holme Park estate at some time in the late 19thc., had paid a visit to Borough Marsh and interrupted two young men in a punt who were busy removing several carved stones which were in use as steps leading up from a landing place on the island. The young men had come from Shiplake House, which faces Borough Marsh across the Thames, and Mr Palmer gave them permission to carry the stones away on condition that they did not take any more. The stones were seen in situ at Shiplake by Keyser, and he numbered them (Keyser (1916)) according to their positions: the voussoirs from 1 to 12 counting from the left of the arch; the springers from 1 to 7 from right to left along the wall to the right of the arch, and from 1 to 7 from right to left along the wall to the left of the arch. These identifying numbers are given in the entry headings below. He also noted three carved stones built into the wall but did not illustrate them. The voussoirs and double springers were purchased by Reading Borough Council from Col. Phillimore in 1977, when they were dismantled and removed to the museum.
3.Borough Marsh (CL#)
In view of the discoveries described above, Keyser visited Borough Marsh and was attracted by signs of a ruined building which led him to the opinion that excavations at Borough Marsh might result in more finds, but the Great War intervened and he was never able to carry out his plans. In 1948, George Zarnecki of the Courtauld Institute of Art was alerted to the presence of carved stones at Borough Marsh Farm similar to those forming the Shiplake arch. The owner of the farm generously gave the stones to the Courtauld Institute. In fact, Borough Marsh Farm was not the site that had attracted Keyser's attention thirty years before, but this did not become apparent until Dr Wilfred Bowman, owner of Barn Acre Cottage, Borough Marsh, built himself some new gate-posts using carved stones he had found in his garden. News of these stones quickly reached Zarnecki in London, and in the autumn of 1948 he led a group of staff and students from the Courtauld Institute to Barn Acre Cottage.
What he found left him in no doubt that he had found the site that Keyser had hoped to excavate. The garden was bounded by the River Loddon, and its level had been artificially raised by a 16thc. embankment wall to prevent flooding and soil erosion. Some of the fabric of this wall was reused 12thc. stone, clearly from Reading Abbey. In the garden of Barn Acre Cottage, Zarnecki's team also uncovered the foundations of a building complex, made of brick reinforced with stone.
Zarnecki's excavation at Barn Acre Cottage brought to light some sixty carved stones, including two of the four great corner springers which marked the angles of the cloister arcade.
The stones were generously given to the Courtauld Institute by Dr Bowman, and after cleaning they were lodged in the Victoria and Albert Museum until such time as they could be accommodated in the Reading Museum. Plans for a new museum building were approved by Reading Corporation in 1973, and in the same year the Courtauld Institute Management Committee accepted Zarnecki's proposal that the stones be transferred from the V and A to Reading as a gift to the museum. The transfer was completed on 16th. October 1975. These stones were marked "CL" followed by a digit (for Courtauld Loan), and these identifications are given in the entry headings below.
4.Avebury Manor
A capital at Avebury Manor, Wiltshire, carved with men and dragons, which had been taken there from a garden in Reading was first examined by Zarnecki in 1959 and proved to be another Reading Abbey cloister capital. After lengthy negotiations it was purchased by Reading Museum for the sum of £6,250 (including a grant of £1,000 from the National Art Collections Fund) in 1971.
5.Twyford
Three further pieces, a double springer carved with birds, a lion capital and a bird beakhead voussoir, were purchased by Zarnecki from a private collector in Twyford, Berkshire, and offered to the museum on loan on 2. September 1971. They have now joined the other fragments in Reading Museum.
6. Plummery wall
7.Forbury Gardens rockery
8.Wall to west of St James's church
9.Unprovenanced fragments
By and large the museum has been assiduous in keeping records of provenance, but in 1993 when all the stones were at last moved into the enlarged premises in the Town Hall it was discovered that there were several which had been in store for many years for which no provenance was known. They may have been there for many years: Keyser (1916) refers to "a few (stones) in the Reading Museum dug up in various parts of the town."
Roman Catholic 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 wall in front of the complex. Facing this wall is the E wall of the Forbury Gardens, and stones reset there are described in th entry for the Forbury Gardens.
Private house
35 London Street, now (4 November 2013) the headquarters of R.I.S.C., is a terraced house of three storeys with a large basement extending under the road. It now boasts an imposing baroque facade. The fragments of sculpture here described were discovered built into the fabric of the first floor and basement during a major restoration of the building in 1997. The stones were found in two locations: (i) built into a wall on the first floor, and (ii) built into walls in the basement. Details of the location of each stone are given below, but they are all described under the heading of loose sculpture, since it is intended that they should be removed from their present locations for display in the public areas of the building.
Public park
Forbury Gardens is a public park occupying part of the area of the abbey nave and the precinct. It is bounded by Forbury Road on the N, the Forbury on the W, Abbots Walk on the S and St James's RC church, Priest House and former school to the E. The park was formally laid out in 1857-59 and a tunnel connecting the park with the abbey ruuins was constructed towards the end of that period, at the SE corner of the park. Abbey material found during the construction work was incorporated into various structures in and around the park: the Forbury arch that covers the tunnel linking the park and the ruins; a grotto in the NE angle of the park; and the outside of the E wall of the park. This faces the W wall of the complex that includes St James's RC church, and carved stones set in that are included in the report on St James, Reading.
Parish church, formerly Minster
W tower, four-bay aisled nave, chancel aisled on the S side only. The S nave arcade dates from the late 12thc. The tower is largely 16thc., having been rebuilt after a storm in 1593/94, and contains 12thc. moulded stones taken from the abbey. The history of the N aisle is a complex one. There was a N transept in the 14thc., in which the Jesus Chantry was housed, but the N nave aisle which it now terminates was not added until 1872. In 1918 a small chapel, the St Edward's or War Memorial Chapel, was built out from the N wall of the aisle. The chancel was extended and given its S aisle in 1863. This S chancel aisle was originally a Lady Chapel, but is now a candle shop. The only 12thc. sculpture is on the capitals of the S nave arcade.
Benedictine house, former
The abbey was begun in 1121 under the patronage of Henry I, the choir of the church must have been complete by January 1136, when Henry was buried there. It was dedicated by Archbishop Becket in the presence of Henry II in 1164, by which time it must have been substantially complete. A Lady Chapel was added at the E end in 1314 by Abbot Nicholas of Whaplode (1305–28). More details of the history of the abbey will be found in section VII below.
The earliest record of the dismantling of the abbey dates from 1548, when an estimate of the volume of lead on the roof was made. From the following year we have a set of accounts kept by George Hynde, an official in the service of the Court of Augmentations, giving details of receipts of money from people buying pieces of the abbey fabric, payments to carpenters and labourers who worked in the demolition, and expenditure for such materials as ropes, chisels and crowbars. At about the same time as this piecemeal disposal of second-hand building material and, shortly afterwards, three major building projects benefitted from the availability of the abbey fabric. Between 1550 and 1553 the Parish Church of St Mary's, Reading was rebuilt, and the churchwardens' account reveal that the choir of the abbey church was taken down at this time; piers were removed and reused in St Mary's; timber and lead were stripped from the roofs and other fabric including a rose window, the cloister door and various loads of stone and tiles were taken away for the rebuilding. For the construction of the Poor Knights' Lodging near St George's Chapel, Windsor around 1557, Caen stone was taken from the abbey by water, and to judge from the accounts the masons concentrated on 'the greate stones of the dores and windowes in the Chappell of our Lady', and on stones (presumably ashlar blocks) dug out of the walls. In 1562, Queen Elizabeth granted the the mayor and burgesses of Reading the right to remove 200 loads of stone from the abbey for the repair of 19 ruinous bridges in the borough.
By the end of the 16thc., then, the cloister arcade was gone, the church was roofless and probably lacked most of its choir. Most of the Lady Chapel may still have been standing, although ashlar had been removed from its walls and window and door surrounds. In 1643 Reading was the site of an action in the Civil War which had further serious effects on the abbey. The town was held for the king by Sir Arthur Aston, with 3,000 men and 300 horse. The garrison was beseiged for ten days by a Parliamentary force of 16,000 men and 3,000 horse, under the Earl of Essex. Defensive works were raised, consisting of a rampart with a ditch running across the cloister from S to N, terminating in a hornwork which occupied a large part of the nave of the church. Stone for the construction of the rampart came, of course, from the abbey, and further damage was caused during the ten days of bombardment necessary to obtain the surrender of the town.
The only record of note relating to the destruction of the abbey during the 18thc. dates from 1754, when General Conway used stone from the abbey to build a bridge at Park Place, Henley. In 1831 a building scheme was proposed which would have destroyed the ruins completely. This involved using the materials of the abbey for road-building. The scheme was rejected by the town council, and in its place a public subscripton was raised to buy the remaining portions of the ruins for the town. This did not put an end to the destruction, however, because the construction of both the Roman Catholic church of St James (opened in 1840) and the new County Gaol (in 1843) involved demolition of parts of the abbey fabric (the N transept and what remained of the choir and Lady Chapel respectively). Since the 19thc. restoration and consolidation of the standing remains has periodically been carried out, and a degree of legal protection was gained in 1914 when they were scheduled as an ancient monument.
In 2003 Reading Borough Council was awarded a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to restore the Victorian character of the Forbury Gardens and to continue the specialist conservation work on the ruins. The work will mainly be done in 2004, with a completion target of 2005. The plan of the church has recently been elucidated by Stuart Harrison and the present author, on the basis of the standing remains, the surveys of H. Englefield (1789), J. C. Buckler (1823–24), F. Albury (1880) and the Ordnance Survey (1875); and the excavation of C. Slade at the E end (1971–73). It had a nave of nine bays, an unaisled transept with two E chapels on either arm, the inner S chapel (known as the Founder's Chapel) being deeper than the others. The presbytery had three straight bays with an ambulatory and three radiating chapels. In effect, both the nave and the presbytery are a bay longer than the description implies because of the elongation of the crossing piers to E and W.
Standing remains: S transept and presbytery:
Only a fragment of this once-great abbey has survived. The main body of the S transept is the most substantial part of the church that has survived and it retains substantial evidence for the articulation of the walls. The main surviving elements are a large part of the W wall and part of the S wall. These walls are massive and impressive but it should be borne in mind that they have lost at least half of their original height. The ashlar has largely been stripped but in the lower parts, which have not been conserved it is possible to read the robbed core and recover details of the design. The outline of the main ashlar blocks can easily be observed, to the extent that with a technique such as photogrammetry it would be possible to recover the precise jointing and possible to recognise individual variations that might show building breaks.
The differences in wall plane are reflected in the depth of the robbing and these show that the transept was divided into three bays. From the SW corner, where the low course of ashlar survives, the details of the W wall show that the three bays were divided by wide pilasters of three orders and the central section of each of the two S bays was deeply recessed and pierced with a very large window. This arrangement suggests that these recesses formed giant order arches that framed the windows. Unfortunately the surviving walling is of insufficient height to show positively if this was the case. The remains of the windows show that they employed several orders of shafts and presumably arch mouldings in the heads but unfortunately though the remains are very tall no trace of the arch heads remains. Internally there are small remains of ashlar bases at sill level. A horizontal robbing shows that these stood on a string course. The N bay has a different form of articulation because it adjoined the S nave aisle. Here the S respond of the arch into the nave aisle survives, though robbed, together with the springing of the arch it carried. This is notably of stilted form. In the S wall of the transept the robbed core clearly shows that the bay articulation of the W wall was repeated with a central pilaster and a recess at each side. There are no traces of windows because of the three-storey slype to the S but presumably windows were provided in the lost uppermost part of the wall.
The eastern side of the transept retains part of the eastern apse of the Founder's Chapel together with part of its forebay. It adjoined the S aisle of the presbytery where the wall retains evidence for the height of the aisle respond piers and the springing for the vaults in the robbed corework. To the W side of the remaining vault springing there is a small section of two courses of ashlar walling which abut and retain the curve of the vault web but also another curve on its W edge which indicates that it abutted another arch on that side. This, and the recess in the wall core, suggests that the aisle bays featured large arched recesses that framed the windows. Opposite this aisle respond is the surviving circular presbytery pier base. Only the S half is visible clearly showing a half-cylindrical attached shaft towards the aisle. The evidence in the S presbytery aisle wall also shows the robbed outline of a similar shaft, six metres high.
In the Founder's Chapel the windows are large and retain stepping for the multiple orders of the jambs and arch heads, suggesting that they were considerably embellished. The remains of the responds at the entrance to the apse show multiple stepping, indicating numerous orders to the shafts; two on the W side and four on the east. On the E side some of these are angled to accommodate the curve of the apse wall. The S respond has a cut-back stone at the arch springing which must have been the tail-stone of the capital abacus. The intermediate responds set around the apse, which must have carried ribs for vaulting are also of several orders which suggest that the recessed arches observed in the presbytery aisles were also featured in the chapel. That this was the case is confirmed by three courses of ashlar vault web above the N respond of the apse, on its W side. This is set so far N into the wall that it must have been associated with a deep arched recess. On the S wall a small fragment of ashlar retains a curved abutment for the vault on its east side with two narrow tapered courses of ashlar vault web and on the W side a curved edge for the abutment to the arched recess. Externally the chapel retains a deep robbing, nearly a metre high for a large plinth course and at the base of the windows another for a string course. The surviving robbing of the plinth shows that it was composed of seven courses of stone. The buttresses are marked by broad stepped projections in the corework with a narrower angle buttress between the chapel and the S presbytery aisle wall. The surviving window heads and jambs are articulated in stepping for two external nook shafts and arch orders.
To the S of the Founder's Chapel there are the low remains of another which did not project as far to the east. Sufficient remains on its N ern side to show that the apse was divided into three bays like the Founder's Chapel and also featured a deep wall recess. Its S wall has a large squared rubble base for a massive stair turret that gave access to the upper parts of the church and the treasury above the slype.
N transept:
The N transept retains a small section of its W wall and a massive collapsed articulated section of walling at its N W corner. This has evidently fallen from the superstructure and lies tilted over at an angle. Unfortunately it retains no features that could add to the details of the building. In the back garden of the Priest's House of St James's Church a large section of the N presbytery aisle wall stands to a considerable height. Though largely robbed of ashlar it retains a single base for a semicircular respond shaft on its S side. This base has angle spurs and stands on a wall bench. The quality of carving is extremely good and the ashlar joints very fine. North of this is the inner chapel of the transept and this is of polygonal plan with the lowest courses of ashlar in situ. These indicate the former presence of single shafts at the angled intersections of the canted walls of the chapel. The deep robbing above the ashlar strongly indicates the former presence of arched recesses in the main walls. The adjoining N chapel has been overbuilt by an extension to the Priest's House.
Nave and crossing:
The remains of the nave are restricted to part of the eastern bay of the S aisle wall and the SW crossing pier. The aisle wall retains the E cloister processional doorway that was an arch of great magnificence, to judge from the stepped robbing of the jambs and head that are present on both sides. It is set into a projecting frame of masonry in order to accommodate the depth of the doorway. Small sections of ashlar remain at the bottom including worn bases on the N–W side.
Above the doorway and set to E of it is a window that has lost its arch head. It retains worn bases for jamb shafts on the exterior. Its unusual position is related to the internal bay spacing and the vaulting over the first nave aisle bay. The SW crossing pier is so large that it extends well into the nave and because of this the vaulting had to be adjusted. On its W side it retains the main arcade respond base which has a semicircular moulded base standing on a tall polygonal sub-base. This suggests that like the presbytery piers, those of the nave were also cylindrical. The sheer size of the crossing piers suggests that they were intended from the start to carry a substantial high tower. This, following the usual Romanesque pattern, would probably have comprised a large open lantern, to light the monks' choir below and a belfry stage above. The S respond of the arch into the transept from the S nave aisle remains as a robbing with indications of multiple shafts. The capitals were set at the same height as those in the presbytery, six metres high, and indicate that the nave arcades retained the same proportions as the eastern arm. The arch springing above is stilted, showing that it must have been round-headed and on the W side retains the curve of the vault web. This has a distinct flat along its angled face indicating the former presence of a vault rib.
Cloister and monastic buildings:
The cloister occupies the angle between nave and S transept, the surviving doorway at the E end of the S nave aisle communicating with its NE angle. All traces of the cloister arcading had already vanished when Stewkley drew it in 1721, and indeed evidence from the accounts published by Preston (1935) suggest that it was entirely demolished in 1549. The central area is now occupied by a formal garden. The E walk is occupied by the slype, the chapter house and the dormitory range, which extends S beyond the cloister square, its W wall continuing the line of the E walk as far as the rere dorter which survives in a ruinous state on the N bank of the Kennet. On the S walk is the refectory. Nothing of the W range survives.
Slype:
Adjoining the S transept is the slype, a long narrow passage that was formerly covered by a barrel vault. Only the springing remains in the sidewalls with traces of the floor above on the S side. Here there are the lowest courses of the ashlar facing which may represent a bench. At a higher level there is a second springing for the vault that covered the treasury at first-floor level. It has been assumed in the past that this was also a barrel vault but the evidence on the N wall suggests that it may have been of quadrant form. Above the treasury the upper level of the S transept retain traces of an external buttress at its SW corner.
Chapter House:
The chapter house was one of the most imposing buildings in the abbey. It was entered from the cloister through a central doorway that is flanked by two round-headed windows. These have lost their original sills and much of the jamb detail has been lost in clumsy conservation. No doubt they and the doorway featured numerous orders of shafts on their jambs, features which are reflected in the stepped outlines of their robbed arch heads. Some form of plate tracery probably subdivided them. Above the doorway and flanking window there is a tier of three windows, which have stepped robbing to their jambs and arch heads. The central window was apparently taller and though the arch head has been lost, this is confirmed by several antiquarian drawings.
Internally the room is very wide and retains traces of the wall benches on the sidewalls. It was divided into four bays, up to the chord of the apse by large pilasters. These remain as undulations in the wall cores and were over a metre wide. The main span was covered by a large barrel vault that Englefield said employed tufa to lighten the loading. It was decorated with transverse ribs springing from the pilasters and traces of these still remain as marks in the surviving vault springing. The barrel vault stopped at the chord of the apse where it was finished with a vertical east face. Around the eastern apse there are traces of four pilaster responds that are narrower than those which articulated the barrel vault in the side walls. They must have carried ribs that sprang up to converge on a central point against the east face of the barrel vault. There was a string course on which stood large windows in each apse bay. One survives relatively intact and shows that they were round-headed and of three stepped orders with jamb shafts. The height they rise shows that the cells of the apse vault were steeply ploughshared in form to avoid the window heads.
There is no trace of the internal wall arcades that were often a feature of large Romanesque chapter houses. Had they ever been present they would surely have left evidence of the voussoirs in the wall cores, which show only level bedded horizontal coursing. It may be that the walls were simply painted with arcades or that they were decorated with chevrons and other similar abstract patterns, like the chapter house at Bristol. Externally the apse was articulated by buttresses, centred with the internal responds that were just over a metre wide. There was a plinth nearly a metre deep that must have had multiple stepping or chamfered courses.
Dormitory range:
S of the chapter house the site slopes quite steeply and the S wall retains the scars for a vaulted passage through the range. High up in the chapter house S wall there is a doorway that seems to give access to a small chamber within the thickness of the wall. The E wall of the range has completely gone but the ground floor of the W wall is relatively intact. It has been badly consolidated so that it presents a virtually uniform pattern of flint facework. The sloping ground level suggests that the range must have been terraced with additional vaulted cellarage towards the S, so that it was two storeys at the N end and three at the S. There is no trace of there ever having been any sort of passage over the chapter house vault to a night stair into the S transept and it must have been the case that the monks walked through the cloister from the dormitory to the church. The W wall of the range retains part of a mural stair, in the thickness of the wall that may have given access to the dormitory. The stair rose up and gave access to a room on the first floor of the S range and from there through another doorway up into the dormitory. This arrangement may have served as both a day and night staircase. Similar mural daystairs are known from Chester Abbey and St Mary's Abbey at York.
Refectory:
The refectory was a large building occupying the main part of the S range of the cloister. It was separated from the E range on the ground floor by a through passage or dark entry. Antiquarian drawings show that the refectory walls were covered in two tiers of arched wall arcades. Little now survives of this once splendid building except at the E end where a small section of the S wall remains. It shows that in contrast to the church that was wholly built in ashlar, the refectory was built in rubblestone and flints. Traces of the lower wall arcade remains where the voussoirs and capitals have been extracted from the walls to leave ragged arched chases. There are some small traces of the upper arcading but they are very slight.
Other buildings:
Outside the monastic enclosure, part of the Hospitium of St John survives behind the Town Hall. To the S of the monastic enclosure, the Abbey Mill straddles the Holy Brook. These have separate entries in the database. Finally there is the Inner Gateway of the abbey, which now stands on Abbot's Walk. In its present state it is the work of a restoration by Sir George Gilbert Scott which began in 1860 and was completed only in 1900 by the carving of various heads, animals and foliage capitals.
Romanesque sculpture:
Sculpture on the site is confined to stones which have been reset in various parts of the ruins. These are described in section IV.5.c below. The bulk of the Reading Abbey material is in Reading Museum and Art Gallery, but other stones are in St Lawrence's churchyard, the Forbury Gardens, the Hospitium of St John, St James's RC church, the covering of the Holy Brook, and 35 London Street (all Reading), and at St Andrew's, Sonning.
Corn-mill
All that remains is a section of wall running N-S, pierced by three arches.