place

Reading Minster

Church of England church buildings in BerkshireChurches in Reading, BerkshireDiocese of OxfordGrade I listed buildings in ReadingGrade I listed churches in Berkshire
Use British English from February 2023
Reading Minster, church tower
Reading Minster, church tower

Reading Minster, or the Minster Church of St Mary the Virgin, is the oldest ecclesiastical foundation in the town of Reading, Berkshire, England. Although eclipsed in importance by the later Reading Abbey, Reading Minster regained its status after the destruction of the Abbey and is now an Anglican parish church. The minster gives its name to the street of St Mary's Butts, on which it stands. The Minster Church of St Mary the Virgin should not be mistaken for the similarly named St Mary's Church, Castle Street, which is only a few yards away.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Reading Minster (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Reading Minster
St Mary's Butts, Reading Coley

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Website External links Nearby Places
placeShow on map

Wikipedia: Reading MinsterContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 51.4545 ° E -0.97361111111111 °
placeShow on map

Address

Minster Church of St Mary the Virgin (Reading Minster)

St Mary's Butts
RG1 2LQ Reading, Coley
England, United Kingdom
mapOpen on Google Maps

Website
readingminster.org.uk

linkVisit website

linkWikiData (Q7300527)
linkOpenStreetMap (96032369)

Reading Minster, church tower
Reading Minster, church tower
Share experience

Nearby Places

Reading, Berkshire
Reading, Berkshire

Reading ( (listen) RED-ing) is a town and borough in Berkshire, England. Located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the rivers Thames and Kennet. Reading is 40 miles (64 km) east of Swindon, 24 miles (39 km) south of Oxford, 40 miles (64 km) west of London and 16 miles (26 km) north of Basingstoke. Reading is a major commercial centre, especially for information technology and insurance. It is also a regional retail centre, serving a large area of the Thames Valley with its shopping centres, including the Oracle, the Broad Street Mall, and the pedestrianised area around Broad Street. It is home to the University of Reading. Every year it hosts the Reading Festival, one of England's biggest music festivals. Reading has a professional association football team, Reading F.C., and participates in many other sports. Reading dates from the 8th century. It was an important trading and ecclesiastical centre in the Middle Ages, the site of Reading Abbey, one of the largest and richest monasteries of medieval England with strong royal connections, of which the 12th-century abbey gateway and significant ancient ruins remain. By 1525, Reading was the largest town in Berkshire, and tenth in England for taxable wealth. The town was seriously affected by the English Civil War, with a major siege and loss of trade, but played a pivotal role in the Glorious Revolution, whose only significant military action was fought on its streets. The 18th century saw the beginning of a major ironworks in the town and the growth of the brewing trade for which Reading was to become famous. The 19th century saw the coming of the Great Western Railway and the development of the town's brewing, baking and seed growing businesses, and the town grew rapidly as a manufacturing centre. Reading is also the county town of Berkshire.

St Mary's Church, Castle Street, Reading
St Mary's Church, Castle Street, Reading

St Mary's Church, Castle Street is an independent church within the Continuing Anglican movement. It is located in the town centre of Reading, in the English county of Berkshire, and is a few yards from the similarly named, but much older Minster Church of St Mary the Virgin. In 1798, there was a disagreement between the Bishop and the congregation of St Giles' Church in nearby Southampton Street. Many of the congregation left and founded a new chapel in Castle Street, on the site of Reading's old gaol. This chapel eventually became the Church of St Mary, Castle Street.The church is a Grade II* listed building. The original 1798 building was a simple Georgian building, but in 1840 the present hexastyle portico in Corinthian style was added by local architect and builder Henry Briant. The frontage is rendered in stucco while the capitals of the portico are probably formed of Coade stone.The church has one of Reading's best church interiors, with a late-18th-century gallery in 5 bays with marbled Doric ground floor and Ionic gallery columns. There is a modillion cornice to the coved central ceiling and a small projecting chancel with a bay for the mid-19th-century organ. The instrument, by Vowles of Bristol, is dated 1870, and was moved to St Mary's from Bristol in 1987. The church used to be lit by two mid-19th-century cast iron chandeliers.Today the church forms part of the Church of England (Continuing), a small group of four congregations outside the Church of England, self-identified on their website as "evangelical, reformed, Anglican".