Reading Abbey

The People of Reading: Disputes

So the Abbey provided for the health, education and prosperity of the townsfolk. Nevertheless there was intermittent conflict between the elders of the town and the Abbot. Before 1121 the 'vi11' as it was then termed had borough status and was responsible to the king as its lord, with part under the control of the monks at Battle Abbey near Hastings (a connection still remembered in names such as Battle Hospital). But the elders, the well-to do merchants, elected their own headman to govern the town. 

With the coming of the Abbey to Reading the king transferred the lordship to the Abbot on its doorstep and the Abbot's wish was for himself to choose the headman, now called the Warden of the Guild of Merchants or, after 1300, the Mayor. Over the years both sides took their case to the royal courts over who had the right to elect the Mayor. In 1498 the Guild of Merchants disregarded the Abbot over the choice and made their own election but in 1507 the compromise previously agreed was reaffirmed whereby the Guild put forward three candidates and the Abbot made the final selection from these. The conflict between ruling townsfolk and Abbot occurred in many other places in Britain but Reading was special in continuing to badger the Abbot and achieving this compromise. Everywhere else the Abbot won the upper hand.

The confrontations between Abbot and ruling merchants took place in the Inner Gateway which stood between the Forbury area open to the public and the monks' area with the Abbot's House. Here in the long gallery over the archway the two sides met. This Gateway continued in use after the Abbey was dissolved. In the later 18th century it housed the Abbey School for Girls whose renowned pupil, Jane Austen, was taught here for a time.

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