The Abbey Site: Modern Times
But the Abbey site was still not safe from the effects of war. Prisoners-of-war were kept in the gaol to the east of the Church during World War I. In 1943 the worst air-raid of World War II on Reading, in which 41 people were killed, dropped bombs across the west of the site and damaged St. Laurence's Church which had been built by the monks at their West Gate to serve as the parish church for the people in this part of the town. And the Forbury Gardens now hold the memorials to those citizens of Reading who died serving in the wars.
Such then are the dramas which have been acted out on the Abbey site for over 1,000 years. For 400 of these years the great Abbey dominated the town, a period as long as the time since the Abbey ceased to be. In the coming pages we will visit in imagination the various buildings of the Abbey as they were and meet the people who lived, worked and visited there. And we will follow the fate of the Abbey to see what remains of it for us today.
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Photograph showing the devastation caused by the bombing
raid of 1943 -St Laurence's church can be seen on the right.
(1988.9.107)
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