Reading Abbey

Important Visitors: the Effect on the Town

For the servants of the Abbey these meetings of Parliament, royal visits and church assemblies provide a challenge of organization. All have to be fed and provided with a place to sleep. There are not only those officially involved but at least an equal number of attendants. The bakehouse and brewhouse are working overtime for days before and extra stores are laid in. The Hospitium can take some of the visitors but with Parliament coming many have to find their own accommodation in the town. The Stables by the South Gate are full and the Abbot's retinue is stretched to the limit looking after the king and queen and the highest in the land. In the town we can imagine the clatter of horses hooves as attendants ride in ahead of their masters, eager to book accommodation for them in the inns or bed and breakfast in the houses when the inns are full.

Prices are quoted higher and higher as the demand for rooms increases, haggling at the low doorways under the upper storeys of the timber framed houses jutting out into the streets, the stabling of horses in the yards behind, excitement and profit for this thatch-roofed town. And relief when the visitors are gone and the leisurely pace of everyday life can be resumed, but with topics of conversation to last for weeks ahead. For the monks everyday services and routine go on as best they can and they too welcome the return to normality. All these events highlight the status of Reading during the time of the Abbey, a place of national and international importance.

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