TOUR OF ABBEY RUINS ON SATURDAY 22 OCTOBER 2005

After the picnic we went to see the conservation work that has been done on the Abbey Ruins.
Beginning at the crossing at the centre of the Abbey church we walked along the new gravel path down to the Kennet.
We talked about the new arch at the north end of the cloister supporting the flint wall above; was it too intrusive, would it weather to fit in?
We looked at the cloister walk where the Mayor of Reading's Abbey Ruins Appeal conservation had been done, seeing how the cloister walls had been constructed of an inner flint rubble core and an outer facing of limestone blocks, although these blocks had been pulled away in most places leaving a hollow in the rubble.
Under the Forbury Gardens Restoration Project conservation has been done on the dormitory wall and the Ruins south of the Chapter House, taking up where the Mayors Appeal left off. Here the wall had been built entirely of flint. We looked at the original courses of knapped flint, neatly one above the other.

We identified the putlog holes with the long limestone or flint upper stone to take the weight and keep the hole open for repeated inserts of the logs of the scaffolding for the building's maintenance.

Diagram of putlog hole

We compared them with the beam holes which have been roughly filled in after the beams had gone.

On our walk we took with us copies of the section along this stretch of wall drawn by Englefield in 1779, as viewed from the west:

There is little difference from today except that it shows a doorway just to the south of the stairway up to the monks sleeping quarters. This door is now filled with flints; it is more easily seen from inside the dormitory.
Just to the south of the door the Englefield drawing shows the wall apparently tilting down towards the river. We saw how the flint courses do indeed follow the ground level on this side. The same wall on the inside has the flint courses following the horizontal.
Finally we briefly considered the future of the Friends now that our main aim, the conservation of the Ruins, has been fulfilled.

Future aims might be:-

1. the monitoring of the maintenance of the Ruins
2. input into plans for the Abbey Gateway
3. continuing to promote Reading Abbey.

Leslie Cram, August 2005.