Day 104 - Reading about Reading

After our eventful weekend in the Portsmouth area, it was time for us to take Alex back to Moreton-in-Marsh. We didn't plan on doing anything except take the train and relax when we got back. So today I thought I'd write a little about Reading -- not the reading of the 3 Rs, but the city that has been our main junction for our train travels since we arrived in England last September (and pronounced "red - ing"|).

As a major rail station, Reading receives train lines from the northwest (Manchester), the north (Edinburgh and Newcastle), our line which has its origins at Hereford, Wales (Cardiff), and the west country (Bristol). It's the ninth busiest railway station in the UK and the second busiest interchange outside of London.

Reportedly, Reading began as an Anglo-Saxon settlement in the 8th century and is named after "Readingas," which means "Reada's people" in Old English.  The earliest records indicate the Danes battled the English tribes led by King Ethelred and Alfred the Great in and aroun, 870 A.D. They were able to stay in this area for some time but when William the Conqueror invaded England in 1066 he eventually made it to the Reading area where he established control. Eventually his fourth son became King Henry I who founded the Reading Abbey in 1121 and his remains are buried on the grounds of the Abbey, although the Abbey was destroyed by Henry VIII in 1538 and its Abbot was drawn and quartered in front of the Abbey church (ugh).


The Thames River runs through Reading as does the River Kennet, and this confluence made the city a river transport hub for the industrial revolution in the 1800s, with a canal that allowed products to be shipped to Bristol and to London. Manufacturing became a significant industry for the area given the transportation links then and through to today. The city now hosts the UK operations of many global companies, such as Microsoft, Cisco, and Oracle, to name a few.

With its history we should really stop to check it out, but Reading still remains to us a gateway to more interesting areas.

Ale of the Day: Hoppit Classic Bitter, Loddon Brewery, Dunsden, Oxfordshire