Other current and historical names
Location and coordinates are for the approximate centre of Reading within this administrative area. Geographic features and populated places may cross administrative borders.
Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887). John Bartholomew
Reading.-- parl. and mun. bor., and co. town of Berks, on river Kennet, near its confluence with the Thames, 36 miles W. of London by rail - mun. bor., 2186 ac., pop. 42,054; parl. bor., pop. 46,054; 4 Banks, 4 newspapers. Market-days, Wednesday and Saturday. Reading was a town in Saxon times, was occupied by the Danes in 871, and has remains of a magnificent abbey founded by Henry I., who was buried within the precincts in 1135; was the frequent meeting-place of church councils and parliaments until 1466; and was fortified by the royalists, and besieged and taken by Essex, during the Civil War. The town is well laid out, and has some fine public buildings. Reading is the centre of a large agricultural district, and is also a great railway centre, while it has extensive water conveyance by the Thames and Kennet navigations; and it carries on an important trade in all kinds of agricultural produce, and in supplying the surrounding towns with goods. The industrial establishments include iron foundries, engine works, agricultural implement manufactories, flour mills, breweries, potteries, boat-building yards, a biscuit factory, and a seed emporium. Archbishop Laud (1573-1G45) was a native. Reading returns 1 member to Parliament; it returned 2 members from the time of Charles I. until 1885, when the parliamentary limits were extended.
A village in Reading hundred, in the county of Berkshire.
Three manors recorded in Domesday.
1st Manor
2nd Manor
3rd Manor