Helping
Others
In the autumn of 2013 as I travelled the country to
tell the story of the discovery of the grave of King Richard III in a council
car park in Leicester, the interest in my 7.5 year research project was
overwhelming. The Looking For Richard Project had captured the public’s
imagination and succeeded in bringing a niche historical figure and period of
history to the attention of a global audience. The project had also succeeded
in removing many of the myths surrounding this medieval king, not least the well-established
story of his remains being thrown into the River Soar.
As my lecture tour took me through the Thames
valley, many people from Reading approached me to see if I could help. Their
town had a story to tell and an unfinished history. Residents of this often
overlooked commercial hub wanted to tell its historical story.
Philippa’s
Story
I had first visited Reading in 2005 when a friend
had moved to nearby Oxfordshire and suggested a trip to the retail hub. With my
expectations for a pretty ordinary shopping trip, my girlfriend, however, knew
exactly what she was doing. Knowing my passion for history, heritage and story,
we got off the train in Reading, walked into the town, and turned a corner. I
saw the Abbey Quarter and its gardens for the very first time. They took my
breath away. As we walked its ancient ruins, touched its standing stones and
delved into its past, visiting the gardens and the beautiful (Pugin) St James’
Church, we spent the entire day exploring its story. With all my preconceptions
about Reading – the commercial hub - now firmly set aside I left with an
overwhelming sense that it was an historic town that held a hidden gem in its
abbey, and the story of a forgotten king in the abbey’s founder, Henry I.
Sadly, a few years later, the ruins of Reading Abbey
were closed as the state of deterioration had made them too unsafe for
visitors. That, it seemed, was that but as Reading Borough Council now fought
to secure a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to restore and re-open the
ruins, and with this persuasive request from the residents of Reading, I now
needed to know; was its story really worth the telling?
Unlike Leicester where King Richard had been buried
in a small friary church of little note, here Henry I had been laid to rest
with all pomp and ceremony in the magnificent abbey he had founded as a royal
mausoleum and palace. Consecrated in 1164 by Thomas Beckett, the abbey quickly
established itself as a leading place of Pilgrimage and a religious powerhouse,
making Reading one of medieval England’s most important towns. Reputedly of a
basilica style construction almost the size of (medieval) St Paul’s, the abbey
would become one of the richest in England. Research now suggested that beneath
the ground lay the remnants of this Cluniac Norman Abbey and royal palace
which, unlike other great abbeys and cathedrals, had not been significantly
added to, with the only known addition being that of a Lady Chapel in 1314.
Could a research project bring this important, and potentially unique,
Romanesque structure back to life, and what stories could it then tell us about
its construction, architecture and royal founder, King Henry I of England (c.
1068-1135) who was buried in its midst?
And what of Henry himself, did he also have a story
to tell? Henry I is our forgotten king, his thirty-five-year reign falling
between that of his famous father, William the Bastard (Conqueror), and the
period of unrivalled bloodletting known as The Anarchy in the time of his
daughter, Matilda. Henry’s story, however, is yet to be told. A controversial
monarch, his narrative has many similarities to that of Richard III, being a
youngest son who rose to become king and who lost his queen, and son and heir
in tragic circumstances, throwing the country into a succession crisis.
However, despite having bastard sons a plenty, in an unprecedented move, Henry
named his daughter Matilda his heir in apparent recognition of her status and
equality. Known variously as Henry Beauclerc and the Lion of Justice, in these
vicious times Henry could be a harsh ruler but he also formalised our legal
system, introduced the modern Royal Exchequer and supported the first-ever
royal meritocracy in the rise of talented low-born individuals through his
appointments of courtly administrators. At the age of sixty seven he died in
France after reportedly eating a surfeit of lampreys and was the first monarch
to be embalmed so that his body could be transported back to Reading for
burial, sewn into a bull’s hide. Burial in his abbey at Reading had been the
king’s wish. He was also the only King of England known to have killed someone
when dead. Intrigued by his story? Yes, I was too.
It seemed to me that the people were right; Reading
did indeed have a fascinating and unique story to tell. Leaving my autumn 2013
lecture tour, I headed back to Reading to see for myself the closed ruins of
the once great abbey.
By the spring of 2014 any potential research project
to bring Reading’s abbey and historical story to life seemed insurmountable.
Three key landowners would have to be convinced and agree access, and as a
Scheduled Ancient Monument (SAM) site, Historic England (formerly English
Heritage) would also have to recognise the project’s potential to secure the
necessary permissions and any form of green light. Specialist advice locally
suggested that there was not much point in going any further as these
permissions were not likely to be forthcoming and there was nothing new to be
discovered, no new stories to tell. However, it
was now clear to me that Reading had an important story to tell and that the
potential to learn more about this little-known royal abbey was a significant
opportunity. Even if nothing new was found, that nothing would still move our
knowledge forward and help confirm, at the very least, the most recent thinking.
It wasn’t time to give up yet. The research looked good and we had a real
possibility of bringing the abbey to life through the first modern
comprehensive study and non-invasive analysis using Ground Penetrating Radar
(GPR) techniques.
From such inauspicious beginnings, everything would
soon change. One of the residents, who had originally
approached me in the autumn of 2013, now gave me the contact details of a much
respected local historian who had been researching the abbey for many years.
Meeting John Mullaney and his researcher wife, Lindsay, they agreed that
Reading had a unique story to tell and they too wanted to help make a research
project happen. Taking me to Father John O’Shea at St James’ Church, and the
representative of a key landowner in the Diocese of Portsmouth, I learnt about
his interest in its history and wish to know as much as possible about the
abbey, on whose land his beautiful church now stood. This key landowner was now
on board.
The
Hidden Abbey Project
By the late spring of 2014, I had officially named
the project to clarify its aim, and the first of many tentative meetings for
the Hidden Abbey Project (HAP) began. In a few short weeks, HAP found new
champions in Councillor Tony Page, Deputy Leader of Reading Borough Council and
councillor for the Abbey Ward, and Councillor Sarah Hacker, soon to be
Reading’s new mayor who would take the project forward under her leadership and
guidance. Reading Borough Council, another key landowner was on board as I now
made contact with the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), owners of Reading Gaol and the
last significant landowner, to introduce the project and open negotiations.
By the start of 2015, I had also met with Simon
Thurley, the CEO of English Heritage (now Historic England) who recognised the
project’s potential to help raise awareness and regenerate an important SAM
site. Simon put us in touch with Dr Andrew Brown, Planning Director South East
for Historic England in Guildford, the local office with jurisdiction for
Reading and its abbey. Andy could also see the potential but was very clear
that any research project would be a step-by-step process under their auspices
and guidance.
With the Hidden Abbey Project pitched to the
award-winning Darlow Smithson Productions, funding for the first phase GPR was
secured with the aim of making a documentary film about Reading’s royal abbey
for Channel 4.
By the late autumn of 2015 as the Chancellor George
Osborne announced the sale of Reading Gaol, the last key landowner, the MoJ,
came on board and the project finally reached critical mass. Two years after
the people of Reading had approached me, and with the team in Reading now
bringing in the local expertise to guide the research project forward, they
would now make this story their own.
In November 2015, Reading Borough Council secured
£1.77 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund to restore and reopen the ruins of
Reading Abbey through their Reading Abbey Revealed Initiative.
The Hidden Abbey Project gets underway in 2016,
Reading’s Year of Culture, with Phase One, a Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR)
survey of the abbey church building.
Philippa Langley is a
writer / producer who led the 2012 search for Richard III through her original
Looking For Richard Project. Having conceived and commissioned the search for
King Richard, she has since co-authored two books: The King’s Grave: The Search for Richard III (2013), and Finding Richard III: The Official Account
(2014) which details the research behind her search project that got Philippa
to the northern end of the Social Services car park in Leicester. In 2015, she
was awarded an MBE by HM The Queen.
For more information,
please visit: www.philippalangley.co.uk
‘With
thanks to Philippa Langley MBE who originated and facilitated the Hidden Abbey
Project for the historic town and people of Reading’.
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