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Tudor Reading (1485-1603)

At the beginning of the Tudor period, Reading was a busy prosperous town. People either worked for the Abbey or for one of the crafts that were in the town, these being cloth and leather working.

The town received new charters during Tudor times. Henry VII, Henry VIII and Elizabeth all gave a new charter, which made the town even more independent. With the break up or dissolution of the Abbey (and GreyFriars) in the 1540's, the town finally gained control over its own business, with no abbot to interfere. The Abbey was soon robbed of its treasures and its best stone, and the Council used first Greyfriars then the Abbey Hospitium as a meeting place. Greyfriars was then turned into a workhouse and a prison.

The town lost much income with the dissolution of the Abbey, as there was much trade in the town from the monks and from the visitors to the abbey. Pilgrimage to the abbey had been slowly going down before it was destroyed.