St Mary’s
St Mary’s in the Butts was Reading’s first church. As a
minster church, the vicar and clergy did not only look after the towns
people, but also ministered to the people who lived in what was then
the countryside around Reading.
There has probably been a church on the site of St Mary’s for
over a thousand years. The only part of the Norman church that is left
is a doorway in the north wall. Some of the church dates from around
1200 but the church was largely rebuilt in 1551 when stone was taken
from the abbey to give it its chequerboard pattern.
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