4 Katesgrove

3 St Giles' Church

St Giles Church was one of the three original churches of Reading. The church that you can see now was altered in Victorian times by JP St Aubyn although St Giles dates back at least as far as 1191 when it came under the control of Reading Abbey. During the English Civil War the church was badly damaged. The royalists had put a cannon on top of the tower, and incoming balls aimed at this cannon hit the church.

Unlike the other two churches, it was on the south bank of the River Kennet, so that the people who lived in the southern part of the town could still go to church even when the river was in flood and it was impossible to cross. The original town was in the shape of a triangle, with each of the churches roughly in a corner. Reading grew up at the lowest point that the River Kennet could be crossed. At the bottom of the slight hill is that original crossing place. Towards this crossing place came roads from north, south, east and west, from Oxford, Southampton, Bristol and London. This crossroads became the natural place for a town to be started, and Reading was born. These old roads are still there today. St Giles church is on Southampton Street, and just up the hill the road towards London turns left along first Crown Street and then London Road. After crossing the river, the road towards Oxford continues straight up St Mary's Butts, while the road towards Bristol turns left up Castle Hill.