A brief History of Reading

Reading was founded in the 6th century by Saxon people who had travelled up the Rivers Thames and Kennet until they came to a place suitable for a camp. Here where it was possible to ford the River Kennet a permanent settlement grew, becoming Christian with the first church probably on the site of St Mary´s.

After the Norman conquest the Domesday book shows Reading as a typical small town. The founding of the Abbey in 1121 changed the fortunes of the town, and the Abbey and the Wool Trade made the town wealthy. In Tudor times, the dissolution of the abbey and the decline of wool made the town poorer, despite the efforts of John Kendrick and the building of the first Oracle. The Civil War in the 1640´s sealed the fate of the wool trade.

In Georgian times, the town became richer once more as a market town on good routes. The roads were improved and the Kennet was linked by canal to Bristol. Transport became even more important in Victorian times, with the Great Western Railway passing through the town. The good transport links helped companies such as Huntley and Palmers and Sutton Seeds to grow and need more workers, making the town become larger.

The 20th Century saw a gradual change from a landscape of factories where things were made to a town with a large number of headquarter office blocks and high tech industries. The M4 motorway was built passing the town, making more good transport links.

'Reading' is a complex cognitive process of decoding symbols for the intention of deriving meaning (reading comprehension) and/or constructing meaning. It is the mastery of basic cognitive processes to the point where they are automatic so that attention is freed for the analysis of meaning.

Reading is a means of language acquisition, of communication, and of sharing information and ideas. Like all language, it is a complex interaction between the text and the reader which is shaped by the reader’s prior knowledge, experiences, attitude, and language community which is culturally and socially situated. The reading process requires continuous practices, development, and refinement.

Readers use a variety of reading strategies to assist with decoding (to translate symbols into sounds or visual representations of speech) and comprehension. Readers may use morpheme, semantics, syntax and context clues to identify the meaning of unknown words. Readers integrate the words they have read into their existing framework of knowledge or schema (schemata theory).

Other types of reading are not speech based writing systems, such as music notation or pictograms. The common link is the interpretation of symbols to extract the meaning from the visual notations.

[edit] Overview

Currently most reading is either of the printed word from ink or toner on paper, such as in a book, magazine, newspaper, leaflet, or notebook, or of electronic displays, such as computer displays, television, mobile phones or ereaders. Handwritten text may also be produced using a graphite pencil or a pen. Short texts may be written or painted on an object.

Often the text relates to the object, such as an address on an envelope, product info on packaging, or text on a traffic or street sign. A slogan may be painted on a wall. A text may also be produced by arranging stones of a different color in a wall or road. Short texts like these are sometimes referred to as environmental print.

Sometimes text or images are in relief, with or without using a color contrast. Words or images can be carved in stone, wood, or metal; instructions can be printed in relief on the plastic housing of a home appliance, or a myriad of other examples.

A requirement for reading is a good contrast between letters and background (depending on colors of letters and background, any pattern or image in the background, and lighting) and a suitable font size. In the case of a computer screen, not having to scroll horizontally is important.

The field of visual word recognition studies how people read individual words.[1][2][3] A key technique in studying how individuals read text is eye tracking. This has revealed that reading is performed as a series of eye fixations with saccades between them. Humans also do not appear to fixate on every word in a text, but instead fixate to some words while apparently filling in the missing information using context. This is possible because human languages show certain linguistic regularities.[citation needed]

The process of recording information to be read later is writing. In the case of computer and microfiche storage there is the separate step of displaying the written text. For humans, reading is usually faster and easier than writing.

Reading is typically an individual activity, although on occasion a person will read out loud for the benefit of other listeners. Reading aloud for one's own use, for better comprehension, is a form of intrapersonal communication. Reading to young children is a recommended way to instill language and expression, and to promote comprehension of text. Before the reintroduction of separated text in the late Middle Ages, the ability to read silently was considered rather remarkable. See Alberto Manguel (1996) A History of Reading. New York: Viking. The relevant chapter (2) is posted online here.

MediumSee also: Writing

Short messages can be put on (and read from) various media (including plastic, wood, stone, metal, etc.; the text can be written with ink or paint, or it may have been cut out, etc.). Longer texts such as books, magazines, newspapers, etc. are often available on paper (with printed text) or in electronic form on a computer storage device. In the latter case it may be read from an electronic screen (screen reading); sometimes the user prints it to read it from paper.

Goals of reading

There are multiple principle goals of reading, which are determined by the end the reader has ordained the activity to obtain. The general goal of reading is the acquisition of meaning from the ordered arrangement of symbols. For example in an alphabet writing system each word is a collection of symbols that expresses a term or some meaning, which taken in conjunction with other words ordered to each other in a predetermined syntax, conveys some general meaning that the author intends the reader to acquire.

The second goal of reading is the "reading to obtain understanding". The reader wishes to receive illumination of some discipline or set of facts from the author. The reader usually approaches a given work with a dissimilitude of understanding compared to that of the author. He wishes to increase his understanding by coming to terms with the author of a given book, and subsequently reach an equal level of understanding.

The final goal of reading is "reading to obtain information". The reader attempts to gain knowledge of facts or knowledge about the author himself. If a reader is reading a book with the third goal in mind, he may not be as concerned with understanding the arguments and parts of the book and the way these parts relate to the whole. He may spend less or even no time reading a book analytically, but simply systematically inspect a book in order to obtain knowledge.

Reading skillsMain article: Reading skills acquisition

Literacy is the ability to use the symbols of a writing system. To be able to interpret the information symbols represent, and to be able to re-create those same symbols so that others can derive the same meaning. Illiteracy is not having the ability to derive meaning from the symbols used in a writing system.

Dyslexia refers to a cognitive difficulty with reading and writing. The term dyslexia can refer to two disorders: developmental dyslexia which is a learning disability; alexia or acquired dyslexia refers to reading difficulties that occur following brain damage.

Major predictors of an individual's ability to read both alphabetic and nonalphabetic scripts are phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming and verbal IQ.[4]

Skill development

Both the Lexical and the Sub-lexical cognitive processes contribute to how we learn to read.

Sub-lexical reading

Sub-lexical reading,[5][6][7][8] involves teaching reading by associating characters or groups of characters with sounds or by using Phonics learning and teaching methodology. Sometimes argued to be in competition with whole language methods.

Lexical reading

Lexical reading[5][6][7][8] involves acquiring words or phrases without attention to the characters or groups of characters that compose them or by using Whole language learning and teaching methodology. Sometimes argued to be in competition with phonics methods, and that the whole language approach tends to impair learning how to spell.

Other methods of teaching and learning to read have developed, and become somewhat controversial.[9]

Learning to read in a second language, especially in adulthood, may be a different process than learning to read a native language in childhood.

There are cases of very young children learning to read without having been taught.[10] Such was the case with Truman Capote who reportedly taught himself to read and write at the age of five. There are also accounts of people who taught themselves to read by comparing street signs or Biblical passages to speech. The novelist Nicholas Delbanco taught himself to read at age six during a transatlantic crossing by studying a book about boats.[citation needed]

[edit] Methods

Reading is an intensive process in which the eye quickly moves to assimilate text. Very little is actually seen accurately. It is necessary to understand visual perception and eye movement in order to understand the reading process.[11]

There are several types and methods of reading, with differing rates that can be attained for each, for different kinds of material and purposes:

Subvocalized reading combines sight reading with internal sounding of the words as if spoken. Advocates of speed reading claim it can be a bad habit that slows reading and comprehension, but other studies indicate the reverse, particularly with difficult texts.[12][13]

Speed reading is a collection of methods for increasing reading speed without an unacceptable reduction in comprehension or retention. It is closely connected to speed learning.

Proofreading is a kind of reading for the purpose of detecting typographical errors. One can learn to do it rapidly, and professional proofreaders typically acquire the ability to do so at high rates, faster for some kinds of material than for others, while they may largely suspend comprehension while doing so, except when needed to select among several possible words that a suspected typographic error allows.

Structure-Proposition-Evaluation (SPE) method, popularized by Mortimer Adler in How to Read a Book, mainly for non-fiction treatise, in which one reads a writing in three passes: (1) for the structure of the work, which might be represented by an outline; (2) for the logical propositions made, organized into chains of inference; and (3) for evaluation of the merits of the arguments and conclusions. This method involves suspended judgment of the work or its arguments until they are fully understood.[citation needed]

Survey-Question-Read-Recite-Review (SQ3R) method, often taught in public schools, which involves reading toward being able to teach what is read, and would be appropriate for instructors preparing to teach material without having to refer to notes during the lecture.[citation needed]

Multiple Intelligences -based methods, which draw upon the reader's diverse ways of thinking and knowing to enrich his or her appreciation of the text. Reading is fundamentally a linguistic activity: one can basically comprehend a text without resorting to other intelligences, such as the visual (e.g., mentally "seeing" characters or events described), auditory (e.g., reading aloud or mentally "hearing" sounds described), or even the logical intelligence (e.g., considering "what if" scenarios or predicting how the text will unfold based on context clues). However, most readers already use several intelligences while

reading, and making a habit of doing so in a more disciplined manner—i.e., constantly, or after every paragraph—can result in more vivid, memorable experience.[citation needed]

Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) reading involves presenting the words in a sentence one word at a time at the same location on the display screen, at a specified eccentricity. RSVP eliminates inter-word saccades, limits intra-word saccades, and prevents reader control of fixation times (Legge, Mansfield, & Chung, 2001). RSVP controls for differences in reader eye movement, and consequently is often used to measure reading speed in experiments.

Assessment

[edit] Reading rate

The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the talk page. (September 2010)

Further information: Speed reading, English language learning and teaching, and Proofreading

Average reading rate in words per minute (wpm) depending on age and measured with different tests in English, French and German.

Note: the data from Taylor (English) and Landerl (German) are based on texts of increasing difficulty; other data were obtained when all age groups were reading the same text.

Rates of reading include reading for memorization (fewer than 100 words per minute [wpm]); reading for learning (100–200 wpm); reading for comprehension (200–400 wpm); and skimming (400–700 wpm). Reading for comprehension is the essence of the daily reading of most people. Skimming is for superficially processing large quantities of text at a low level of comprehension (below 50%).

Advice for choosing the appropriate reading-rate includes reading flexibly, slowing when concepts are closely presented, and when the material is new, and increasing when the material is familiar and of thin concept. Speed reading courses and books often encourage the reader to continually accelerate; comprehension tests lead the reader to believe his or her comprehension is continually improving; yet, competence-in-reading requires knowing that skimming is dangerous, as a default habit.[citation needed]

Reading speed requires a long time to reach adult levels. The table to the right shows how reading-rate varies with age,[14] regardless of the period (1965 to 2005) and the language (English, French, German). The Taylor values probably are higher, for disregarding students who failed the comprehension test. The reading test by the French psychologist Pierre Lefavrais ("L'alouette", published in 1967) tested reading

aloud, with a penalty for errors, and could, therefore, not be a rate greater than 150 wpm. According to Carver (1990), children's reading speed increases throughout the school years. On average, from grade 2 to college, reading rate increases 14 standard-length words per minute each year (where one standard-length word is defined as six characters in text, including punctuation and spaces).

Types of tests

Sight word reading: reading words of increasing difficulty until they become unable to read or understand the words presented to them. Difficulty is manipulated by using words that have more letters or syllables, are less common and have more complicated spelling-sound relationships.[citation needed]

Nonword reading: reading lists of pronounceable nonsense words out loud. The difficulty is increased by using longer words, and also by using words with more complex spelling or sound sequences.[citation needed]

Reading comprehension: a passage is presented to the reader, which they must read either silently or out loud. Then a series of questions are presented that test the reader's comprehension of this passage.

Reading fluency: the rate with which individuals can name words. Reading accuracy: the ability to correctly name a word on a page.

Some tests incorporate several of the above components at once. For instance, the Nelson-Denny Reading Test scores readers both on the speed with which they can read a passage, and also their ability to accurately answer questions about this passage.[citation needed] Recent research has questioned the validity of the Nelson-Denny Reading Test, especially with regard to the identification of reading disabilities.[15]

Effects

Lighting

Reading from paper and from some screens requires more lighting than many other activities. Therefore, the possibility of doing this comfortably in cafés, restaurants, buses, at bus stops or in parks greatly varies depending on available lighting and time of day. Starting in the 1950s, many offices and classrooms were over-illuminated. Since about 1990, there has been a movement to create reading environments with appropriate lighting levels (approximately 600 to 800 lux).[citation needed]

Reading from screens which produce their own light is less dependent on external light, except that this may be easier with little external light. For controlling what is on the screen (scrolling, turning the page, etc.), a touch screen or keyboard illumination further reduces the dependency on external light.[citation needed]

History

The history of reading dates back to the invention of writing in Mesopotamia during the 4th millennium BC. Although reading print text is now an important way for the general population to access information, this has not always been the case. With some exceptions, only a small percentage of the population in many countries was considered literate before the Industrial Revolution. Some of the pre-modern societies with generally high literacy rates included classical Athens and the Islamic Caliphate.[16] In the latter case, the widespread adoption of paper and the emergence of the Maktab and Madrasah educational institutions played a fundamental role.[17][verification

needed]

Alhazen gave, in his work Book of Optics (1021), the earliest description of the two ways in which we perceive the written word:[18][verification needed]

"For when a literate person glances at the form abjad written on a piece of paper, he will immediately perceive it to be abjad [a word denoting the Arabic alphabet] because of his recognition of the form. Thus from his perception that the 'a' comes first and the 'd' last, or from his perception of the configuration of the total form, he perceives that it is abjad. Similarly, when he sees the written name of Allah, be He exalted, he perceives by recognition, at the moment of glancing at it, that it is Allah's name. And it is so with all well-known written words which have appeared many times before the eye: a literate person immediately perceives what the word is by recognition, without the need to inspect the letters in it one by one. The case is different when a literate person notices a strange word which he has not come upon beforehand or the like of which he has not already read. For he will perceive such a word only after inspecting its letters one by one and discerning their meanings; then he will perceive the meaning of the word."—The Book of Optics, II, 3 [23]

References

Notes

1. ̂ Cornelissen PL, Kringelbach ML, Ellis AW, Whitney C, Holiday IE, Hansen PC (2009). "Activation of the left inferior frontal gyrus in the first 200 ms of reading: evidence from magnetoencephalography (MEG)". PLoS ONE 4 (4): e5359. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0005359. PMID 19396362.

2. ̂ Wheat KL, Cornelissen PL, Frost SJ, Hansen PC (April 2010). "During visual word recognition, phonology is accessed within 100 ms and may be mediated by a speech production code: evidence from magnetoencephalography". The Journal of neuroscience 30 (15): 5229–33. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4448-09.2010. PMID 20392945.

3. ̂ Nation K (December 2009). "Form-meaning links in the development of visual word recognition". Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences 364 (1536): 3665–74. doi:10.1098/rstb.2009.0119. PMID 19933139.

4. ̂ Powell D, Stainthorp R, Stuart M, Garwood H, Quinlan P (September 2007). "An experimental comparison between rival theories of rapid automatized naming performance and its relationship to reading". Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 98 (1): 46–68. doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2007.04.003. PMID 17555762.

5. ^ a b Borowsky R, Esopenko C, Cummine J, Sarty GE (2007). "Neural representations of visual words and objects: a functional MRI study on the modularity of reading and object processing". Brain Topogr 20 (2): 89–96. doi:10.1007/s10548-007-0034-1. PMID 17929158.

6. ^ a b Borowsky R, Cummine J, Owen WJ, Friesen CK, Shih F, Sarty GE (2006). "FMRI of ventral and dorsal processing streams in basic reading processes: insular sensitivity to phonology". Brain Topogr 18 (4): 233–9. doi:10.1007/s10548-006-0001-2. PMID 16845597.

7. ^ a b Sanabria Díaz G, Torres Mdel R, Iglesias J, et al. (November 2009). "Changes in reading strategies in school-age children". Span J Psychol 12 (2): 441–53. PMID 19899646.

8. ^ a b Chan ST, Tang SW, Tang KW, Lee WK, Lo SS, Kwong KK (November 2009). "Hierarchical coding of characters in the ventral and dorsal visual streams of Chinese language processing". Neuroimage 48 (2): 423–35. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.06.078. PMID 19591947.

9. ̂ Feitelson, Dina (1988). Facts and Fads in Beginning Reading: A Cross-Language Perspective. Norwood, New Jersey, United States: Ablex. ISBN 0-89391-507-6.[page needed]

10. ̂ Hughes, Diana; Stainthorp, Rhona (1999). Learning from children who read at an early age. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-17495-3.[page needed]

11. ̂ Hunziker, Hans-Werner (2006) (in German). Im Auge des Lesers foveale und periphere Wahrnehmung: vom Buchstabieren zur Lesefreude (In the eye of the reader: foveal and peripheral perception - from letter recognition to the joy of reading). Transmedia Zurich. ISBN 978-3-7266-0068-6.[page needed]

12. ̂ Moidel, Steve. Speed Reading for Business. Hauppauge, NY: Barron's Educational. pp. 23–24. ISBN 9780764104015.

13. ̂ Rayner, Keith (1995). The Psychology of Reading. Pollatsek, Alexander. London: Routledge. pp. 192–194. ISBN 9780805818727.

14. ̂ Im Auge des Lesers, foveale und periphere Wahrnehmung: vom Buchstabieren zur Lesefreude(2006), ppgs. 117.

15. ̂ Coleman C, Lindstrom J, Nelson J, Lindstrom W, Gregg KN (2010). "Passageless comprehension on the Nelson-Denny reading test: well above chance for university students". J Learn Disabil 43 (3): 244–9. doi:10.1177/0022219409345017. PMID 19933897.

16. ̂ Andrew J. Coulson. Delivering Education. Hoover Institution. p. 117. http://media.hoover.org/documents/0817928928_105.pdf. Retrieved 2008-11-22

17. ̂ Edmund Burke (June 2009). "Islam at the Center: Technological Complexes and the Roots of Modernity". Journal of World History (University of Hawaii Press) 20 (2): 165–186 [178–82]. doi:10.1353/jwh.0.0045

18. ̂ Kennedy, Alan; Radach, R.; Heller, D.; Pynte, J. (2000). Reading as a Perceptual Process. Elsevier. p. ii. ISBN 0080436420

Bibliography

Carver, Ronald P. (1990). Reading rate: a review of research and theory. Boston: Academic Press. ISBN 0-12-162420-X.

Legge GE, Mansfield JS, Chung ST (March 2001). "Psychophysics of reading. XX. Linking letter recognition to reading speed in central and peripheral vision". Vision Research 41 (6): 725–43. doi:10.1016/S0042-6989(00)00295-9. PMID 11248262.

Further reading

Bainbridge, Joyce; Malicky, Grace (2000). Constructing meaning: balancing elementary language arts. Toronto Canada: Harcourt. ISBN 0-7747-3660-7.

Banai K, Hornickel J, Skoe E, Nicol T, Zecker S, Kraus N (November 2009). "Reading and subcortical auditory function". Cerebral cortex 19 (11): 2699–707. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhp024. PMID 19293398.

Bulling, Andreas; Ward, Jamie A.; Gellersen, Hans; Tröster, Gerhard (2008). Robust Recognition of Reading Activity in Transit Using Wearable Electrooculography. Springer Berlin / Heidelberg. pp. 19–37. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-79576-6_2. ISBN 978-3-540-79575-9.

Burke, Peter; Briggs, Asa (2002). A social history of the media: from Gutenberg to the Internet. Cambridge, UK: Polity. ISBN 0-7456-2375-1.

Castles A, Coltheart M, Wilson K, Valpied J, Wedgwood J (September 2009). "The genesis of reading ability: what helps children learn letter-sound correspondences?". Journal of experimental child psychology 104 (1): 68–88. doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2008.12.003. PMID 19268301.

Devlin JT, Jamison HL, Gonnerman LM, Matthews PM (June 2006). "The role of the posterior fusiform gyrus in reading". Journal of cognitive neuroscience 18 (6): 911–22. doi:10.1162/jocn.2006.18.6.911. PMID 16839299.

Fiez JA, Petersen SE (February 1998). "Neuroimaging studies of word reading". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 95 (3): 914–21. doi:10.1073/pnas.95.3.914. PMID 9448259.

Fiez JA, Tranel D, Seager-Frerichs D, Damasio H (May 2006). "Specific reading and phonological processing deficits are associated with damage to the left frontal operculum". Cortex 42 (4): 624–43. doi:10.1016/S0010-9452(08)70399-X. PMID 16881271.

Gibson CJ, Gruen JR (2008). "The human lexinome: genes of language and reading". Journal of communication disorders 41 (5): 409–20. doi:10.1016/j.jcomdis.2008.03.003. PMID 18466916.

Gipe, Joan P. (1998). Multiple Paths to Literacy: Corrective Reading Techniques for Classroom Teachers. Merrill Pub Co. ISBN 0-13-785080-8.

Heim S, Friederici AD (November 2003). "Phonological processing in language production: time course of brain activity". Neuroreport 14 (16): 2031–3. doi:10.1097/01.wnr.0000091133.75061.2d (inactive 2010-08-31). PMID 14600492.

National Endowment for the Arts (June 2004). "Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America" (pdf)

Noble KG, McCandliss BD (October 2005). "Reading development and impairment: behavioral, social, and neurobiological factors". Journal of developmental and behavioral pediatrics 26 (5): 370–8. PMID 16222178. http://journals.lww.com/jrnldbp/pages/articleviewer.aspx?year=2005&issue=10000&article=00006&type=abstract.

Ricketts J, Bishop DV, Nation K (October 2009). "Orthographic facilitation in oral vocabulary acquisition". Quarterly journal of experimental psychology 62 (10): 1948–66. doi:10.1080/17470210802696104. PMID 19301209.

Sahin NT, Pinker S, Cash SS, Schomer D, Halgren E (October 2009). "Sequential processing of lexical, grammatical, and phonological information within Broca's area". Science 326 (5951): 445–9. doi:10.1126/science.1174481. PMID 19833971.

Shaywitz SE, Shaywitz BA (2008). "Paying attention to reading: the neurobiology of reading and dyslexia". Development and Psychopathology 20 (4): 1329–49. doi:10.1017/S0954579408000631. PMID 18838044.

Pugh KR, Mencl WE, Jenner AR, et al. (2001). "Neurobiological studies of reading and reading disability". Journal of Communication Disorders 34 (6): 479–92. doi:10.1016/S0021-9924(01)00060-0. PMID 11725860.

Shaywitz SE, Escobar MD, Shaywitz BA, Fletcher JM, Makuch R (January 1992). "Evidence that dyslexia may represent the lower tail of a normal distribution of reading ability". The New England Journal of Medicine 326 (3): 145–50. doi:10.1056/NEJM199201163260301. PMID 1727544.

Tan LH, Spinks JA, Eden GF, Perfetti CA, Siok WT (June 2005). "Reading depends on writing, in Chinese". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 102 (24): 8781–5. doi:10.1073/pnas.0503523102. PMID 15939871.

Turkeltaub PE, Flowers DL, Lyon LG, Eden GF (December 2008). "Development of ventral stream representations for single letters". Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1145: 13–29. doi:10.1196/annals.1416.026. PMID 19076386.

Valdois S, Habib M, Cohen L (May 2008). "[The reader brain: natural and cultural story]" (in French). Revue neurologique 164 (Suppl 3): S77–82. doi:10.1016/S0035-3787(08)73295-8. PMID 18675051.

Reading, BerkshireFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation, search

Coordinates: 51°27′15″N 0°58′23″W / 51.4541°N 0.9730°W

Reading

St. Lawrence's Church, Reading Town Centre

Reading

 Reading shown within Berkshire

Population borough 143,096 (2001)Urban sub-area 232,662 (2001)

OS   grid   reference SU713733Unitary   authority Reading

Ceremonial   county BerkshireRegion South EastCountry England

Sovereign   state United KingdomPost town READING

Postcode   district RG1, RG2, RG4,RG6, RG8, RG10,RG30, RG31

Dialling   code 0118Police Thames ValleyFire Royal Berkshire

Ambulance South CentralEU   Parliament South East EnglandUK   Parliament Reading East

Reading WestWebsite www.reading.gov.uk

List of places: UK • England • Berkshire

Reading (pronounced / ̍ r ɛ d ɪ ŋ/  ( listen) RED-ing) is a large town in England, located at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some 40 miles (64 km) west of London. For ceremonial purposes it is in the Royal County of Berkshire and has served as the county town since 1867.[1]

Reading was an important national centre in the medieval period, as the site of an important monastery with strong royal connections. Today it remains a commercial centre, with links to information technology and insurance. Reading also hosts two universities, a large student population, and is home to one of England's biggest music festivals.

[edit] History

[edit] Beginnings

St Mary's church was founded by the 9th century

The settlement was founded at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet in the 8th century as Readingum. The name probably comes from the Readingas, an Anglo-Saxon tribe whose name means "Reada's People" in Old English,[2] or (less probably) the Celtic Rhydd-Inge, "Ford over the River". The name of the settlement was derived from an earlier folk, or tribal, name. Anglo-Saxon names ending in -ingas originally referred not to a place but to a people, in this case specifically the descendants or followers of a man named Reada, literally "The Red One."[3][4]

In late 870 an army of Danes invaded the then kingdom of Wessex and set up camp at Reading. On 4 January 871, the first Battle of Reading took place, when an army lead by King Ethelred and his brother Alfred the Great attempted unsuccessfully to breach the Danes' defences. The battle is described in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and this account provides the earliest known written record of the existence of the town of Reading. The Danes remained in Reading until late in 871, when they retreated to winter quarters in London.[5][6]

After the Battle of Hastings and the Norman conquest of England, William the Conqueror gave land in and around Reading to his foundation of Battle Abbey. In its 1086 Domesday Book listing, the town was explicitly described as a borough. The presence of six mills is recorded, with four on land belonging to the king and two on the land given to Battle Abbey.[6]

[edit] Time of the Abbey

Reading Abbey was founded in 1121

Reading Abbey was founded by Henry I in 1121, and he is buried within the Abbey grounds. As part of his endowments, he gave the abbey his lands within Reading, along with land at Cholsey. He also arranged for the land previously owned by Battle Abbey to be transferred to Reading Abbey, in return for some of his land at Appledram in Sussex.[6][7]

The foundation of Reading Abbey led to the town becoming a place of pilgrimage and enhanced the town's prosperity. However the relationship between already established borough's burgesses and the Abbey was to prove strained at times. In 1253 Reading's Merchant Guild successfully petitioned for the grant of a charter from the King and negotiated a division of authority with the Abbey. However disputes continued over the Abbey's powers to raise taxes and appoint the Guild's officers. Even the title of the Guild's first officer was open to dispute, with the Guild and, on occasion, the King referring to him as the Mayor, whilst the Abbey continued to call him the Guild Warden.[7]

It is not known exactly how badly Reading was affected by the Black Death that swept through England in the 14th century. But it is known that the abbot of Reading Abbey, Henry of Appleford, was one of its victims in 1361, and that nearby Henley lost 60% of its population.[8]

In 1487, Henry VII granted a further charter that went further than previous charters, although still leaving the appointment of the Mayor/Warden in the hands of the Abbey. This charter, and a subsequent judicial arbitration in 1499, confirmed the Guild as a body corporate in perpetuity.[9]

[edit] Dissolution and war

The Abbey was largely destroyed in 1538 during Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries. The last abbot, Hugh Cook Faringdon, was subsequently tried and convicted of high treason and hanged, drawn and quartered in front of the Abbey Church. The dissolution initially saw the Mayor appointed by the King's officers administering the dismemberment of the abbey properties. However in 1542 Henry VIII granted the Guild a new charter that permitted the burgesses to elect the Mayor.[9]

[10]

By 1525, Reading was the largest town in Berkshire, and tax returns show that Reading was the 10th largest town in England, based on taxable wealth. By 1611, Reading had a population of over 5000 and had grown rich on its trade in cloth, as instanced by the fortune made by local merchant John Kendrick.[8]

At this time, Reading had mostly traditional timber framed houses, a few examples of which still exist in Castle Street, Market Place and other places. Often the front ground floor of the house was given over to retail activities, with family and lodgers living in the rooms behind and above.[11]

The town played an important role during the English Civil War; it changed hands a number of times. Despite its fortifications, it had a Royalist garrison imposed on it in 1642. The subsequent Siege of Reading by the Parliamentary forces succeeded in April 1643. However, the taxes levied on the town by the garrison badly damaged its cloth trade, and it did not recover.[12]

Reading played a significant role during the Revolution of 1688, with the second Battle of Reading being the only substantial military action of the campaign. James II had stationed an advance guard of 600, largely Irish Catholic, troops in Reading to stop the march of William's army towards London. Seeing these troops as an occupying force, the people of Reading sent a messenger to William, at Hungerford, to ask for help. On Sunday 9 December William dispatched a relief force of about 250 Dutch troops to the town. Warned in advance of the Royalist positions in the town they attacked from an unexpected direction, and forced the Irish troops to retreat in confusion. This defeat of James' Irish troops by an inferior force, together the willingness of the people of Reading to support William, convinced James of the insecurity of his position and he fled the country.[6][13]

[edit] 18th century

Henry Addington, Viscount Sidmouth

The 18th century saw the beginning of a major iron works in the town and the growth of the brewing trade for which Reading was to become famous. Agricultural products from the surrounding area still used Reading as a market place, especially at the famous Reading cheese fair but now trade was coming in from a wider area.

Reading's trade benefited from better designed turnpike roads which helped it establish its location on the major coaching routes from London to Oxford and the west country. It also gained from increasing river traffic on both the Thames and Kennet. In 1723, despite considerable local opposition, the Kennet Navigation opened the River Kennet to boats as far as Newbury. This opposition stopped when it became apparent the new route benefited the town. The opening of the Kennet and Avon Canal in 1810 made it possible to go by barge from Reading to the Bristol Channel.

From 1714, and probably earlier, the role of county town for Berkshire was shared between Reading and Abingdon. The Assize and Quarter Sessions courts met in both towns, with the Lenten Assizes traditional held in Reading and the Summer Assizes in Abingdon. The county gaol was at Reading, but both had a house of correction, also known as a Bridewell, that held prisoners from various parts of the county.[14]

Towards the end of the century, Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth, lived at Bulmershe Court, in what is now the Reading suburb of Woodley. Although he moved to Richmond when he was appointed prime minister, he retained his local connections. He donated to the town of Reading the four acres (16,000 m²) of land that is today the Royal Berkshire Hospital, and his name is commemorated in the town's Sidmouth Street and Addington Road.[15][16]

[edit] 19th century

The Maiwand lion in Forbury Gardens, an unofficial symbol of Reading, commemorates the Battle of Maiwand in 1880

In 1801, the population of Reading was about 9,400. During the 19th century, the town grew rapidly as a manufacturing centre. Reading maintained its representation by two Members of Parliament with the Reform Act 1832, and the borough was one of the ones reformed as a municipal borough by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835. In 1836 the Reading Borough Police were founded. The Great Western Railway arrived in 1841, followed by the South Eastern Railway, in 1849, and the London and South Western Railway, in 1856.

The Reading Establishment, an early commercial photographic studio, operated in Reading from 1844 to 1847 and was managed by Nicholaas Henneman, a Dutchman and former valet of William Henry Fox Talbot (a pioneer of photography). Many of the images for The Pencil of Nature by Fox Talbot, the first book to be illustrated with photographic prints, were printed in Reading.[17]

In 1851 the population was 21,500. The Summer Assizes were moved from Abingdon to Reading in 1867, effectively making Reading the sole county town of Berkshire, a decision that was officially approved by the privy council in 1869.[18] The town became a county borough under the Local Government Act 1888. By 1900, the population was 59,000—large sections of the housing in Reading are terraced, reflecting its 19th century growth. The town has been famous for the "Three Bs" of b eer (from 1785 dominated by the Simonds' Brewery), b ulbs (1807–1976, Suttons Seeds), and b iscuits (1822–1977, Huntley and Palmers). In the 19th century the town also made 'Reading Sauce', described as a sharp sauce flavoured with onions, spices, and herbs, very much like Worcestershire Sauce.

[edit] 20th century and beyond

A trolleybus at the Three Tuns terminus, c.1966. The Three Tuns is now the terminus for the number 17 bus

The town continued to expand in the 20th century, annexing Caversham across the River Thames in Oxfordshire in 1911. This expansion can be seen in the number of 1920s built semi-detached properties, and the 1950s expansion that joined Woodley, Earley and Tilehurst into Reading. Miles Aircraft in Woodley was an important local firm from the 1930s to 1950s. The Lower Earley development, started in the 1970s, was the largest private housing development in Europe. This extended the urban area of Reading up to the M4 motorway, which acts as the southern boundary to the town. Further housing developments have increased the number of modern commuter houses in the surrounding parts of Reading, and 'out-of-town' shopping hypermarkets.

At the end of 1966 the Yield Hall multi-storey car park was opened, providing covered space for 522 cars. It was noted that the ramps were arranged to segregate up-traffic from down-traffic, with "one-way circulation" through most of the building.[19]

The local shopping centre, The Oracle, built in 1999, is named after the 17th century workhouse founded by John Kendrick which previously occupied the site. It provides three storeys of shopping and boosted the local economy by providing 4,000 jobs. Reading has pedestrianised Broad Street.

[edit] Governance

Borough of Reading

Geography

Status: Unitary, Borough

Region:South East England

Ceremonial County:

Berkshire

Area:- Total

Ranked 318th40.40 km²

Admin. HQ: Reading

ONS code: 00MC

Demographics

Population:- Total (2008 est.)- Density

Ranked 125th145,7003607 / km²

Ethnicity (2001 Census data):

86.82% White5.21% Asian4.14% Black2.38% Mixed0.73% Other0.72% Chinese.

Politics

http://www.reading.gov.uk/

Leadership: Leader & Cabinet

Executive:Tory/Lib Dem coalition (council NOC)

Mayor of Reading

Councillor Gul Khan[20]

[edit] Local government

Reading has had some degree of local government autonomy since 1253 when the local merchant guild was granted a royal charter. Over the years since then the town has been run by a borough corporation, as a county borough, and as a district of Berkshire. The Borough of Reading became a unitary authority area in 1998 when Berkshire County Council was abolished under the Banham Review, and is now responsible for all aspects of local government within the borough.[21]

Prior to the 16th century, civic administration for the town of Reading was situated in the Yield Hall, a guild hall situated by the River Kennet near today's Yield Hall Lane. After a brief stay in what later became Greyfriars' Church, the town council created a new town hall by inserting an upper floor into the refectory of the Hospitium of St John, the former hospitium of Reading Abbey. This was to remain the site of Reading's civic administration, through the successive re-buildings that eventually created today's Town Hall, for some 400 years up to the 1970s. In 1975, Reading Borough Council moved to the new Civic Centre.[22][23][24][25]

Following the 2010 local election, Tory and Lib Dem councillors agreed to form a coalition to replace the previous Labour minority administration.[26]

[edit] City status

Reading is one of the largest urban areas in the UK that does not benefit from city status. The borough council has bid for city status on several occasions, but these bids have been unsuccessful. The application for city status is politically controversial, with some groups of residents strongly opposed, while others support the bid.[27][28]

[edit] Boundaries

Since 1887, the borough has included the former villages of Southcote and Whitley and small parts of Earley and Tilehurst.[29] By 1911, it also encompassed the Oxfordshire village of Caversham and still more of Tilehurst.[30] A small area of Mapledurham parish was added in 1977. An attempt to take over a small area of Eye and Dunsden parish in Oxfordshire was rejected because of strong local opposition in 1997.[30]

Reading's municipal boundaries are particularly old and constrained and do not include several of the town's suburbs. Proposals occasionally surface to expand the borough to include these. It is believed that Reading's chances of receiving city status would be substantially boosted if these suburbs were to be included within the borough.

However, the constricted nature of the borough also creates more serious difficulties for the town, as it attempts to develop and grow. The diminishing amount of suitable land within the borough's boundary can bring the council in to conflict with those neighbouring it, who in turn have their own priorities and requirements. The longest running example of this is the planned third crossing of the Thames. So far, South Oxfordshire's politicians and residents, whose primary concern is maintaining the non-

urbanisation of their region, have successfully opposed this.[31] As a consequence, the debate has at times become somewhat acrimonious between the opposing sides, and little progress has been made.

"However, the process has been painfully slow and it appears that, for every two steps forwards, there are three steps backwards—mainly because of the view of South Oxfordshire district council, which is being incredibly parochial about this matter. Meanwhile, Reading borough council is adopting strategies that prioritise local traffic in Reading, obviously to the detriment of through traffic. We have now reached the point at which we desperately need direct Government intervention to break the logjam between those local authorities."—Mr. Rob Wilson MP (Reading, East), House of Commons debate.[32]

[edit] Town twinning

Reading is twinned with:[33]

Düsseldorf, Germany (since 1947, officially since 1988)[34]

Clonmel, Ireland (since 1994) San Francisco Libre, Nicaragua (since 1994) Speightstown, Barbados (since 2003)

[edit] National government

Reading has elected at least one Member of Parliament to every Parliament since 1295. Historically Reading was represented by the members for the former Parliamentary Borough of Reading, and the members for the former parliamentary constituencies of Reading, Reading North, and Reading South.

Currently, Reading and its surrounding area is divided between the parliamentary constituencies of Reading East and Reading West. The whole of the town is within the multi-member South East England European constituency.

[edit] Geography

Reading is 41 miles (66 km) due west of central London, 30 miles (48 km) southeast of Oxford, 70 miles (110 km) east of Bristol, and 50 miles (80 km) north of the English south coast. The centre of Reading is on a low ridge between the Rivers Thames and Kennet close to their confluence, reflecting the town's history as a river port. Just before the confluence, the Kennet cuts through a narrow steep-sided gap in the hills forming the southern flank of the Thames flood plain. The absence of a floodplain on the Kennet in this defile enabled the development of wharves.

As Reading has grown, its suburbs have spread in three directions:

to the west between the two rivers into the foothills of the Berkshire Downs, to the south and south-east on the south side of the Kennet, and to the north of the Thames into the Chiltern Hills.

Outside the central area, the floors of the valleys containing the two rivers remain largely unimproved floodplain, subject to occasional flooding. In the 2007 United Kingdom Floods [35] no properties were affected by flooding from the Thames and only four properties were affected by flooding from the River Kennet.[36]

Apart from the M4 looping to the south there is only one road across the Kennet floodplain. All other routes between the three built-up areas are in the central area, which is a cause of road congestion there.

Reading has its own subregional catchment area, incorporating the suburban districts of Earley and Woodley and the surrounding towns of Wokingham, Bracknell, Henley-on-Thames and Twyford, plus large villages such as Pangbourne, Theale, Winnersh, Burghfield and Shiplake.

[edit] Definition

Depending on the definition adopted, neither the town nor the urban area are necessarily co-terminous with the borough.

The borough has a population of 144,000 in an area of 40.40 km², while the Office for National Statistics' definition of the urban area of Reading is significantly larger at 232,662 people in an area of 55.35 km². This latter area – sometimes referred to as Greater Reading – incorporates the town's eastern and western suburbs outside the borough, in the civil parishes of Earley, Woodley, Purley-on-Thames and Tilehurst. This urban area is itself a component of the Reading/Wokingham Urban Area and the most populous UK town without city status.[28][37]

Historically, the town of Reading was smaller than the current borough, and has had several definitions over the years. Such definitions include the old ecclesiastical parishes of the churches of St Mary, St Laurence and St Giles, or the even smaller pre-19th century borough.[30]

[edit] Suburbs

Besides the town centre, Reading comprises a number of suburbs and other districts, both within the borough itself and within the surrounding urban area. The names and location of these suburbs are in general usage but, except where some of the outer suburbs correspond to civil parishes, there are no formally defined boundaries. The borough itself is unparished, and the wards used to elect the borough councillors generally ignore the accepted suburbs and use invented ward names.

The suburbs and districts include:

Beansheaf Farm Calcot , Caversham, Caversham Heights, Caversham Park Village, Coley, Coley

Park Earley , East Reading, Emmer Green Fords Farm Holybrook , Horncastle Katesgrove Little Heath , Lower Caversham, Lower Earley Maiden Erlegh Newtown Purley-on-Thames Southcote Tilehurst West Reading , Whitley, Whitley Wood, Woodley

[edit] Institutions

[edit] Religion

St Mary's Church Tower, chequered with flint and stone.

Reading Abbey

Reading Minster, or the Minster Church of St Mary the Virgin as it is more properly known, is Reading's oldest ecclesiastical foundation, known to have been founded by the 9th century and possibly earlier. Although eclipsed in importance by the later Abbey, Reading Minster has regained its importance since the destruction of the Abbey.

Reading Abbey was founded by Henry I in 1121. He was buried there, as were parts of Empress Matilda, William of Poitiers, Constance of York, and Princess Isabella of Cornwall, among others. The abbey was one of the pilgrimage centres of medieval England, it held over 230 relics including the hand of St. James. The abbey was largely destroyed in 1538 during the dissolution of the monasteries and Henry VIII had the abbot, Hugh Cook Faringdon, hanged.

The mediaeval borough of Reading was served by three parish churches. Besides Reading Minster, these were St Giles' and St Laurence's churches, both of which are still in use as Anglican churches. The Franciscan friars built a friary in the town in 1311 and after the friars were expelled in 1538, the building was used as a hospital, a poorhouse and a jail, before being restored as the Anglican parish church of Greyfriars Church in 1863. There are several other Anglican parish churches in areas that are now part of suburban Reading.

St James' Church was built on a portion of the site of the abbey between 1837 and 1840, and marked the return of the Roman Catholic faith to Reading. Reading was also the site of the death of Blessed Dominic Barberi, the Catholic missionary to England in the 19th century who received John Henry Newman into the Catholic faith.

Reading also has several places of worship of other religions. These include the Central Reading Mosque, a mosque in Waylen Street close to the town centre, and the Mahayana Buddhist Centre "Shantideva".[38][39]

[edit] Education

University of Reading War Memorial clock tower

Reading School, founded in 1125, is the tenth oldest school in England. It is based in Victorian buildings designed by Alfred Waterhouse on Erleigh Road. There are six other state secondary schools and 37 state primary schools within the borough, together with a number of private and independent schools and nurseries.[40]

Besides mainstream schools the Reading area has a Steiner-Waldorf school and an active Education Otherwise home schooling network.[citation needed] Reading College provides further education in the town, with over 8,500 local learners on over 900 courses.[41]

The University of Reading was established in 1892 as an affiliate of Oxford University, and moved to its London Road Campus in 1904. Reading was chartered as an independent university in 1926 and moved onto its new Whiteknights Campus in 1947. It took over the Bulmershe teacher training college in 1982, becoming Bulmershe Court Campus. The Henley Management College, situated in Buckinghamshire and about 10 miles (16 km) from Reading, was taken over in 2008, becoming Greenlands Campus. All four campuses are still in use, although Whiteknights is by far the largest.

The Thames Valley University, soon to be renamed the University of West London, maintains a presence in the town for its higher education students, principally in nursing, but has now divested itself of its previous ownership of Reading College and its further education students.[42]

[edit] Libraries and museums

Reading Town Hall now houses the Museum of Reading

The Reading Borough Public Library service dates back to 1877. Initially housed in Reading Town Hall, the central branch of the library relocated in 1985 to a new building on King's Road. It contains the Reading Local Studies Library which provides books, maps, and illustrations of the history of the town and Berkshire.

The Museum of Reading opened in 1883 in rooms adjacent to the public library. The museum remains in the Town Hall, parts of which date back to 1786. It contains galleries relating to the history of Reading and its related industries and to the excavations of Calleva Atrebatum (Silchester Roman Town), together with a copy of the Bayeux Tapestry, an art collection, and galleries relating to Huntley and Palmers.

The Museum of English Rural Life, in Redlands Road, is a museum dedicated to recording the changing face of farming and the countryside in England. It houses designated collections of national importance that span the full range of objects, archives, photographs, film and books. It is owned and run by the University of Reading.[43][44]

On the University of Reading's Whiteknights Campus can be found the Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology and Cole Museum of Zoology, together with the Harris Botanic Gardens. In the suburb of Woodley, the Museum of Berkshire Aviation has a collection of aircraft and other artifacts relating to the aircraft industry in the town.

[edit] Healthcare

The new entrance block for the Royal Berkshire Hospital

The principal National Health Service (NHS) hospital in Reading is the Royal Berkshire Hospital, founded in 1839 and much enlarged and rebuilt since. There was a second major NHS general hospital, the Battle Hospital, but this closed in 2005 with the

patients and most staff moved to the Royal Berkshire Hospital. Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust runs a NHS hospital, Prospect Park Hospital, that specialises in the provision of care for people with mental health and learning disabilities.[45][46]

Reading has two private hospitals, the Berkshire Independent Hospital in Coley Park and the Dunedin Hospital situated on the main A4 Bath Road.[47][48]

[edit] Economy

Reading is an important commercial centre in Southern England and is often referred to as the commercial capital of the Thames Valley. The town hosts the headquarters of British companies and the UK offices of foreign multinationals, as well as being a major retail centre.[49]

[edit] Industry

Prudential's administrative centre

The Oracle Corporation campus

Reading has a significant historical involvement in the information technology industry, largely as a result of the early presence in the town of sites of International Computers Limited and Digital. Whilst both these companies have been swallowed by other groups, their respective descendents in Fujitsu and Hewlett-Packard both still have local operations. More recently Microsoft and Oracle have established multi-building campuses in the town. Other technology companies with a significant presence in the town include Agilent Technologies, Audio & Design (Recording) Ltd, Bang & Olufsen, Cisco, Comptel, DediPower Managed Hosting, Ericsson, Harris Corporation, Intel, Nvidia, Sage, Sagem Orga, SGI, Symantec, Symbol Technologies, Verizon Business, Virgin Media, Websense, Xansa (now Steria), and Xerox.

The financial company ING Direct has its headquarters in Reading, as does the directories company Yell Group and the natural gas major BG Group. The insurance company Prudential has an administration centre in the town, whilst PepsiCo and Holiday Inn have offices. As with most major cities, Reading also has offices of the big 4 accounting firms Deloitte, KPMG, Ernst and Young, and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

These companies are distributed around Reading, including in business parks just inside or outside the borough boundary. Prudential and Yell, together with most of the accountancy companies, have their offices in central Reading. Thames Valley Business Park is home to the Microsoft and Oracle campuses, as well as BG Group and ING Direct. GreenPark Business Park is home to Symantec and Cisco, whilst the nearby Reading International Business Park is home to Verizon Business. Winnersh Triangle Business Park is home to technology companies, whilst Arlington Business Park is home to KPMG, Nvidia and PepsiCo.[50]

[edit] Retail

Broad Street

The Riverside level at The Oracle

Union Street known locally as Smelly Alley

Reading town centre is a major shopping centre. The primary catchment area for the town centre (the area for which the centre attracts the largest single flow of generated expenditure) for non-bulky comparison goods extends as far as Goring-on-Thames, Henley-on-Thames, Pangbourne and Wokingham. The secondary catchment area (the area where the centre attracts 10% or more of generated expenditure) also includes Ascot, Bracknell, Sandhurst, Camberley, Didcot, Farnborough, Fleet, High Wycombe, Maidenhead, Newbury, Slough, Tadley, Thatcham, Wallingford and Windsor. In 2007 an independent poll placed Reading as one of the top ten retail destinations in the UK.[51][52]

The principal town centre shopping area is around Broad Street, which was pedestrianised in 1995.[53] Broad Street is anchored at its east and west ends respectively by The Oracle and Broad Street Mall enclosed shopping centres. In 2007 14.4 million people visited the covered part of the Oracle shopping centre.[54]

There are three major department stores in Reading: John Lewis Reading (formerly known as Heelas),[55] Debenhams and House of Fraser. There are also branches of chain stores, including Bhs, Boots, fcuk, H&M, Marks and Spencers, Thorntons, Next, Primark and W H Smith. The booksellers Waterstone's have two branches in Reading. Their Broad Street branch is of interest, as it is a conversion of a nonconformist chapel dating from 1707.[56]

Besides the two major shopping malls, Reading has three smaller shopping arcades, the Bristol and West Arcade, Harris Arcade and The Walk, which contain smaller specialist stores. An older form of retail facility is represented by Union Street, popularly known as Smelly Alley,[57][58] due to the former presence of many open-fronted fishmongers and butchers. The occupancy has shifted towards major retail chains, although a few of independent shops, including a fishmonger and butcher remain.[59]

Unlike many English cities, Reading has no indoor market hall. There is a street market at Hosier Street in the town centre, open from Wednesday to Saturday, with 60 stalls selling a mixture of food, flowers and plants, cultural goods, and household goods. A farmers' market operates on two Saturdays a month at the cattle market.[60]

[61]

Other than the markets, Marks and Spencers, a few small supermarket branches, and a few speciality shops, food retail has largely deserted the town centre. Large branches of Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, Morrisons, Iceland and Waitrose supermarket chains can be found in suburban and edge of town locations.

[edit] Utilities

The wind turbine at GreenPark produces enough green electricity for around 1000 homes

Mains water and sewerage services are supplied by Thames Water Utilities Limited, a private sector water supply company. Water abstraction and disposal is regulated by the Environment Agency. Reading's water supply is largely derived from underground aquifers, and as a consequence the water is hard.[62][63][64]

The commercial energy supplier for electricity and gas is at the consumer's choice. Southern Electric runs the local electricity distribution network, while Scotia Gas Networks runs the gas distribution network. One notable part of the local energy infrastructure is the presence of a 2 megawatt (peak) Enercon wind turbine at GreenPark, which is wired to the local sub-grid. It was constructed in November 2005 just outside the borders of the borough in the civil parish of Shinfield and is owned by Ecotricity. This turbine can be seen from a large part of Reading, as well as from junction 11 of the M4. The turbine has the potential to produce 3.5 million units of electricity a year, enough to power over a thousand homes.[65]

BT provides fixed-line telephone coverage throughout the town, and ADSL broadband internet connection to most areas. Parts of Reading are cabled by Virgin Media, supplying cable television, telephone and broadband internet connections. The dialling code for fixed-line telephones is 0118.

Mobile phone service is available throughout the town, from all the UK licensed network operators and using the GSM and UMTS standards.

[edit] Transport

Reading's location in the Thames Valley to the west of London has made the town an important location in the nation's transport system.

[edit] River transport

High Bridge on the River Kennet

The town grew up as a river port at the confluence of the Thames and Kennet. Both of these rivers are navigable, and the locks of Caversham Lock, Blake's Lock, County Lock, Fobney Lock and Southcote Lock are all within the borough. Today navigation is exclusively leisure oriented, with private and hire boats dominating traffic.

Scheduled boat services operate on the Thames, operating from wharves on the Reading side of the river near Caversham Bridge. Salters Steamers operate a summer daily service from just downstream of the bridge to Henley-on-Thames, taking around two hours in each direction and calling at the riverside villages of Sonning and Shiplake. Thames River Cruises operate trips from just upstream of the bridge, including a service on summer weekends and bank holidays to Mapledurham, taking 45 minutes in each direction and allowing two hours ashore for visits to Mapledurham Watermill and Mapledurham House.[66][67]

[edit] Road transport

Reading Bridge on the River Thames

Reading was a major staging point on the old Bath Road (A4) from London to Bath and Bristol. This road still carries local traffic, but has now been replaced for long distance traffic by the M4 motorway, which closely skirts the borough and serves it with three junctions (J10-J12). Other main roads serving Reading include the A33 from Basingstoke, the A327 from Farnborough, the A329 from Bracknell to Thame, the A4074 to Oxford, and the A4155 to Henley-on-Thames.

Within Reading there is the Inner Distribution road (IDR), a ring road for local traffic movements. The A329(M), A33 and A4 national routes link the town with junctions 10, 11 and 12 of the M4 motorway respectively. The IDR is linked with the M4 by the A33 relief road, which runs past the Madejski Stadium and Green Park Business complex. National Express Coaches run out of Calcot, just off the M4 at junction 12.

The Thames is crossed by both Reading and Caversham road bridges, while several road bridges cross the Kennet. There has long been a desire to construct a third bridge across the Thames, to the east of the existing bridges. Some people believe that this will remove one of the town's bottlenecks and ease traffic congestion. Others believe that it will induce more traffic, move bottle necks and open up swathes of South Oxfordshire to unwanted development. However, the proximity of the county border means that any such route will have to pass through South Oxfordshire, and this development has so far been blocked by its residents and politicians.[68]

[edit] Rail transport

Reading station buildings. The original GWR building is now a pub (The Three Guineas): the main facilities are in the newer building to the right.

Reading is a major junction point on the national rail system, and as a consequence Reading station is a major transfer point as well as serving heavy originating and terminating traffic. Plans have been agreed to rebuild Reading station, with grade separation of some conflicting traffic flows and extra platforms, to relieve severe congestion at this station.[69]

Railway lines link Reading to both Paddington and Waterloo stations in London. The route to Paddington offers both non-stop (taking around 30 minutes) and stopping services, whilst that to Waterloo offers only a stopping service. Inter-city services also link Reading to Swindon, Bristol, Cardiff and South Wales, Exeter, Plymouth and South West England, Birmingham and the North of England, and Southampton and Bournemouth. Local services link Reading to Oxford, Newbury, Basingstoke, Bracknell, Guildford and Gatwick Airport.

Other stations in the Reading area are Reading West, Tilehurst and Earley, but all serve local trains only. A new Reading GreenPark railway station is planned.

[edit] Air transport

RailAir coaches in Reading awaiting their departure to Heathrow Airport

There have been two airfields in Reading, one at Coley Park [70] and one at Woodley, but these have both closed. Today Reading is within reach of several international airports.

The nearest airport is London Heathrow, which is 25 miles (40 km) away by road. An express bus service named RailAir links Reading with Heathrow, or the airport can be accessed by changing at Hayes and Harlington railway station from the local rail service to Paddington to the Heathrow Connect rail service.

London Gatwick is 60 miles (97 km) away by road and is served by direct trains from Reading. London Luton is also 60 miles (97 km) away by road, whilst London Stansted is 90 miles (140 km) away; both can be reached by rail by changing stations in central London. The airport at London City can also be reached by a combination of rail services.

Away from London, Southampton Airport and Birmingham Airport are both served by direct trains from Reading and can be faster to reach than the more distant of the London airports. Southampton is 45 miles (72 km) away by road, whilst Birmingham is 92 miles (148 km) distant.

[edit] Local public transport

A bus running on Reading Buses route number 17

Local public transport is largely road-based, and can be affected by peak hour congestion in the borough. A frequent local bus network within the borough, and a less frequent network in the surrounding area, are provided by Reading Buses. Other bus operators include:

First : Reading - Winnersh - Wokingham - Bracknell services Thames Travel : Reading - Arborfield - Bracknell - Wokingham; Reading -

Wallingford - Oxford services Arriva : Reading - High Wycombe services Newbury Buses : Reading - Newbury services Fleet Buzz : Reading - Fleet - Aldershot service[71]

Motts Travel : Reading - Nettlebed - Watlington - Stokenchurch service[72]

Courtney Coaches : Reading - Winnersh - Wokingham - Bracknell service, Sundays and Bank Holidays only [73]

[edit] Culture

The Town Hall, Reading

[edit] Music

The NME/Radio 1 tent at the 2005 Reading Festival

Every year Reading hosts the Reading Festival, which has been running since 1971. The festival takes place on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the August bank holiday weekend. Since 1999, Reading has been twinned with a simultaneous festival in Leeds, with the same acts appearing at both festivals on different days. In 2005, the main festival spawned the Reading Fringe Festival. Set up by a group of musicians, promoters, film-makers and artists, and now in its 6th year, to help showcase acts and performers in the towns venues in the runnup to the main festival.

For some twenty years up until 2006, Reading was also known for its WOMAD festival. However the event eventually outgrew its Rivermead site. As of 2007, amid much controversy,[74] the event relocated to Wiltshire in the form of Womad Charlton Park.[74]

[75][76] The Head of Culture, Chris Smith - tasked with keeping WOMAD in Reading - was on holiday at the time of the announcement that WOMAD was to move. He later took a senior job with WOMAD.[77]

Perhaps the most notable home-grown artist is Mike Oldfield of Tubular Bells fame. Slowdive, The Cooper Temple Clause, Stuart Price, Morning Runner, My Luminaries, Does It Offend You, Yeah?, OK Tokyo, Dan Le Sac Vs. Scroobius Pip, Pete & The Pirates, SixNationState, Pure Reason Revolution, Exit Ten, Sylosis, Malefice, The Arusha Accord, Bennet and Mr Fogg have had some degree of success.Left-field experimental pop band Lemon Kittens also started life here in the late '70s, and 60s folk/blues legend turned avant-gardist Mike Cooper also. David Byron, first and most famous singer of hard rock band Uriah Heep lived his last years in Reading before he died in 1985. The Chemical Brothers attended Reading Blue Coat school. Lead singer of 'odd-pop' group The Hoosiers Irwin Sparkes is from Woodley. He supports Reading FC and in the music video for The Hoosiers' song 'Goodbye Mr. A', he can be seen playing as the team on a football game.

Reading plays host to semi-professional and amateur choirs and choral societies. Reading Festival Chorus has celebrated its 60th anniversary. RFC sings a diverse music programme, with works like Mozart's Requiem, Karl Jenkins' The Armed Man in 2005 to Beethoven's Missa Solemnis and a summer programme of English and American Folk songs by Tippett and Aaron Copland.

Reading has several orchestras. The long-established Reading Symphony Orchestra (RSO)[78] is one of the town's amateur orchestras, led by a professional conductor and leader. It presents four main concerts a year, and is often engaged to work in collaboration with other musical organisations and for private functions. The Aldworth Philharmonic Orchestra (APO),[79] founded in 2002 and named after Richard Aldworth, the founder of Reading Blue Coat School, rehearses and plays most of its concerts at the school. APO's remit is to be as innovative as possible, giving local people the chance to play by rehearsing exclusively at weekends, attracting a wider audience to classical music (especially younger people) through its 'Concert Virgin Scheme' and education projects, and championing the music of talented young composers. Reading Youth Orchestra (RYO) provides an opportunity for younger musicians.

[edit] Theatre

Reading theatre venues include The Hexagon and 21 South Street, which are professional venues supported by Reading Borough Council. The Hexagon is a multi-purpose venue in the heart of Reading that provides rock, pop, comedy, classical music and dance as well as theatre. Recent performances have included Reel Big Fish and their mix of ska-punk as well as comedy from Russell Howard.[80] South Street

presents performing arts from both the professional and community sectors, including fringe theatre, comedy, music, dance and live literature.[81]

Amateur theatre venues in Reading include Progress Theatre,[82] a self-governing, self-funding theatre group and registered charity founded in 1947 that operates and maintains its own 97-seat theatre.[83] Progress Theatre produces a yearly open air Shakespeare production in the Reading Abbey Ruins that has come to represent a highlight of Reading's cultural calendar.[84]

Golden Globe and Oscar winning actress Kate Winslet was born and raised in Reading. Her husband, award winning director Sam Mendes who she is now separated from was also born, though not raised in Reading.

Reading is also home to The Rep College. Established in 1997 it is based at The Rising Sun Arts Centre in Silver Street. It is a professional training college for actors and produces 14 public shows each year.[85]

[edit] Arts

Reading has a history of grassroots arts movements. 21 South Street, previously a school and an unemployment (dole) office, was temporarily occupied by artists in the late 1980s, and this action eventually led to its becoming a Council run Art Centre. Similarly, an occupation of the condemned former Huntley and Palmer's building in 1989 took place by a collective of artists, calling it the Biscuit Base, in an attempt to put pressure on Reading Borough Council to provide more art space. This action did not secure it as art space, but did eventually lead to it being recognised by the council as a historic building. The facade was reprieved from demolition and converted to housing. in 1990, participants in the failed Biscuit Base action occupied a former temperance house in Silver Street which became the town's independent art centre The Rising Sun.[86]

[edit] Media

Reading has three local newspapers.

The Reading Chronicle is published weekly, on Thursdays. The Reading Midweek is published weekly, on Wednesdays. The Reading Evening Post is a newspaper published on Wednesday and Fridays.

Three local radio stations broadcast from Reading: BBC Radio Berkshire, Reading 107 FM and Heart Berkshire. Other local radio stations, such as London's 95.8 Capital FM, Basingstoke's 107.6 Kestrel FM and Slough's Star 106.6 can also be received.

Local television news programmes are the BBC's South Today and ITV's Meridian Tonight.

The local Blah Blah magazine[87] provides free monthly arts and entertainment listings.

[edit] Sports

The Reading Half Marathon climbing Russell Street in West Reading in 2004

The Madejski Stadium, during a game against Swansea in 2008

The Reading Half Marathon is held on the streets of Reading in March of each year, with as many as 16,000 competitors from elite to fun runners.[88]

Reading is the home of Reading Football Club, an association football club nicknamed The Royals, who were formed in 1871. Formerly based at Elm Park, the club plays at the 24,500 capacity Madejski Stadium in the south of the town near the M4 motorway. The stadium is named after chairman John Madejski, who has owned the club since 1991. Reading FC won promotion to the top flight for the first time in 2006 as Football League Championship champions with a national record of 106 points. They finished eighth in their first season as a top division club (just missing out on a UEFA Cup place) but were relegated the following season. The club's current manager is Brian McDermott.

Reading is a centre for rugby union football in the area, with the Aviva Premiership team London Irish as tenants at the Madejski Stadium. Reading is also home to another three senior semi-professional rugby clubs; Reading Abbey R.F.C., Redingensians R.F.C. and Reading R.F.C. The town hosts several other football variants, such as Gaelic football's St. Anthony's GAA, Australian rules football team Reading Kangaroos, and American football team Berkshire Renegades.

The sport of field hockey is represented by Reading Hockey Club, who play in the Men's Premier Division and the Women's Division One of English Hockey League. The Reading Rockets are a basketball club that play in the English Basketball League.

Like many Thames-side towns, Reading has rowing clubs, representing both town and university. The local Redgrave-Pinsent Rowing Lake provides training facilities, although much rowing is also conducted on the river itself. Dorney Lake, some 27 km (17 mi) to the east of Reading, provides a full international competition venue and will host the rowing events of the 2012 Summer Olympics. There are also several sailing lakes to the south and southwest of the town, the largest being Theale Lake (home of Burghfield Sailing Club) close to junction 12 of the M4. These lakes are also popular with water-skiing and jet-skiing enthusiasts.

From 1984 to 1994, The Hexagon theatre was home to snooker's Grand Prix tournament, one of the sport's 'big four' Grand Slam events.

Britain's first-ever triathlon was held outside Reading at Kirtons's Farm in Pingewood in June 1983. The Reading International Triathlon was revived by Banana Leisure along with one of the original Race Directors in 1994 and 1995. Thames Valley Triathletes who are based in the town, is Britain's oldest triathlon club with origins in the 1984 event at nearby Heckfield when a relay team raced under the name "Reading Triathlon Club". The British Triathlon Association was also formed at the town's former "Mall" health club in December 1982.

Reading's Palmer Park also hosted the UK's first-ever outdoor Aerobics display; pre-dating the more famous Hyde Park (London) event by a year.

Reading-born Richard Burns became the first Englishman to win the World Rally Championship, in 2001.[89]

The town is home to Reading Greyhound Racing and there is a velodrome at Palmer Park where many of Britain's junior champions train and race.

The town is home to the Reading Racers motorcycle speedway team. The sport came to Reading in 1968 at Tilehurst Stadium but this closed and the site was redeveloped. The team took a year off whilst the current venue was built. This venue is also due to close at the end of 2008 and another year off is anticipated as another new venue is built. The history of Reading Racer has recently (2008) been set out in a book by Arnie Gibbons.[90]

[edit] Literature

Reading Gaol, one time home to Oscar Wilde

The Abbey Gateway, where Jane Austen went to schoolSee also: List of residents of Reading, Berkshire

Reading's best known literary connection is with Oscar Wilde, who was imprisoned in Reading Gaol from 1895 to 1897. While he was there he wrote De Profundis, which was published in 1905. After his release he lived in exile in France and wrote The

Ballad of Reading Gaol, based on his experience of an execution carried out in Reading Gaol whilst he was imprisoned there. This was first published in 1898 under the pseudonym C.3.3, Wilde's erstwhile cell number.

Several authors have written about Reading. Thomas Hardy painted a rather disparaging picture of the town, lightly disguised as Aldbrickham, in his 1895 novel Jude the Obscure. Jerome K. Jerome also did not warm to the town on his famous journey up the Thames in Three Men in a Boat (1888). He does, however, recognise the historical significance of Reading. Jasper Fforde set his series of Jack Spratt literary crime novels in this town. The comic novel A Melon for Ecstasy by John Fortune and John Wells is set in and around Reading.

Other authors lived in and around Reading. Jane Austen attended Reading Ladies Boarding School, based in the Abbey Gateway, in 1784-86. Mary Russell Mitford lived in Reading for a number of years and then spent the rest of her life just outside the town at Three Mile Cross and Swallowfield. Thomas Noon Talfourd, the judge and dramatist was born in Reading and later became MP for the town.

T. E. Lawrence lost the first draft of his Seven Pillars of Wisdom at Reading railway station. Charles Dickens was asked to stand as MP for Reading, but declined. He became president of the Reading Athenaeum. In his novel Bleak House, Esther Summerson goes to school in Reading. His great-granddaughter Monica Dickens died in Reading in 1992.

[edit] Other

A Reading edition of Monopoly is available (see Localized versions of the Monopoly game). Perhaps surprisingly, given its size and status in the South East, Reading is not yet officially a city, having missed out during the millennium celebrations when the Queen instead granted Brighton and Hove city status in 2000.

The interview show As It Happens, which airs on CBC Radio One in Canada, is notable for its mention of Reading. Frequently, after concluding an interview with someone in the UK, especially if the guest was harmlessly eccentric, the host will describe the individual in relation to how far they live from Reading. For example, one might hear "That was professional bagpiper William J. Tweed from Biggleswade, which is about 81 miles north of Reading."

Reading is the location of the musical comedy television show Beautiful People, which is a fictional adaptation of the writings of Simon Doonan who grew up in the town.

In 1974, the BBC filmed The Family in Reading. The show, considered to one of the first reality television shows, followed the lives of the Wilkins family.[91]

The roadside chain of restaurants Little Chef began in the town back in 1958. Its first branch was a small eleven-seater venue.[92]

When Ricky Gervais (who comes from Reading) used to perform a stand-up comedy segment on the British TV show The 11 O'Clock Show, he would often (comically) describe the residents of the Reading suburb Whitley as the lowest members of society. This turned Whitley into a household name for the duration of the series. His film Cemetery Junction although filmed elsewhere in the UK, is based in 1970s Reading and is named after a busy junction in East Reading.

Reading in Pennsylvania and Reading in Massachusetts are both named after Reading.

In a 2007 poll by Readers Digest, Reading was named the worst place in Britain to live for families. However the methodology of the survey was questioned by some of the locals, with only three towns of population greater than 40,000 included amongst the "winners".[93]

It was reported that Reading has 127 different spoken languages within its population, and therefore (for its population size) unrivalled in the world with regards to number of languages spoken in one town.[94]

[edit] See also

Berkshire portal

List of people from Reading, Berkshire

[edit] References

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