Reading No. 2 / Rading / Reding / Redinges / Redynges

There are three entries for Reading [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SU7173/reading/] [accessed 28 April 2015], one of which parts, in the lordship of the Abbey of St. Martin's, Battle, mentions a church in it. Bond (1908) refers to a 1570 "contemptuous entry of xijd. paid 'for takynge downe ye thynge over the funt'". This thing-over-the-font was obviously missed a couple of years later when a new entry dated 1573 accounts for the expense of four shillings "for making the cover over the font", as well as another entry"for 3 lbs. of lead to set fast the hook over the font, 3d." This need to retain some sort of cover over the font continued, since "in 1636 St Mary, Reading, has once more got a font cover and paid 11s. 'for painting the ffont to the cover'". Bond makes no reference to the type of font at St Mary's, but Cox (1907) reports a Perpendicular font in this church. The Victoria County History (Berkshire, vol. 3, 1923) notes: "Little can be said of the early history of the existing building, the original church having been altered on several occasions and having suffered badly from the 19th-century restoration. An early 12th-century doorway reset in the north wall of the north aisle suggests the existence of a much earlier building than the present structure [...] Built into the walls inside the tower are many 12th-century stones and pieces of Norman carving which came either from the walls of the old church during the rebuilding, or, more probably, from the abbey ruins. [...] The font, which is of early 17th-century date, is octagonal, and rests on a plain stem, the sides of the bowl being panelled with quatrefoils. In the panels on the north, south, and eastern sides are roses, but the western panels have carved shields; the shield in the north-west panel is charged with a cheveron between three wheatsheafs, the shield in the west panel crusilly a cross paty, while the south-west shield is charged with three sinister bends." The VCH entry (ibid.) further notes among the plate in this church: "a silver-gilt spoon of 1668; a large silver bowl about 9 in. high inscribed 'The Gift of Mrs Elizabeth Thorne for the use of the Font of the Parish Church of St. Mary in Reading A.D. 1767'". [NB: we have no information on the medieval font here].