Reading No. 5 / Rading / Reding / Redinges / Redynges

The Victoria County History (Berkshire, vol. 3, 2011) notes: "St. Giles's Church is first mentioned in a confirmatory charter given by Hubert Walter, Bishop of Salisbury (1189–93), to the Abbot and convent of Reading. [...] In 1291 it was the richest church in the town, being worth £10, (fn. 25) while St. Mary's was worth £8 and St. Lawrence's only £5. [...] From the church as it stands to-day nothing can be gathered of the early history of the building, a restoration which practically amounted to a rebuilding having taken place in 1872–3, when, with the exception of the late 13th-century south wall of the south aisle, the whole of the church east of the 15th-century tower appears to have been pulled down". There is no mention of a font in the VCH entry. The Parish web site [http://www.sgilesreading.org.uk/history.html] [accessed 29 November 2011] displays a 1875 B&W photograph of the church interior taken to years after it was "almost completely rebuilt by J. P. St Aubyn in 1873", in which a modern font is shown at the west end of the nave, north side; the font consists of a polygonal basin with carved sides, raised on a typically Victorian columnar base, and a two-step (?) plinth. The wooden font cover is a polygonal pyramid with crocketed arrises and decorated panels; also modern by all appearances.