In the year A.D. 528 Benedict of Nursia drew up his celebrated rules at Monte Cassino in Italy, and founded the order of the Benedictine or Black Monks. The order rapidly spread over Europe and was established in Berkshire at an early period. The great Abbey of Abingdon dates from the days of the Saxon Kings, and at the time of Domesday survey it possessed 30 manors in Berkshire besides lands in other counties, and it continued to grow in wealth and power until its dissolution by Henry VIII. The great church of the abbey has been destroyed, but there are some interesting remains of the abbey buildings which, after having been put to varied uses, are now in the hands of the Corporation and carefully preserved. The illustration given on page 74 shows the south side of what appears to have been a dormitory divided by partitions.

In 1121 Henry I founded a second great Benedictine abbey in Berkshire at Reading, probably upon the site of an older monastic dwelling. Cluny had been founded in 910 as an order with a reformed Benedictine rule, and Reading was founded as an abbey of that order. Its connection with Cluny did not, however, last long, and early in the thirteenth century the abbey seems to have become attached to the general Benedictine order. Reading became one of the greatest of English abbeys. Its abbot, like the Abbot of Abingdon, was entitled to wear the mitre and was summoned with the other spiritual peers to attend parliament.

Both Reading and Abingdon were dissolved by Henry VIII, and on November 14th, 1539, Hugh Faringdon, the 31st abbot of Reading, was hanged, drawn, and quartered within sight of his own gateway. The last abbot of Abingdon had made himself more agreeable to the king, and was granted the manor of Cumnor for life, and a pension as well.

The stone from Reading Abbey was much used for buildings in Reading and the neighbourhood, and in 1556, during the reign of Philip and Mary, a great deal was removed from the abbey and taken by river to Windsor for building the Poor Knights’ Lodgings. The inner gateway of the abbey is still standing but has been partially rebuilt in modern times. There are also some remains of the abbey buildings probably belonging to the Hospice of St John.

In the time of William the Conqueror (about 1086) Geoffrey de Mandeville gave the church of St Mary at Hurley, together with certain lands, for a cell of Benedictine monks to be subject to the Abbey of Westminster, and the remains of the priory thus founded are exceedingly beautiful and of much interest. The chapel, built in the Norman style of architecture, is now the parish church of Hurley. The illustration above shows the refectory or dining hall of the priory. The lower part is in the Norman style and the upper part of Edwardian date. On the opposite side of this building is the river Thames.

There was a priory of the Benedictines at Wallingford, and a Benedictine nunnery at Bromhall in the parish of Sunninghill, but there are now no remains of either.

The only establishment connected with the great order of the Cistercians in the county was a small cell at Faringdon and a grange or barn at Great Coxwell, both belonging to the Abbey of Beaulieu in Hampshire. The fine abbey barn, dating from the fourteenth century, still remains.

The Austin Canons, an order founded at Avignon about 1061, had priories at Bisham, Poughley, and Sandleford. After the dissolution of the monasteries Bisham Abbey became the seat of the Hoby family. It is beautifully situated on the Thames. Poughley Priory was situated in the chalk district one and a half miles south of Chaddleworth, and there are remains of the buildings at a farm. Sandleford Priory is about the same distance south of Newbury, and some remains are incorporated in the modern house which was built after plans by Wyatt in 1781 for Elizabeth Montague (1720–1800) the leader of the Blue-stockings.

We have already mentioned Bisham as an abbey of the Austin Canons, founded in 1338, but it had previously been a preceptory of the Knights Templars. That great military order was however suppressed in the time of Edward II and the preceptory dissolved (cir. 1312). The Templars also had a preceptory at Brimpton which passed into the possession of the other great military order of monks, the Knights Hospitallers. Their chapel, which stands close to Brimpton Manor, still remains and is an interesting building. Shalford farm, a little to the east, was also the property of the Hospitallers. The order was suppressed in England in 1540, and was only temporarily revived under Queen Mary.

There were priories in the county belonging to foreign abbeys and hence termed Alien Priories—one at Steventon belonging to the Abbey of Bec in Normandy, and the other known as Stratfieldsaye, but in Berkshire, belonging to the Abbey of Vallemont, also in Normandy. Both were abolished in the time of Edward III and there are no remains of buildings. A farm named the Priory near Beech Hill occupies the place of the latter, which was on the site of an old hermitage.

There were colleges at Shottesbrook, Windsor, and Wallingford. They were houses of priests who performed divine service in the churches attached to the colleges. We have already mentioned Shottesbrook. There is a very curious alabaster monument to William Throckmorton, one of the later Wardens of the college, in the chancel of the church representing him lying in his coffin.

Besides these religious houses there were houses of Friars at Reading and Donnington, and a number of Hospitals in the county.