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a little more about Reading
 There is evidence of a major route, The Ridgeway, across southern England passing within nine miles of modern Reading. The earliest recorded date is in 870 when King Aethelred of Wessex fought the Danes at "Readingum". By the time of the Domesday Survey (1086), Reading was a borough with a population of 500. The turning-point in Reading’s history came in 1121, when King Henry I laid the foundation stone of Reading Abbey. The great Abbey was later dissolved, by order of Henry VIII, in 1539, and its last Abbot was martyred in front of the Abbey Gate. Like other towns, Reading suffered periodically from medieval outbreaks of the plague. It changed hands several times during the Civil War. The Eighteenth Century was more peaceful and the town became gradually more prosperous, Reading’s position on the waterways and on the Great West Road worked in its favour. But the main growth industry at the time was malting. Local brewers H. & G. Simonds, now part of Scottish and Newcastle, invented "I.P.A." (India Pale Ale), which they supplied to the Army in India. Oscar Wilde was imprisoned here between 1895-97 and wrote "The Ballad of Reading Gaol" about his experience.
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