Monks, miracles and memory are some of the themes set to be discussed at a fascinating free lecture this weekend in Reading.

The Friends of Reading Abbey is holding its annual Brian Kemp Memorial Lecture at St James' RC Church on Forbury Road on Saturday.

The lecture will discuss the dissolution of Reading Abbey and the efforts to suppress the cult of relics and miracle narratives association with them.

The event, which will be hosted by Professor Helen Parish, is taking place at 2.30pm and is free to attend. 

Information about the lecture reads: "At Reading, and elsewhere, the struggle to preserve and to possess the monastic past began almost immediately; monks, miracles and memory became a visual and verbal mnemonic in the reconstruction of religious history.

"We will examine in more detail the physical and polemical assault upon ‘monuments of feigned miracles, pilgrimages, idolatry, and superstition’ and its impact upon memory and the reimagining of the past in post-Reformation England."

Professor Parish is a lecturer at the University of Reading and her research focuses on the late medieval to early modern period, looking at the European Reformations, church and clergy as well as ideas about magic and witchcraft.

The subject of Reading Abbey will no doubt be of great interest to many residents. The site, whose ruins can be found in Abbot's Walk in the town centre, was founded by Henry 1 in 1121. 

The monarch is buried at the site close to the high altar. He died in France after becoming very ill from eating too many river fish. His body was brought back to Reading. 

Reading Abbey was once a large and impressive church with living quarters for dozens of monks who would worship at the church. It would transform Reading from a market town into an important religious centre known across Western Europe.

It was destroyed centuries later as part of Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries in 1539. Hugh Cook, the last abbot of Reading, was charged with treason and sentenced to death. 

Today the site remains a popular area of interest for tourists and locals alike. 

Local history society The Friends of Reading Abbey looks holding a number of events and meetings throughout the year. 

The Brian Kemp Memorial Lecture was created to remember a founding member of the Friends of Reading Abbey. 

Dr Brian Kemp, who died in 2019 at the age of 79, was instrumental in overseeing the abbey's conservation work.

The ruins were closed to the public on safety grounds in 1984 and it took 33 years and multiple conservation efforts for the site to reopen in 2018. 

Dr Kemp became the recognised academic authority on Reading Abbey. 

He published Reading Abbey: An introduction to the history of the Abbey, in 1986, in conjunction with Reading Museum and Art Gallery. At the same time he was working on the Reading Abbey Cartularies, which he published as two volumes in the Royal Historical Society’s Camden series in 1986-7.