Reading’s History is Tied to the Water

21st September 2026

Reading is, and always has been, a waterways town. Predominantly thanks to its location at the meeting point of the River Thames and River Kennet. Matthew Williams, Reading Museum’s Manager, recounts the part Reading’s waterways have played in Reading’s own history.

“Reading's rivers have historically been of strategic and economic importance to the town and its people, from the Vikings to the arrival of the canals, but historians have speculated there would have been a river trading port at Reading for the nearby Roman town of Calleva at Silchester even earlier.

“Reading was first settled in the sixth century AD by Saxons probably arriving by water along the River Thames. In AD 870 Viking raiders from Scandinavia set up an over-winter base at Reading, strategically located between the River Thames and River Kennet. This is the earliest-known documentary reference to Reading. In 1121, King Henry I, William the Conqueror’s youngest son, announced plans to build a mighty royal abbey in Reading. Henry chose a site on high ground between the River Kennet and River Thames. A small branch of the River Kennet, known as the Holy Brook, powered the abbey’s watermill (you can still see the mill arch today).

“As Reading grew, there were large waterfronts wharves on the Kennet connected by Blake’s Lock to the River Thames and onto London. It was in this period that bridges replaced fords for crossing the rivers, including Caversham Bridge over the Thames with its chapel dedicated to St Anne.

“By the 16th century, the main trades of leather and cloth made use of the rivers for water, transport and milling and then from the 1700s, Reading expanded thanks to the improvements along the River Kennet to Newbury followed by the opening of the Kennet and Avon Canal in 1810.

“These days, Reading’s rivers and canals are green and blue corridors for recreation, tourism, wildlife, wellbeing and even community-led energy generation with the opening of Thames Hydo on Caversham weir in 2021.”

Find out more about things to do on the water in Reading.