aerial photograph Reading Minster Berkshire England UK. Legend has it that the first church was established on this site by St Birinus in the 7th Century. A nunnery was founded here by Queen Ælfthryth in the year 979 and parts of this nunnery are incorporated within the current church. Most of the Nunnery was destroyed by the Danes in the 11th Century and much of what we see today dates from the rebuilding at that time. Further rebuilding work was carried out in the 16th Century following the dissolution of the Monasteries which much material from the dissolved reading Abbey being incorporated into the church.