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A single sad wall is all the remains of the refectory at Reading Abbey, though it is one with some of its original facing stone. This was the Abbey dining room where the monks met in silence to eat their diet of bread and vegetables. The Abbot sat on a dais at one end, while a single monk read from the scriptures, possibly from an elevated pulpit. The building was the setting for the gathering of the House of Lords when parliament came to Reading several times in the twenty years following 1440. The Commons met in the Chapter House.

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