St Mary's Butts

{{Short description|Street in Reading, England}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}}

{{Infobox street

| name = St Mary's Butts

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| image = Looking down at the butts - geograph.org.uk - 1090311.jpg

| caption = View south from junction with Broad Street and Oxford Road

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| postal_code = RG1

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| location = Reading, Berkshire, UK

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| coordinates = {{coord|51|27|16.38|N|0|58|28.42|W|display=inline,title}}

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St Mary's Butts is a thoroughfare in the English town of Reading, Berkshire. On its west side is the Broad Street Mall. It is connected to the north with Broad Street, the pedestrianised primary high street of Reading. St Mary's Church and Butts are where the town of Reading originally grew from.{{cite book|first=Daphne|last=Phillips|title=The Story of Reading|publisher=Countryside Books|year=1980|isbn=0-905392-07-8|page=32}}

To the south, St Mary's Butts reaches a cross-roads, where it meets Gun Street (the western continuation of Minster Street) to the east, Castle Street to the west, and Bridge Street to the south.

History

File:St Mary's Butts, Reading, c. 1895 (2).jpg

In the Middle Ages, Edward IV made it compulsory for all yeomen in England to learn archery. An archery butts was set up on the land in front of the Minster Church of St Mary the Virgin. It was used by the adult males of Reading to practice on Sundays. Some of the archers who fought at the Battle of Agincourt trained at St Mary's Butts. In 1631 the town paid £3 to have the archery grounds closed.{{cite web|title=St Mary’s Butts|url=http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/radstock/rht/themes/war/archer.html|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100117094855/http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/radstock/rht/themes/war/archer.html|archivedate=17 January 2010|publisher=Reading History Trail|accessdate=16 January 2015}}{{cite web|last=Lambert|first=Tim|title=A History of Reading, Berkshire|url=http://www.localhistories.org/reading.html|publisher=A World History Encyclopedia|accessdate=20 April 2011}} Located in the southern end is the Jubilee Fountain, erected in 1887 for Queen Victoria's Jubilee.{{cite book|first=Daphne|last=Phillips|title=The Story of Reading|publisher=Countryside Books|year=1980|isbn=0-905392-07-8|page=136}}

References

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