A HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE 



Newbury were the great centres of the 

 manufacture, which extended itself to other 

 neighbouring towns and villages. Of Abing- 

 don, Leland stated that in his time ' the 

 town stondith by clothing.' The records of 

 Reading and Newbury abound with refer- 

 ences to the skill and prosperity of the 

 clothiers, of the fame of ' Jack of Newbury,' 

 of John Kendrick, and many others who 

 wrought well and worthily and brought 

 prosperity to their native towns and county. 

 For a full account of their achievements we 

 would refer the reader to the special section 

 relating to Cloth-making. Besides its rich 

 fleeces Berkshire has few natural products 

 which tend to encourage other industries than 

 agriculture. Of modern developments of its 

 resources it is proposed to treat later. 



It may be well now to glance at the records 

 of early industries which flourished in the 

 chief centres of the population, and to con- 

 sider the condition of the traders and their 

 craftsmen. 



One of the earliest industries which flour- 

 ished in Berkshire and rendered the county 

 famous was that of Bell-founding. There 

 was a foundry at Wokingham in the four- 

 teenth century ; in the fifteenth it was 

 owned by Roger Landen and later on by 

 John Michel ; and the Knights, John Carter 

 and others flourished at Reading, and were 

 the makers of some of the best rings in 

 Berkshire and Buckinghamshire and Oxford- 

 shire. For a further account of this im- 

 portant industry the reader is referred to the 

 special section dealing with this subject. 



In the eighteenth century malting was one 

 of the principal trades of the county, and an 

 extended notice of this industry will appear 

 later in the section on Brewing. 



There seems to have been a considerable 

 trade in candle-making at Wallingford at the 

 beginning of the eighteenth century, as 

 revealed by the records of the County Ses- 

 sions, and apparently unrecorded elsewhere. 

 In 1732 one John Sexton forfeited 100 for 

 using his private storehouse for laying and 

 keeping candles for sale ; he also forfeited 

 50 for making a ' course ' of candles without 

 having given a declaration to the proper office. 

 A century later we find that the industry 

 was still in existence and was represented by 

 Edward Button, soap-boiler and tallow chand- 

 ler, in St. Martin's Street. 1 A new industry 

 was introduced into Reading by William 

 Wimpery, ' wire drawer,' who was admitted to 

 the freedom of the borough in 



The list of trades at Reading in the time of 

 Elizabeth shows that the making of pins was 

 carried on in the town. There were three 

 pinners at that period. In 1633 John 

 Barnard, pinmaker, of Wargrave, approached 

 the Corporation for the purpose of establish- 

 ing a pin-making business in Reading ' for 

 setting poor boys on work.' He asked for a 

 convenient room for his people to work in, 

 and convenient lodgings for himself and his 

 family. He engaged to set in work ten or 

 more boys, and offered the not very remunera- 

 tive wages of 1 2 d. to 20 d. a week, nor would he 

 find them meat, drink, apparel nor lodging. 

 His offer seems to have been accepted by the 

 Corporation, though no record of the order 

 appears. But in 1640 Francis Thackham, a 

 pinner, pays for his freedom and receives 30, 

 which Mr. Barnard had in his hands upon 

 security, and such convenient rooms in Mr. 

 Kendrick's building as may be spared, he 

 keeping six boys from time to time in work. 3 

 The scheme of Mr. Barnard had evidently 

 prospered. ' Mr. Kendrick's building ' was 

 the famous Oracle, 4 which continued to be 

 the chief seat of the industry until pin-making 

 ceased in Reading with the destruction of the 

 Oracle about the middle of the last century. 

 The trade was not confined to ' Mr. Kend- 

 rick's building,' as in the same year John 

 Mihell, a ' pynmaker,' is allowed to use his 

 trade in the borough on payment of 20 shil- 

 lings. The introduction of pin-making into 

 Reading corresponds with the time when the 

 home manufacture of this article began to 

 grow more extensive and regular, and to 

 supersede the foreign trade, which is said to 

 have been so large in the reign of Elizabeth 

 that 60,000 a year left the country to pay 

 for the import of pins. The charter of the 

 Pinners' Company of London was granted in 

 1636, some years after the introduction of the 

 industry to Reading, though they existed in 

 the city some three centuries earlier, and were 

 allied to the Girdlers' and Wire-workers' 

 Companies. The charter of Charles I., how- 

 ever, stimulated the industry, which found a 

 congenial soil in Reading. The trade con- 

 tinued to be carried on in Reading through 

 the seventeenth century. At the beginning 

 of the eighteenth century the industry was 

 carried on at the Oracle by Mr. Henry Deane, 

 and provided employment for many poor 

 persons, not only in the Oracle but also in 

 their own homes, particularly in the heading 

 part, which was principally performed by 

 children by means of an engine worked by the 



1 Pigot and Go's. Commercial Directory, Berks, 

 1830, p. 60. a Rec. of Reading, ii. 90. 



s Ibid. iii. 508, 510. 



4 Vide infra, Clothing Industry. 



378 



