A HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE 



were for many years in use at various places 

 along the coast, and were instrumental in 

 saving many lives. 1 



At the beginning of the eighteenth century 

 the dressing of hemp and flax greatly increased 

 in Abingdon, and the large number of spin- 

 ning and weaving houses occasioned several 

 dreadful conflagrations owing to the negli- 

 gence and carelessness of the men, women 

 and children employed therein. Hence very 

 strict orders were issued that no one should 

 work in these weaving sheds by candlelight ; 

 and heavy fines were to be inflicted upon any 

 employer or employ^ who should offend 

 against this edict. This dressing hemp and 

 making matting and sacking, biscuit-bagging, 

 wool-sheeting and carpet-weaving, together 

 with the large trade in malt for the London 

 markets, formed the chief industries of the 

 town before the advent of railways. In 1830 

 there were n maltsters, 22 sacking manu- 

 facturers, 3 matting manufacturers. Joseph 

 Hadley, besides making sacks and wool- 

 sheeting, was ' a manufacturer of the im- 

 proved patent waterproof canvas for wagon, 

 boat and rick cloths,' and William Prince 

 made rope and twine, tarpauling, hemp, 

 carpeting, and wool-sheeting. 8 



By the early part of the nineteenth century 

 we arrive at the period of our history when 

 the county was traversed by an abundant 

 system of inland navigation, while coaches and 

 road wagons conveyed passengers and goods to 

 and from the metropolis to the towns and 

 villages. Vast sums had been spent upon the 

 water-ways of the county. The original 

 cost of rendering the Kennet river navigable 

 was 84,000. Nearly a million sterling was 

 spent on the Kennet and Avon Canal, and 

 very large sums on the Wilts and Berks and 

 Thames and Severn Canals. As we have seen 

 the Thames did not always afford the safest 

 and surest means of conveying goods. The 

 floods and storms of winter caused wrecks of the 

 barges, and in summer the dryness of the season 

 often caused the water to be so low that boats 

 were prevented from sailing. A diarist of 

 Reading in 1814 records on 9 November of 

 that year that the grocers employed Bowsher 

 Parsons and Holloway's wagons to fetch goods 

 from London, as no boats have arrived since 

 the beginning of October ; the price of carry- 

 ing by water being then is. lid. per cwt., by 

 land zs. 6d. per cwt. 3 



The same writer records the incalculable 

 advantages which Reading derived from ' the 



1 Money, Hist, of Newbury, p. 394. 



2 Pigot's Com. Dir. of Berks, p. 30, 1830. 



3 Reading Seventy Tears Ago, p. 32. 



navigable canal to Bristol by which the 

 produce of Ireland and our West Indian 

 settlements, instead of being carried round a 

 dangerous coast to London, and from thence 

 to this town, are now brought directly here 

 through the country, and by our grocers 

 distributed among the neighbouring towns and 

 villages at a lower price than by the London 

 merchants, this causing an influx of wealth to 

 our traders which is felt throughout thetown." 4 

 The time arrived when this vast cost of con- 

 structing water-ways was rendered compara- 

 tively useless by the introduction of steam loco- 

 motion. The opposition shown by several of the 

 towns to the new means of traction, and the 

 policy which in after years was seen to be so 

 short-sighted, sealed the fate of these places 

 and prevented them from even hoping to be- 

 come important centres of industrial activity. 

 This was particularly the case with Abingdon. 

 In 1837 the Oxford and Great Western 

 Union Railway proposed to construct a line 

 passing through the town, but the Council 

 of the Borough unanimously resolved to 

 dissent from the proposal. 5 In the next 

 year the Borough Seal of the Council was 

 affixed to a Petition to both Houses of 

 Parliament against the Oxford and Didcot 

 Railway Bill with a branch to Abingdon. In 

 1842 the wise-acres of the Council seem to 

 have seen their mistake, and a committee was 

 appointed to interview the Secretary of the 

 Company with a view to getting the Company 

 to construct their railways from Oxford to 

 Moulsford nearer to the town for the conveni- 

 ence of the town and trade of the borough. 

 The Secretary replied that a meeting of the 

 Directors would shortly be held at Steventon, 

 when Mr. Brunei would be present, and they 

 would be prepared to receive and confer with 

 a deputation of the council. However, by a 

 majority of five to four in 1843 the assent of 

 the Council was refused to an application 

 for the construction of the line from Oxford 

 to Didcot with a branch to Abingdon. 

 Twelve years later the Council recognized 

 the folly of their decision, and unanimously 

 agreed to a scheme for the construction of a 

 line from the Great Western Railway to 

 Abingdon. This is a striking illustration of 

 the antagonism to the introduction of rail- 

 ways when they were first inaugurated. 

 Wallingford, Wantage and Faringdon were 

 left forsaken by the railways, with only small 

 branch lines as means of communication with 

 the main railways. Newbury was more 

 fortunate, the Berks and Hants Extension 



380 



Ibid. p. 34. 



Rec. of Abingdon, p. 257. 



