INDUSTRIES 



Railway passing though that town, being 

 opened for traffic in 1847. But Reading 

 is most favoured by the Railway Com- 

 panies, which have made it a great com- 

 mercial trading centre and brought much 

 prosperity to the town. The county has 

 for many years been served by the main lines 

 of the Great Western Railway, its northern 

 line through Didcot to Oxford, its branch 

 lines from Reading to Newbury and Hunger- 

 ford, and from Didcot to Newbury, and from 

 Maidenhead to Cookham, and other con- 

 necting lines ; also by the London and South 

 Western Railway from London to Windsor 

 and Reading, and the London and South 

 Eastern Railway from London to Reading 

 via Guildford. The little Lambourn Valley 

 railway has in recent years opened out the 

 western part of the county. We have already 

 noticed that the first steam tramway in England 

 was made to connect Wantage with the Great 

 Western main line. The town of Abingdon 

 after its violent opposition to railway communi- 

 cation nearly retrieved its fallen fortunes by 

 attracting to it in 1865 the Great Western 

 Railway Company's carriage works when 

 they were removed from Paddington. In 

 spite of the offer of Sir George Bowyer, bart., 

 to give the Company half the land required 

 for the works, the proposal fell through, as 

 the Company stated that the arrangements 

 for the removal of the works to Oxford had 

 gone so far as to be irrevocable. 1 



The industry of staining glass was at one time 

 carried on in Reading by John Rowell in the 

 middle of the eighteenth century. Sir Horace 

 Walpole speaks of him as one of those through 

 whom the noble art was preserved, and by 

 whom it was delivered down to the present 

 time. The following curious advertisement 

 was inserted by the artist in the Reading 

 Mercury, 12 February 1753 : 



John Rowell, professor of the ancient art of 

 staining glass, late of Wycomb, Bucks, now of 

 Reading, having no son to succeed him, doth there- 

 fore for the encouragement and improvement of 

 that curious art, propose to explain and teach the 

 same to any proper person for a reasonable con- 

 sideration. Performances by him are to be seen 

 in the chancel window at Hambleton near Henley 

 in Oxfordshire, in which are the twelve apostles 

 and Moses and Aaron, in their robes, with a large 

 window of our Saviour's resurrection triumphing 

 over death and the grave. The figures as big as life. 



Other windows painted by him were at 

 Abthorpe, Northants, Newnham in Hamp- 

 shire, Penn in Bucks, the Palace of the Bishop 

 of Worcester at Hartlebury, and at Arborfield, 



Berks. He died in 1756 and was succeeded 

 as a plumber by Mr. Truss, but his peculiar 

 art of staining glass died with him. 2 



One of the most important factories in 

 Reading is that of Messrs. Huntley, Boorne 

 & Stevens, who carry on the large tin works 

 and employ about 1,000 hands. Established 

 about the year 1840 by Mr. Joseph Huntley, 

 on part of the premises now occupied by them, 

 the firm turned their attention to the manu- 

 facture of tin boxes and canisters for packing 

 foodstuffs and other commodities. The 

 works occupy the centre of the block of 

 buildings bounded by London Street, Church 

 Street,Southampton Street, and Crown Street, 

 having frontages to each, the area being about 

 three acres. In 1902 the business was formed 

 into a private limited company, Mr. S. B. 

 Stevens being the managing director. 



A very old-established industry is that of 

 Charles Cocks & Co., Ltd., Reading, pro- 

 prietors and sole manufacturers of Cocks' 

 Reading Sauce. This sauce was first manu- 

 factured by James Cocks in the year 1789, and 

 it speedily attained considerable popularity. 

 So long ago as 1814, Mr. Cocks obtained 

 a verdict with a hundred guineas damages 

 against an oil merchant in London for counter- 

 feiting the Reading sauce. 



The business at its foundation was carried 

 on entirely in Duke Street, but later on a 

 brewing house and stores were erected on a 

 site in King's Road, and in 1875 the premises 

 now occupied by the company were erected 

 on that same site. 



The Royal Seed Establishment of Messrs. 

 Sutton & Sons provides one of the chief in- 

 dustries for the county. Its foundations were 

 laid at the commencement of the nineteenth 

 century by thelate_Mr. Martin Hope Sutton. 

 The story of his life has been told by Dr. Japp 

 in his Successful Business Men, and in a privately 

 printed memoir by the Rev. A. Cheales. He 

 was an enthusiastic botanist, and by careful 

 study of flowers, grasses and forage plants 

 he acquired the knowledge requisite for his 

 future business. The style of the firm was at 

 first John Sutton & Son. In 1843 his brother 

 Alfred became a partner. The Irish famine 

 of 1847 proved advantageous to the firm, 

 as Mr. Sutton was enabled by his knowledge 

 to supply the distressed districts with seeds of 

 turnips, beet, cabbage and other vegetables 

 which by quick growth would mitigate the 

 severity of the famine. The firm fought a hard 

 fight against the system of seed adulteration 

 prevalent sixty or seventy years ago, and it 

 was mainly through their action that the Seeds 



1 Rec. of Abingdon, p. 289. 



3 8l 



3 Man, Hist, of Reading, p. 94. 



