INDUSTRIES 



company under the title of East's Boat 

 Building Company, Limited. Edward J. 

 Cawston makes boats at his works situated in 

 the Caversham Road, and has been established 

 at Reading since 1871. He earned fame in 

 his young days by building the ' Rob Roy ' 

 canoe, in which Mr. McGregor crossed the 

 Atlantic and performed other adventurous 

 voyages. Mr. Edward G. L. Marsh, William 

 Moss, John Tims & Sons, who also have works 

 at Staines, are among the number of the 

 Reading boat builders. 



At Bisham there is the well known firm of 

 Messrs. Meakes & Redknap. At Wargrave 

 Mr. Henry Butcher is a builder of boats, and 

 Cookham has an old-established building- 

 yard, owned and worked by Mrs. William 

 Lacey. At Streatley the executors of Mrs. 

 Arthur E. Saunders and Mr. Henry Saunders 

 represent the boat-building trade. 



Abingdon can boast of two firms of boat 

 builders. Gabriel Davis owns the St. Helen's 

 Works at the Thames Wharf, which establish- 

 ment has now been converted into a company 



and is known as the Davis Engineering & 

 Launch Building Company, Limited. The 

 other Abingdon boat builder is Mr. James 

 Stevens, who makes also punts and canoes at 

 the St. Helen's Wharf and the Abingdon 

 bridge. 



At Wallingford Bridge Mr. G.F.W. Corneby 

 builds boats, punts and canoes, and Mr. P. 

 Turner is established at the Lower Wharf. 



Thus all along the banks of the Thames 

 have been established these numerous centres 

 of a thriving industry, which those who love 

 to take their pleasure on the river, and the 

 competitors for rowing championships have 

 called into being. Each summer seems to 

 increase the numbers of those who frequent 

 the aquatic pageants of Henley and other 

 regattas, or who row gently along the stream 

 on a summer's day, or glide along in electric 

 launches. Hence the industry of boat build- 

 ing shows no prospect of decaying, and the 

 phenomenal progress which it has made 

 during the last few years is likely to be abun- 

 dantly maintained. 



CLOTH-MAKING 



The clothing industry of Berkshire was 

 during the Tudor period one of the most 

 important in the county, and the trade 

 carried on in the chief towns and neighbour- 

 ing villages must have been very considerable. 

 Newbury, Reading and Abingdon were the 

 principal centres of the industry which pro- 

 vided work not only for the townsfolk, but 

 for the neighbouring villagers. It has al- 

 ready been noticed that the extensive range 

 of downland on the chalk hills of Berkshire 

 furnishes excellent pasturage for sheep, which 

 provided the rich fleeces and laid the found- 

 ations of its success as a flourishing cloth- 

 making county. 



If we might take as evidence of the anti- 

 quity of the industry the fanciful romance of 

 Thomas Deloney entitled The Pleasant His- 

 tory of Thomas of Reading or the SixeWorthie 

 Teamen of the West an assumption which is 

 scarcely warrantable we should conclude 

 that cloth-making was in a very flourishing 

 state as early as the days of Henry I. The 

 hero of this tale is a certain Thomas Cole, 

 cloth-maker of Reading, whose numerous 

 wains laden with cloth arrested the progress 

 of the king and drivers of his nobility as they 

 rode from London towards Wales. He de- 

 manded of the men whose wains they were. 

 They answered ' Cole's of Reading.' The 

 king was much interested in ' his worthy 



yeoman,' and when he died he ' desired to be 

 buried near his good clothiers who living were 

 his heart's delight.' 



The evidence of the existence of the trade 

 in the time of Henry I. is extremely doubtful, 

 but Deloney's description of clothing industry 

 as it existed in his own days may be taken as 

 fairly accurate. ' The Art,' he says, ' was 

 held in high reputation both in respect of the 

 great riches that thereby were gotten, as also 

 of the benefit it brought to the common- 

 wealth. Among all crafts this was the only 

 chief, for that it was the greatest merchan- 

 dise, by the which our country became famous 

 throughout all nations. And it was wisely 

 thought that the on half of the people in the 

 land lived in those days thereby, and in such 

 good sort, that in the commonwealth there 

 were few or no beggars at all ; poor people 

 whom God had blessed with most children 

 did by means of this occupation so order them 

 that when they were come to five or seven 

 years of age they were able to get their own 

 bread. Therefore it was not without cause 

 that clothiers were then both honoured and 

 loved.' i 



The early notices of the existence of fulling 

 mills in different parts of the county show 



1 Deloney, Pleasant History of Thomas of 

 Reading, Introduction. 



387 



