A HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE 



been the same morning growing on the 

 sheep's back. At 5 a.m. two sheep were 

 shorn, the wool washed, stubbed, roved, spun 

 and woven ; the cloth scoured, fulled, tented, 

 raised, sheared, dyed and dressed. At 4 p.m. 

 the cloth was finished. James White and his 

 nine tailors finished the coat long before the 

 sun had set, and the baronet appeared wear- 

 ing it in the presence of 5,000 people. The 

 coat was a hunting kersey, ' of a dark Welling- 

 ton colour.' There were great festivities, a 

 large oil-painting was made of the persons 

 who were engaged or interested in the feat. 

 The coat was exhibited at the great exhibi- 

 tion of 1851, and still hangs in the hall of 

 Buckland House as a permanent memorial 

 of a curious industrial achievement. 



At Reading, when the Civil War put an end 

 to the making of the good broadcloth for 

 which the town was famous, the Oracle was 

 turned into a garrison and then into a work- 

 house for the poor. An attempt was made 

 to revive the industry. An entry in the 

 Corporation Diary in 1695 states that Samuel 

 Watlington, ' who had 200 of Mr. Kendrick's 

 money, should employ 20 poor persons charge- 

 able to each parish.' In the following year 

 an order was made ' for the blue-boys' gowns 

 to be bought of Mr. Watlington, mayor, of 

 that cloth which is made in the Oracle.' 1 In 

 1703, owing to the loss of 1,100 caused by the 

 mismanagement of the custodians, all the 

 looms were ordered to be taken out of the 

 building. In 1716 poor people were em- 

 ployed there in spinning coarse flax for 

 sail cloth. Sheeting, sail cloth, floor cloth, 

 and sacking goods continued to be manu- 

 factured here [for over a century. The in- 

 dustry spread, and manufactories were opened 

 in other parts of the town. In 1719 a peti- 

 tion was presented to the House of Com- 

 mons from the Mayor, Aldermen, burgesses, 

 and clothiers, drugget-makers, etc., of the 

 borough of Reading, in behalf of themselves 

 and several thousands depending upon them. 



In Katesgrove Lane Mr. Musgrave Lamb 

 had in 1816 an old-established factory which 

 produced sail cloth remarkable for its strength 

 and whiteness, owing to a peculiar process the 

 yarn was exposed to in boiling before it was 

 woven. This sail cloth was extensively pur- 

 chased by the Government for the use of the 

 Navy and by the East India Company. 

 About 140 looms were employed in this trade 

 alone, some of which were capable of weaving 

 cloths six or seven yards wide. 3 At the 

 beginning of the last century a floorcloth 



1 Coates, Hist, of Reading, p. 147. 

 a Man, Hist, of Reading, p. 161. 



manufactory existed in the town, the cloth 

 being sent to London to be painted. Sacking 

 was also made at Wantage, a poor substitute 

 for the far-famed Berkshire cloth, once well 

 known in the chief markets of the world. Dr. 

 Mavor reported that in 1808 considerable 

 quantities of sacking and hammocks were 

 manufactured at Wantage for the use of the 

 Government, and that five principal masters 

 have establishments for making a kind of 

 white cloth, called foul-weather, chiefly for 

 the use of the labouring poor. The water was 

 excellently adapted for fulling and many 

 hands were employed. 



The cause of the decay of Berkshire cloth- 

 making is not far to seek, apart from the 

 special causes which have already been 

 enumerated. The activity of the northern 

 clothiers, the improvement in the manu- 

 facture of cloth, the introduction of machin- 

 ery, and with it the factory system, spinning- 

 jennies, carding machines, and like inventions, 

 due to the spirit of industry and inventive 

 genius "of the clothiers in the large manufac- 

 turing districts of Lancashire and Yorkshire, 

 turned the tide of fortune elsewhere. Dis- 

 tressed weavers and spinners fled northward, 

 and the prosperity of the county as a great 

 manufacturing locality for a time ceased. 

 At Newbury the trade lingered on well into 

 the last century, where in 1808 kerseys, 

 cottons, calicoes, linen and damask were 

 manufactured, and also a colony of Witney 

 blanket makers settled in the town and 

 produced blankets in no way inferior to the 

 products of the famous Witney looms. 



Only in one town in Berkshire does the 

 clothing industry still find a home, and that 

 is in the town once famous for the same manu- 

 facture, Abingdon. Leland stated in the 

 time of Henry VIII. that ' the town stondeth 

 by clothing.' It had its great merchants in 

 mediaeval times, and the abbot had his full- 

 ing mill, which became as ruinous as his own 

 monastery. The charter of James I. shows that 

 an attempt was made to revive the clothing 

 industry by establishing a wool market, and 

 the setting of the inhabitants to the working 

 of sheep's wool, woollen thread and yarn. 

 Amongst the members of the companies into 

 which the inhabitants were ' to be sorted 

 and severed,' clothworkers and sheremen are 

 mentioned in the year 1669. The spinning 

 and weaving of flax was a flourishing industry 

 in the eighteenth century. Coarse cloth used 

 for sacking, and other purposes, which have 

 already been mentioned, continued to be 

 made, and is still to some extent maintained. 

 At the beginning of the last century the 

 Abingdon manufacturers of sacking had a 



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