We have already mentioned cloth-making as one of the great industries of the county in former times. The chief centres were Reading, Abingdon, and Newbury. A fulling mill at Newbury is mentioned in 1205. The interesting Cloth Hall at that place, now a museum, was built by the Guild of Clothworkers of Newbury, which was incorporated in 1601, and the beautiful old house of Shaw was built by a Newbury clothier named Thomas Dolman in 1581. The most famous of the Berkshire clothiers was John Winchcombe or Smalwoode, known as Jack of Newbury (died 1520). During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the clothing trade declined. This was partly due to the activity of the northern clothiers and to the introduction of machinery with the resulting factory system. Still as late as 1816 there were works in Katesgrove Lane, Reading, where sail-cloth for the navy was manufactured in large quantity.
The silk industry too, once of some importance, has left the district. At the end of the sixteenth century silk-stocking making was quite an important industry at Wokingham, and many mulberry trees were planted in and near the town. Silk manufactures were also active at Reading, Newbury, Kintbury, Twyford, and other places.
Seed-growing is an important industry at Reading and employs a large number of people.
Iron and brass foundries of some importance are established at Reading and many other places, and there are large engineering works at Wantage.
There was a good bell-foundry at Wokingham in the last quarter of the fourteenth century (temp. Richard II), and several bells made there still exist. About 1495 the business was transferred to Reading, and bell-founding was carried on at that place until the beginning of the eighteenth century.
Lastly, the open country near Lambourn has long been used for training race-horses, and there are very large stables in this part of the country. The “gallops” now extend from Compton, Ilsley, and Wantage to Lambourn.
12. Minerals. Building Materials.
There is very little in the way of minerals in the rock or soil of the county. Bands of ironstone are found in the Lower Greensand formation, and it appears to have been worked near Faringdon. A group of small hollows to the east of Little Coxwell are known as Cole’s Pits and were probably dug to get the iron ore.
