Page:VCH Berkshire 1.djvu/478

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.