INDUSTRIES the remains of some curious excavations in the earth which go by the name of ' Cole's Pits.' Many explanations of these have been suggested, but the most probable appears to be that they are the relics of old workings in the underlying ironstone. 1 It is said that mill-stones were formerly made here of this substance. Building stone of Portland age, similar to that which occurs in the great quarries of Swindon a few miles to the west, was formerly worked at Bourton, 2 a village which is built on a small outlier of that formation. Berkshire is well provided with the raw material for the manufacture of bricks, tiles and pottery, clay of various qualities being found abundantly within its borders. On the revival of brickmaking in the fourteenth century this county was one of the first dis- tricts in which it was carried on. The tower of Letcombe Bassett church is of brick with stone dressings in the Early English style, 3 and was probably one of the earliest buildings to be erected with the newly introduced material. The good quality of the clay at Reading, which belongs to the geological formation known as the Reading Beds, com- bined with the ease with which it can be worked, occurring as it does on the hillsides on both banks of the Kennet, caused the town to be the chief centre of this industry in Berk- shire from the first. The bed of fossil oyster shells which was found near the base of the Reading clays in the pits of Katesgrove or Catsgrove early attracted the notice of the curious. We find it mentioned by Dr. Brewer, 4 Robert Plot, 5 Dr. William Stukeley a and others, some of whom also give accounts of the bricks and tiles which were then made at that spot. These were not only used for the houses of the town itself but also in the surrounding villages. The bricks for the seventeenth century church towers of Wargrave, Ruscombe, Hurst and Shin- field were probably obtained from the Kates- grove kilns. The site of the old brickyard is now built over, but further south, along the same hillside, the clay is still worked at the Waterlow kiln by Messrs. Poulton & Sons. At Coley, on the opposite side of the Kennet, the clay was worked up till 1877 by Messrs. S. & E. Collier, but the available supply 1 E. C. Davey, op. cit. 2 A. C. Ramsey. (Mem. Geol. Survey, 1858), On the Geology of Parts of Wilts and Berks, p. 27. <> Parker, Eccl. Topog. of Berks (1849). 1 Phil. Trans, xxii. 485 (1700). ' Nat. Hist, of Oxford, p. 120 (1705). Itinerarium Curiosum, p. 59 (1724). being used up their works were then removed to Grovelands, between Reading and Tile- hurst, where an extensive manufactory of bricks, tiles, pottery and terra-cotta is carried on by that firm. This clay is also used in many other brickyards, not only near Reading, but all along its main outcrop and also on some of the many outliers which occur on the hilltops in the chalk districts. Among the principal kilns may be mentioned those at Pinkney's Green, near Maidenhead, Knowl Hill, Ruscombe, Shaw, Tilehurst, Upper Basildon, Kintbury, Curridge, Wickham, and many other places. The industry was carried on in Cookham parish in very early times, and judging by the exhausted clay pits must have been of some local importance. Tiles were made there in the year 1287, when they were sold at the price of 2s. 2d. per thousand. 7 The names Kiln Meadow and Kiln Platt denote the sites of the former manufacture. The extensive works at Pinkney's Green for bricks, tiles, and terra-cotta were established in 1825 by Mr. Charles Cooper, and are now carried on by his descendants under the name of J. K. Cooper & Sons. For many years the ma- chinery was worked by horse-power, but steam power was substituted about 30 years go. The firm is noted for its terra-cotta work, and the colour is entirely due to the natural brick earth, and not to any artificial colouring. They employ about 100 men, and the trade is principally a home one, although they have a good foreign trade also. Owing to the great demand for bricks, caused by the increase of population in the south-eastern part of the county, many brick- yards have been opened in recent years near Bracknell and Wokingham by Messrs. T. Lawrence & Sons, The Bracknell Brick, Tile and Pottery Co. and others. The material used in this district is the London Clay and, in some instances, the overlying Bagshot Beds. The London Clay is also used for brick-making on the south side of the Kennet at Newbury. In the northern part of the county the Kim- meridge Clay is worked near Cumnor by the Chawley Brickworks Co. to meet the demand created by the neighbouring city of Oxford. The same clay is also dug at Faringdon and at Drayton near Abingdon. In the Vale of White Horse the Gault Clay is used for brick- making at Uffington, Childrey and other places. Sarsen stones, 8 or Greywethers, hardened 7 Rogers, Hist, of Agriculture and Prices, ii. 434. 8 Prof. Rupert Jones, paper in Berks, etc., Arch. Jo-urn, vii. 54 (1901). 373
