A HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE called ' Kings Arms,' transporting goods from Abingdon to London.' The claimants had paid duty on the malt and appealed to the sessions for rebatement thereof. A ' draw- back ' or allowance of $s. 6d. for each quarter was ordered to be given them. At the same time there were six other similar orders granted ; and similar items appear in the accounts of subsequent years, showing the unsafe condition of the Thames as a highway for traffic in the early part of the eighteenth century. The owners of mill-dams or weirs facilitated navigation by having openings in these constructions by means of which barges could be floated over the shallows, and the barge-makers paid an acknowledgment to the owners of the weirs for the convenience thus afforded to navigation. The fees charged gradually grew to be excessive, and statutes were enacted to regulate these charges, and to prevent impositions at the weirs 1 on the part of their owners, who levied heavy toll on all barges, boats and other vessels. At the beginning of the eighteenth century complaints by the barge-masters were made, and the Commissions appointed by Parlia- ment in 1729-30 found that ' the water carriage was much raised.' In 1772 the first great effort was made to improve the system of the Thames navigation. About that time the trade on the river, owing to the general prosperity of the country, was rapidly increasing, and it was proposed to cut a canal from Reading to Isleworth which would have shortened the distance between Reading and London by 33 miles. The owners of lands adjoining the river, fearing the diversion of trade, opposed this project, and obtained an Act of Parliament 3 for the appointment of Thames Commissioners who should borrow money in order to erect pound- locks, the interest on the money and the repairs being defrayed from the tolls collected. In 1795 an Act of Parliament was passed to explain and amend two former Acts of 1771 and 1775, and to give new powers. Since the passing of that Act the navigation has been improved by the removal of shoals and the building of locks and the reduction of the rates and prices levied by riparian owners. The trade at the beginning of the nine- teenth century was considerable, and the number of barges registered by the surveyor of upper districts of the Thames navigation as constantly or occasionally trading on that ' 6 and 7 Will. III. cap. 16 ; 3 Geo. II. II ; 24 Geo. II. cap. 8. II Geo. III. cap. 45. cap. part of the river, amounted in 1805 to 195, and their tonnage was 15,037 tons. Other Berkshire rivers, the Loddon, Kennet, and the smaller streams, the Ock, Enborne, Emme, Broadwater, Ginge Brook, Black- water, contributed to the development of manufacturers and to the cultivation of industry. The lesser streams could be easily adapted to turn the wheels of the many mills which existed from an early period. At that time the riverside fisheries probably con- stituted the staple industry. The osiers which grew thickly on the river marshes by Twyford, Reading, and the banks of the Kennet, to which attention has already been given, were an obvious inducement for the existence probably at an early date of a considerable basket-making industry. As a means of communication for the traffic of merchandise the great roads passing through the county were largely used. Strings of pack-horses and wains conveyed along them the cloth goods and other products of Berkshire to London. This circumstance led to the construction of bridges which have exercised a considerable effect on the trading centres of the county. The construction of the bridge at Maidenhead in the thirteenth century called that town into being. 3 Pre- vious to its erection there was a ford and ferry at Babham End, whereby passengers from Lon- don crossed the river going through Cookham. The Great Western road passed on thence to Maidenhead thicket, where it diverged, one branch going to Reading and Bristol, and the other to Henley and Gloucester. The con- struction of the bridge diverted the road at Two-mile Brook from Burnham, it being carried over the new bridge through the hamlet, now the town, of Maidenhead to the Thicket. Camden remarks that ' after they had built a wooden bridge here upon piles Maidenhead began to have inns, and to be so frequented as to outvie its neighbouring mother Bray, a much more ancient place.' The erection of bridges also made consider- able alterations in the course of trade in other parts of the county. The old Wallingford bridge, one of the most important on the Thames, contributed in early times to the prosperity of that town. But in 1416 it lost its special trading advantages owing to the public spirit of two worthies of Abingdon, John Brett and John Houchons, or Huchyns, who were far-seeing enough to understand that to improve their town, trade should flow through it and not by it. They therefore, 376 3 ' Pontagium pro ponte de Maidenheith ' (Cal. of Pat. 26 Edw. I.).
