INDUSTRIES Railway passing though that town, being opened for traffic in 1847. But Reading is most favoured by the Railway Com- panies, which have made it a great com- mercial trading centre and brought much prosperity to the town. The county has for many years been served by the main lines of the Great Western Railway, its northern line through Didcot to Oxford, its branch lines from Reading to Newbury and Hunger- ford, and from Didcot to Newbury, and from Maidenhead to Cookham, and other con- necting lines ; also by the London and South Western Railway from London to Windsor and Reading, and the London and South Eastern Railway from London to Reading via Guildford. The little Lambourn Valley railway has in recent years opened out the western part of the county. We have already noticed that the first steam tramway in England was made to connect Wantage with the Great Western main line. The town of Abingdon after its violent opposition to railway communi- cation nearly retrieved its fallen fortunes by attracting to it in 1865 the Great Western Railway Company's carriage works when they were removed from Paddington. In spite of the offer of Sir George Bowyer, bart., to give the Company half the land required for the works, the proposal fell through, as the Company stated that the arrangements for the removal of the works to Oxford had gone so far as to be irrevocable. 1 The industry of staining glass was at one time carried on in Reading by John Rowell in the middle of the eighteenth century. Sir Horace Walpole speaks of him as one of those through whom the noble art was preserved, and by whom it was delivered down to the present time. The following curious advertisement was inserted by the artist in the Reading Mercury, 12 February 1753 : John Rowell, professor of the ancient art of staining glass, late of Wycomb, Bucks, now of Reading, having no son to succeed him, doth there- fore for the encouragement and improvement of that curious art, propose to explain and teach the same to any proper person for a reasonable con- sideration. Performances by him are to be seen in the chancel window at Hambleton near Henley in Oxfordshire, in which are the twelve apostles and Moses and Aaron, in their robes, with a large window of our Saviour's resurrection triumphing over death and the grave. The figures as big as life. Other windows painted by him were at Abthorpe, Northants, Newnham in Hamp- shire, Penn in Bucks, the Palace of the Bishop of Worcester at Hartlebury, and at Arborfield, Berks. He died in 1756 and was succeeded as a plumber by Mr. Truss, but his peculiar art of staining glass died with him. 2 One of the most important factories in Reading is that of Messrs. Huntley, Boorne & Stevens, who carry on the large tin works and employ about 1,000 hands. Established about the year 1840 by Mr. Joseph Huntley, on part of the premises now occupied by them, the firm turned their attention to the manu- facture of tin boxes and canisters for packing foodstuffs and other commodities. The works occupy the centre of the block of buildings bounded by London Street, Church Street,Southampton Street, and Crown Street, having frontages to each, the area being about three acres. In 1902 the business was formed into a private limited company, Mr. S. B. Stevens being the managing director. A very old-established industry is that of Charles Cocks & Co., Ltd., Reading, pro- prietors and sole manufacturers of Cocks' Reading Sauce. This sauce was first manu- factured by James Cocks in the year 1789, and it speedily attained considerable popularity. So long ago as 1814, Mr. Cocks obtained a verdict with a hundred guineas damages against an oil merchant in London for counter- feiting the Reading sauce. The business at its foundation was carried on entirely in Duke Street, but later on a brewing house and stores were erected on a site in King's Road, and in 1875 the premises now occupied by the company were erected on that same site. The Royal Seed Establishment of Messrs. Sutton & Sons provides one of the chief in- dustries for the county. Its foundations were laid at the commencement of the nineteenth century by thelate_Mr. Martin Hope Sutton. The story of his life has been told by Dr. Japp in his Successful Business Men, and in a privately printed memoir by the Rev. A. Cheales. He was an enthusiastic botanist, and by careful study of flowers, grasses and forage plants he acquired the knowledge requisite for his future business. The style of the firm was at first John Sutton & Son. In 1843 his brother Alfred became a partner. The Irish famine of 1847 proved advantageous to the firm, as Mr. Sutton was enabled by his knowledge to supply the distressed districts with seeds of turnips, beet, cabbage and other vegetables which by quick growth would mitigate the severity of the famine. The firm fought a hard fight against the system of seed adulteration prevalent sixty or seventy years ago, and it was mainly through their action that the Seeds 1 Rec. of Abingdon, p. 289. 3 8l 3 Man, Hist, of Reading, p. 94.
