Stuart

Timeline

Working Life

Guilds

Cloth

The Oracle

Bricks

Beer

Seeds

Biscuits

Sauce

Iron

Planes

Offices

Factories

Brickmaking

The clay which is found in many parts of Reading is ideal for making tiles and bricks. The bricks used for the Oracle were made in Tilehurst in 1627 and by the Georgian period brickworks and tileworks were well established in both Tilehurst and Katesgrove.

By the late 19C most of the kilns in Katesgrove were worked out, except for Waterloo Kilns and Rose Kilns. At Coley, two firms were making bricks but in 1885 one of these moved to Tilehurst. Samuel Wheeler founded Tilehurst Potteries at Kentwood Hill in 1885, and made roofing tiles and flower pots. S and E Collier, moved from Coley to Grovelends in lower Tilehurst. Here they continued until 1965.

With Reading’s good supply of clay and ready access to the rail network, supplies of bricks for the Victorian housing boom were easy to obtain. Many of Reading’s Victorian streets show complicated patterns of brickwork using bricks of many different colours.