historic

Timeline

Working Life

Guilds

Cloth

The Oracle

Bricks

Beer

Seeds

Biscuits

Sauce

Iron

Planes

Offices

Factories

From the Middle Ages, Reading people have begun to organise their work in groups through workshops, guilds, factories and Offices.

The first important industry in Reading was clothmaking, due to the position of Reading at the eastern edge of the Downs. The Gild (or guild or yield) controlled the clothmaking, becoming more independent of the abbey as the years went by. With the dissolution of the abbey, the cloth trade was freed, only to decline until the Civil War ruined it.

New industries began to appear in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. This is the period in which the three B's of Reading became important- Brewing, Bulbs and Biscuits. In Victorian times these industries were responsible for the rapid growth of the town and helping the fourth B- brick making.

The three B's all left the town in the late 20th century, and their place was taken by new work. Offices and light industrial units or factories became the most important employers of people in the town.