| The
Defences of Reading
The town was now made so that it could stand against a siege. The bridges
were broken down, the roads ruined, the mills destroyed. The towns people
were forced to dig deep ditches to defend the town, and a system of
low earth walls and defences was made. Guns were brought to the town
and put on top of the church towers.
Although they were forced to help with the defences, the townspeople
still tried to slow down the King’s efforts. They gave information
to the parliamentary spies who came to the town, stored gunpowder and
caused trouble.
Over the winter of 1642/3 the Parliamentary forces slowly took all the
towns lower down the Thames Valley until they had reached Sonning. Once
the weather got better, the armies of Parliament began to march on Reading,
some from Aylesbury and some from Windsor.
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