13 Huntley and Palmers

12 High Bridge Wharf

At the same time as coaches were becoming the main way for people to travel from town to town canals were becoming the main way of transporting goods. Reading, being on the junction of two main roads and two important waterways, the Thames and the Kennet, was in a good position to benefit from both.

For many years High Bridge was as far as large boats could travel: it was the limit of navigation. All large boats which had travelled so far had to be unloaded at the wharves at High Bridge or Star Lane. The wharf would have been busy with barges loading and unloading their goods. One of the main things they would have been carrying is cloth. There are still some signs of this area being used as a wharf. Further downstream there are still some old buildings which were here when this was still a wharf.

In 1715 the Kennet Navigation Act was passed by Parliament. This allowed the Kennet from Reading to Newbury to be made navigable so that boats could travel along it. Where the river made a big loop, a canal was built across it so that the boats did not have so far to go. This made travel by boat quicker. Below High Bridge wharf is one of these canal sections, with the main river flowing north and the canal going straight ahead.

In Reading it was thought that the canalising of the Kennet would make all those people who loaded and unloaded boats unemployed. The work on the canal was damaged. When boats did eventually try and pass along the new canal people threw stones at the boatmen. The amount of goods flowing through the town increased greatly with the opening up of the river. Often goods had to be loaded from one boat to another at Reading. In 1810 the Kennet Navigation was taken over by the Kennet and Avon Canal, and by 1815 the Canal was completed between Newbury and Bath, so that boats could travel all the way between London and Bristol. The canal gradually fell into disuse after the coming of the railways. Now most of the boats on the Kennet are pleasure boats with holidaymakers on board.