7 Bridge Street

6 County Lock

County Lock is the second lock on the River Kennet. It is one of the shallowest locks on the Kennet, as boats only go up or down about 30cm in the lock. The main stream of the Kennet flows down the weir on the far side of the lock, whilst another arm of the Kennet disappears under the Bridge Street Roundabout.

This ready supply of water was important to the growth of Reading. The town was already a burh or borough at the time of the Domesday book in 1086. There were six mills on the Kennet while the town itself was still small, just a few scattered houses amongst the fields.

The area on the other side of the Kennet was the site of Simonds Brewery. William Simonds started brewing beer in Broad Street in 1785 and moved to Bridge Street in 1790. Over the years the brewery grew and grew, so that it occupied the entire area from the IDR dual carriageway, across Bridge Street and much of the Oracle site. Bridge Street itself was crossed by bridges and pipes carrying beer from one part of the brewery to the other. In 1960 Simonds brewery became part of Courage's and in 1980 the brewery moved from its cramped town centre site to a new brewery next to the motorway. On the western part of the site new houses and flats were built.