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Business in Wokingham - A Short History
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A Saxon farming community which became a successful market town before developing into the thriving business centre we know today. Let’s find out more about Business in Wokingham.
In medieval times, the town of Wokingham was famed for its Bell Foundry and there’s evidence to suggest this industry was well established in the town during the 1300s although it eventually relocated to Reading a couple of hundred years later. Wokingham bells were renowned for their clarity and sustain and many local churches used them. Bell Foundry Lane still remains. Around 1600, an influx of Flemish weavers set up in the town and soon Wokingham became famous for the quality of its silken goods. By the 1800s, the trade had died out somewhat so the people of the town turned their hands to other trades including leatherwork, woollen goods, brewing, coachbuilding, and brick-making. Luxury coaches for King Edward VII, Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein and Empress Eugenie of France were made by Wokingham-based Lush Brothers. Alexander Pope, generally regarded as the greatest English poet of the early eighteenth century, was a local man and often visited the Rose Inn. (Not the Rose Inn that exists today, but the original building which stood on the site of the present Co-Op.) Finding himself stranded there one day during a storm, he and his friends composed the ballad ‘Fair Molly Mogg’ dedicated to the Landlord’s beautiful daughter. The song became very popular nationally in its day and Wokingham became famous as the hometown of Molly Mogg. In the late 18th century, William Heelas arrived in Wokingham and began trading as a linen draper. The shop expanded through the centuries, eventually taking up most of the north side of the Market Place. Although Heelas is no longer in the town, an additional branch went on to become Reading's greatest Department Store. One of the old Wokingham Heelas buildings is now part of Boots. Did You Know? The man who led Charles II’s victory procession into London at the Restoration was a Wokingham man - Major-General Sir Richard "Moses" Browne. Cock fighting and bull-baiting were both popular in Wokingham and there was once a famous cock-pit at the end of Cock Walk. The last bull baiting in England took place in Wokingham in 1832. The gallant French highwayman, Claude Duval, worked this area and is said to have owned a cottage in Highwater Lane. Right up until the late 1800s, Wokingham was often known as ‘Oakingham’. This in itself was a corruption of the original ‘Wocca’s People’s Home’ – Wocca was a Saxon leader who’s people first settled in the area. |
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