Coley Brick, Tile and Pottery Works

Coley had three main clay works located all within close proximity of each other. Due to large areas of clay sitting on a base of chalk, it made an ideal location to produce clay products. The Bricks with their reddish colour were used extensively in the buildings of Reading into the Victorian era. Many older areas of Reading including Coley still have abundant examples of this brickwork.

Towards the end of the 19th century, Reading became known for the use of differently coloured bricks, often white with red or cream, creating a variety of patterns. Examples can be seen in Belle Vue Road and Field Road.

When the Pottery and Brickwork Kilns eventually closed down, hundreds of new homes were soon built on top of the abandoned chalk mines, as the fledgling town pushed past its original boundaries. Over a hundred years later, this was to become a nightmare for some residents as chalk mines started to collapse under their homes (see Chalk Mines Collapse).

Click HERE for a map of the Kilns c1870.

COLEY KILNS (S & E Collier Ltd) was located where the Coley Recreation Ground is today. It produced Bricks, Tiles and Pottery. S & E Collier Ltd were Reading's largest brickmakers, and were established at Coley in the mid 19th century. Colliers moved to Grovelands, Tilehurst in 1870 and operated until 1964. They were known for their terracotta and 'Reading Red' bricks, and also produced pottery under the name of 'Silchester Ware'. The old Coley Kilns area was leveled around 1880 for a new recreation field.

In 1860, Samuel Collier and his wife Jane, purchased land on the West Side of Coley Avenue from the estate owner, John Bligh Monck of Coley Park. In 1862 they built a house called Westbourne Villa (now located on the north west corner of Coley Avenue and Berkeley Avenue). In 1863 they built another house called Enbourne Villa, which was renamed to Park Villa, and later Parkfield. In 1875, Park Villa was sold to George Carley. Jane (now a widow) resided in Castle Crescent, then moved to Coley Hill (1883).

COLEY POTTERY was located at the corner of Lower Field Road and Berkeley Avenue. St Saviour's Church (Christian Centre) is now situated on part of the original works site. It is believed to be the first works to open in 1770 and produced pottery products until closure in 1883, when the company moved from Reading.

AVENUE WORKS
Avenue Works was the last surviving Brickworks and was located over the area of Holybrook Road, Shaw Road and Wensley Road. It also produced Bricks, Tiles and Pottery. The east side closed in 1883 but the west portion (on Wensley Road) continued until 1900. This area was the western limit of progress at that time in the Coley area and sat on the border of the prestigious Coley Park estate.

Chalk Mines Collapse

In January 2000 part of the road surface in Field Road subsided and some houses partly collapsed as the previously long forgotten chalk mines started to cave in. Thirty homes had to be evacuated, with some residents unable to return for up to two years.

As there was originally no law requiring abandoned mines to be registered, they were soon forgotten about as new homes were built above them. Investigations are still continuing into this and other areas built over chalk mines. In the meantime stabilisation works costing millions of pounds have been continuing to prevent further mine collapse.

Part of a house collapses in Field Road in 2000

According to experts the chalk mines under Field Road were only used until 1830, but the three main Kilns reportedly remained in operation for at least another 50 years - the last closing in 1900. Whether they were still mining the chalk remains debatable. The Coley Primary School was the first major building erected near the mines area in 1874, with housing in Field Road not commencing until 1881.

Almost unnoticed was the collapse of a new swimming pool at Coley Primary School in 1994 - only a few days before it was due to open. No one at the time could ascertain the exact cause of the ground subsidence.

Field Road had to be evacuated following subsidence

In April 2001, engineers began a new phase of investigation and started probing land covering Field Road, Lower Field Road, Garnet Hill, Coley Place, Coley Hill and Dover Street.

Coley was not the only area affected, with a series of holes appearing in Palmer Park on the other side of town in 2001 and a network of mines known to be under Emmer Green.