39 Rose Street

The wonderful row of medieval and Elizabethan houses at the end of Rose Street contains No. 39, a merchant’s house from the late 15thC. In the 16C Lucy Webbe, widow of John Robinson, clothier, lived here. She married William Laud from Reading, also a clothier and in October 1553 they had William, their only son who became Archbishop of Canterbury but was executed during the Commonwealth period in 1645 for his support of Charles I.

In his will of 1634 he made the following bequest: “to pay yearly to the corporation of Wokingham the sum of £50, to be applied for the first year as marriage portions to three poor maids of eighteen years at the least, born in Wokingham, who had served one master or mistress for three years together at the least, and for the two succeeding years for binding apprentice at a premium of £10 each five boys of fourteen years of age born of honest poor people of the Church of England in the said town, with a preference to the fatherless”.
 

The Wokingham Walk