Birmingham Railway, was built through Coventry and opened in 1838. Textiles It is known that a silk weaving company was founded in Coventry in 1627, and at around the start of the 18th century, a ribbon weaving works was established by a Mr. Bird (probably William Bird, silkman, who was mayor in 1705), assisted by a number of Huguenot refugees who brought with them silk and ribbon weaving skills. From small beginnings, the trade grew rapidly and by the end of the 18th century it had become the basis of the city's economy. Coventry began to recover, and again became a major centre of a number of clothing trades. At first single-shuttle hand-looms were used, later joined by the engine or many-shuttle looms, and by 1818 there were 5,483 single hand-looms and 3,008 engine looms in Coventry, with nearly 10,000 workers employed in the trade rising to a peak of 25,000 in about 1857. A major employer was J&J Cash Ltd (Cash's), a silk weaving company founded in the 1840s by John and Joseph Cash in Foleshill. This first industrial boom came to a sudden end during the 1860s when foreign imports killed off the industry, and Coventry went into a slump. However, before long other industries began to develop and Coventry regained prosperity. Industries which developed included watch and clock making, manufacture of sewing machines, and from the 1880s onwards bicycle manufacture. Clocks and watches In the 18th and 19th centuries, Coventry became one of the three main UK centres of watch and clock manufacture and ranked alongside Prescot, near Liverpool and Clerkenwell in London. However, the origins of clock and watch making in the city can probably be traced to the latter half of the 17th century. Samuel Watson, who was sheriff of Coventry in 1682, became famous for making an ingenious astronomical clock; John Carte, a watchmaker from Coventry had set up his own business in London by 1695, and the mayor of Coventry in 1727 was a watchmaker named George Porter. The firm of "Vale" was established in the late 1740s, and "Rotherhams" set up business in 1750. The next 60 years saw a rapid development in the trade with factories employing a number of specialised workers springing up alongside the workshops of individual master craftsmen. From 1825 to 1850, Coventry's business in watches almost doubled, and in 1861, some 2,037 people were employed in the