The cloth industry appears to have been important in the development of the town until the 17th century along with malting. Brewing became important during the 18th and 19th centuries, and the oldest and most successful brewery was May’s Brewery, established by Thomas and William May in 1750 in Brook Street. The London and South Western Railway arrived in 1839 from London, and within a year it was extended to Winchester and Southampton. In 1848 a rival company, sponsored by the Great Western Railway built a branch from Reading. In 1854 a line was built to Salisbury by the London and South Western. In the 19th century Basingstoke began to move into industrial manufacture, Wallis and Haslam (later Wallis & Steevens), began producing agricultural equipment including threshing machines in the 1850s, moving into the production of stationary steam engines in the 1860s and then traction engines in the 1870s. Two traders who opened their first shops within a year of each other in the town, went on to become household names nationally: Thomas Burberry in 1856 and Alfred Milward in 1857. Burberry became famous after he invented Gabardine and Milward founded the Milwards chain of shoe shops, which could be found on almost every high street until the 1980s.