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Hungerford is a historic market town and civil parish in
Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...
, England, west of Newbury, east of
Marlborough Marlborough may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Marlborough, Wiltshire, England ** Marlborough College, public school * Marlborough School, Woodstock in Oxfordshire, England * The Marlborough Science Academy in Hertfordshire, England Austral ...
, northeast of Salisbury and 60 miles (97 km) west of London. The
Kennet and Avon Canal The Kennet and Avon Canal is a waterway in southern England with an overall length of , made up of two lengths of navigable river linked by a canal. The name is used to refer to the entire length of the navigation rather than solely to the cent ...
passes through the town alongside the River Dun, a major tributary of the River Kennet. The confluence with the Kennet is to the north of the centre whence canal and river both continue east. Amenities include schools, shops, cafés, restaurants, and facilities for the main national sports. railway station is a minor stop on the Reading to Taunton Line.


History

Hungerford is derived from a
Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...
name meaning " ford leading to poor land". The town's symbol is the
estoile In heraldry, the term star may refer to any star-shaped charge with any number of rays, which may appear straight or wavy, and may or may not be pierced. While there has been much confusion between the two due to their similar shape, a star with ...
and crescent moon. The place does not occur in the Domesday Book of 1086 but by 1241, it called itself a borough. In the late 14th century,
John of Gaunt John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (6 March 1340 – 3 February 1399) was an English royal prince, military leader, and statesman. He was the fourth son (third to survive infancy as William of Hatfield died shortly after birth) of King Edward ...
was lord of the manor and he granted the people the lucrative fishing rights on the River Kennet. The family of Walter Hungerford, 1st Baron Hungerford originated in the town (c. 1450), although after three generations the title passed to Baroness Hungerford who married Sir Edward Hastings who became a Baron, and the family seat moved to Heytesbury, Wiltshire. During the English Civil War, the Earl of Essex and his army spent the night here in June 1644. In October of the same year, the
Earl of Manchester Duke of Manchester is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain, and the current senior title of the House of Montagu. It was created in 1719 for the politician Charles Montagu, 4th Earl of Manchester. Manchester Parish in Jamaica was named afte ...
’s cavalry were quartered in the town. Then, in the November, Charles I’s forces arrived in Hungerford on their way to Abingdon. During the
Glorious Revolution The Glorious Revolution; gd, Rèabhlaid Ghlòrmhor; cy, Chwyldro Gogoneddus , also known as the ''Glorieuze Overtocht'' or ''Glorious Crossing'' in the Netherlands, is the sequence of events leading to the deposition of King James II and ...
of 1688, William of Orange was offered the Crown of England while staying at the Bear Inn in Hungerford. The Hungerford land south of the river Kennet was for centuries, until a widespread growth in cultivation in the area in the 18th century, in Savernake Forest.


1987 Massacre

The Hungerford massacre occurred on 19 August 1987. A 27-year-old unemployed local labourer, Michael Robert Ryan, armed with several weapons including a Type 56 assault rifle and a Beretta
pistol A pistol is a handgun, more specifically one with the chamber integral to its gun barrel, though in common usage the two terms are often used interchangeably. The English word was introduced in , when early handguns were produced in Europe, an ...
, shot and killed 16 people in and around the town – including his mother – and wounded 15 others, then killed himself in a local school after being surrounded by armed police. All his victims were shot in the town or in nearby Savernake Forest. A report on the massacre was commissioned by Home Secretary Douglas Hurd from the Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police, Colin Smith. It is one of three highly costly firearms atrocities in terms of lives in the United Kingdom since the invention of such rapid fire weapons, the other two being the Dunblane massacre and
Cumbria shootings The Cumbria shootings was a shooting spree which occurred on 2 June 2010 when a lone gunman, taxi driver Derrick Bird, killed twelve people and injured eleven others in Cumbria, England, United Kingdom. Along with the 1987 Hungerford massacre a ...
. The massacre led to the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1988, which banned the ownership of semi-automatic centre-fire rifles and restricted the use of shotguns with a
magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...
capacity of more than two rounds. The Hungerford Report had demonstrated that Ryan's collection of weapons was legally licensed.


Government

Hungerford is a civil parish, covering the town of Hungerford and a surrounding rural area, including the small village of
Hungerford Newtown Hungerford Newtown is a hamlet in the civil parish of Hungerford, Berkshire, England. It is south of the M4 motorway The M4, originally the London-South Wales Motorway, is a motorway in the United Kingdom running from west London to southwe ...
. The parish was divided into four
tithings A tithing or tything was a historic English legal, administrative or territorial unit, originally ten hides (and hence, one tenth of a hundred). Tithings later came to be seen as subdivisions of a manor or civil parish. The tithing's leader or s ...
: Hungerford or Town, Sanden Fee,
Eddington Eddington or Edington may refer to: People * Eddington Varmah, Liberian politician * Eddington (surname), people with the surname Places Australia * Eddington, Victoria United Kingdom * Eddington, Berkshire * Eddington, Cambridge * E ...
with Hidden and Newtown and Charnham Street. North and South Standen and Charnham Street were officially detached parts of Wiltshire until transferred to Berkshire in 1895. Leverton and Calcot were transferred to Hungerford parish from Chilton Foliat in Wiltshire in 1895. The parish shares boundaries with the
Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...
parishes of Lambourn, East Garston,
Great Shefford Great Shefford (or West Shefford) is an English village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish on the River Lambourn in the West Berkshire district of Berkshire. The present civil parish includes the historical parish of Little or East She ...
, Kintbury and Inkpen, and with the Wiltshire parishes of Shalbourne, Froxfield, Ramsbury and Chilton Foliat. Parish council responsibilities are undertaken by Hungerford Town Council, which consists of fifteen volunteer councillors and committee members, supported by a full-time clerk. The mayor is elected from amongst their numbers. The parish forms part of the district administered by the unitary authority of West Berkshire, and local government responsibilities are shared between the town council and unitary authority. Hungerford is part of the Newbury parliamentary constituency. Hungerford participates in town twinning to foster good international relations: *
Ligueil Ligueil () is a commune in the Indre-et-Loire department in central France. Geography Ligueil is close to the former border of Vichy France. Population International relations Ligueil is twinned with: * Hungerford, United Kingdom See also ...
, Indre-et-Loire, France.


Geography

Hungerford is on the River Dun. It is the westernmost town in Berkshire, on the border with Wiltshire. It is in the
North Wessex Downs The North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) is located in the English counties of Berkshire, Hampshire, Oxfordshire and Wiltshire. The name ''North Wessex Downs'' is not a traditional one, the area covered being better kno ...
. The highest point in the entire South East England region is the summit of Walbury Hill, from the town centre. The Kennet and Avon Canal separates Hungerford from what might be described as the town's only suburb, the hamlet of
Eddington Eddington or Edington may refer to: People * Eddington Varmah, Liberian politician * Eddington (surname), people with the surname Places Australia * Eddington, Victoria United Kingdom * Eddington, Berkshire * Eddington, Cambridge * E ...
. The town has, as its western border, a county divide which also marks the border of the South East and South West England regions; it is west of London and east of Bristol on the A4. It is almost equidistant from the towns of Newbury and Marlborough. Freeman's Marsh, on the western edge of the town, is a
Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...
.


Transport

Hungerford is situated on several transport routes, including the
M4 motorway The M4, originally the London-South Wales Motorway, is a motorway in the United Kingdom running from west London to southwest Wales. The English section to the Severn Bridge was constructed between 1961 and 1971; the Welsh element was largely ...
with access at Junction 14, the Old Bath Road (A4), and the Kennet and Avon Canal, the latter opened in 1811. railway station is on the Reading to Taunton line; a reasonable rail service to , and means that Hungerford has developed into something of a dormitory town which has been slowly expanding since the 1980s. Many residents commute to nearby towns such as Newbury,
Swindon Swindon () is a town and unitary authority with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Wiltshire, England. As of the 2021 Census, the population of Swindon was 201,669, making it the largest town in the county. The Swindon un ...
, Marlborough, Thatcham and Reading.


Church

The parish church of St. Lawrence stands next to the Kennet and Avon Canal. It was rebuilt in 1814–1816 by John Pinch the elder in the
Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
style. The east window contains stained glass by Lavers and Westlake. The church is a Grade II* listed building.


Sport and leisure

Hungerford has a cricket team,Hungerford in West Berkshire – Sports
Hungerford.uk.net. Retrieved on 17 July 2013.
a football team,
Hungerford Town F.C. Hungerford Town Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Hungerford, Berkshire, England. Affiliated to the Berks & Bucks Football Association, they are currently members of and play at Bulpit Lane. History The club was e ...
, that plays at the Bulpit Lane ground, a rugby team, Hungerford RFC. and a netball club. Hungerford Archers, an archery club, uses the sports field of the John O'Gaunt School as its shooting ground. Hungerford Hares Running Club was established in 2007.


Hocktide

Hungerford is the only place in the country to have continuously celebrated Hocktide or Tutti Day (the second Tuesday after Easter). Today it marks the end of the town council's financial and administrative year, but in the past it was a more general celebration associated with the town's great patron,
John of Gaunt John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (6 March 1340 – 3 February 1399) was an English royal prince, military leader, and statesman. He was the fourth son (third to survive infancy as William of Hatfield died shortly after birth) of King Edward ...
. Its origins are thought to lie in celebrations following King Alfred's expulsion of the Vikings. The "Bellman" (or town crier) summons the Commoners of the town to the Hocktide Court held at Hungerford Town Hall, while two florally decorated "Tutti Men" and the "Orange Man" visit every house with commoners' rights (almost a hundred properties), accompanied by six Tutti Girls, drawn from the local school. Originally they collected "head pennies" to ensure fishing and grazing rights. Today, they largely collect kisses from each lady of the house. In the court, the town's officers are elected for the coming year and the accounts examined. The court manages the town hall, the John of Gaunt Inn, the Common, Freeman's Marsh, and fishing rights in the River Kennet and river Dun.


Legends

There is an old legend that "Hingwar the Dane", better known as Ivarr the Boneless, was drowned accidentally while crossing the Kennet here, and that the town was named after him. This stems from the, probably mistaken, belief that the
Battle of Ethandun At the Battle of Edington, an army of the kingdom of Wessex under Alfred the Great defeated the Great Heathen Army led by the Dane Guthrum on a date between 6 and 12 May 878, resulting in the Treaty of Wedmore later the same year. Primary s ...
took place at Eddington in Berkshire rather than Edington, Wiltshire, or
Edington, Somerset Edington is a rural village, situated on the north side of the Polden Hills in the Sedgemoor district of Somerset, England. Either side of it lie the villages of Chilton Polden and Catcott, and north of it is the small village of Burtle. Ther ...
.


Literature

Hungerford is one of two places which arguably meet the criteria for Kennetbridge in
Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry of William Word ...
's novel '' Jude the Obscure'', being "a thriving town not more than a dozen miles south of Marygreen" ( Fawley) and is between Melchester ( Salisbury) and Christminster ( Oxford). The main road ( A338) from Oxford to Salisbury runs through Hungerford. The other contender is the larger town of Newbury.


Notable people

*
Charlie Austin Charles Austin (born 5 July 1989) is an English professional footballer who plays as a striker. Released from his contract by Reading as a youth, Austin played non-league football up to May 2009, when he was signed by Swindon Town after a pro ...
,
footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...
* Adam Brown, actor, comedian and pantomime performer * Samuel Chandler,
Nonconformist Nonconformity or nonconformism may refer to: Culture and society * Insubordination, the act of willfully disobeying an order of one's superior *Dissent, a sentiment or philosophy of non-agreement or opposition to a prevailing idea or entity ** ...
theologian and preacher * Christopher Derrick, author * Edward Duke (1779–1852),
antiquary An antiquarian or antiquary () is an fan (person), aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artifact (archaeology), artifac ...
* Ralph Evans (1915–1996), footballer * John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, son of King
Edward III Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377), also known as Edward of Windsor before his accession, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring r ...
*
William Greatrakes William Greatrakes (1723? – 2 August 1781) was an Irish barrister. Biography Greatrakes, born in Waterford about 1723, the eldest son of Alan Greatrakes of Mount Lahan, near Killeagh, County Cork, by his wife Frances Supple, of the neighbourin ...
, connected with the authorship of the Letters of
Junius Junius often refers to: * Junius (writer), the pseudonym of an 18th-century British political writer of strongly Whig principles * The nomen of the ancient Roman * or , the month of June on the ancient Roman calendar * Rosa Luxemburg's ''Junius Pa ...
* Nicholas Monro (b. 1936),
artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...
, had a studio at HungerfordRadio Birmingham interview with Munro, 11 May 1972, transcribed in part in * George Pocock (1774–1843), the founder of the Tent Methodist Society and inventor of the Charvolant * Charles Portal, 1st Viscount Portal of Hungerford, Chief of the Air Staff during most of World War II and Marshal of the Royal Air Force *
Reginald Portal Admiral Sir Reginald Henry Portal (6 September 1894 – 18 June 1983) was a Royal Navy officer and naval aviation pioneer who served in both world wars. Biography Born near Hungerford, Berkshire, Reginald Portal was the second son of Edward ...
, admiral * Henry "Harry" Quelch (1858–1913), one of the first British
Marxists Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialectic ...
*
Edmund Roche, 5th Baron Fermoy Edmund James Burke Roche, 5th Baron Fermoy (20 March 1939 – 19 August 1984), was a British businessman who held a title in the Peerage of Ireland. He was the maternal uncle of Diana, Princess of Wales. Early life and education He was born on 20 ...
, maternal uncle of
Diana, Princess of Wales Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Frances Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997) was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Princes William and Harry. Her ac ...
, died in Hungerford in 1984 * Robert Snooks, last
highwayman A highwayman was a robber who stole from travellers. This type of thief usually travelled and robbed by horse as compared to a footpad who travelled and robbed on foot; mounted highwaymen were widely considered to be socially superior to footp ...
to be hanged in England, born in Hungerford in 1761 *
James E. Talmage James Edward Talmage (21 September 1862 – 27 July 1933) was an English chemist, geologist, and religious leader who served as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) fro ...
, (1862–1933) LDS Church leader, writer and theologian. Author of '' Jesus the Christ'' * Jethro Tull (agriculturist), died in the town * Will Young, singer


Demography


Freedom of the Town

The following people and military units have received the Freedom of the Town of Hungerford.


Individuals

* Jennifer Bartter: 3 September 2022. * Martin Crane : 3 September 2022. * Penny Locke: 3 September 2022.


See also

* List of places in Berkshire * List of civil parishes in England *
List of towns in England This is a list of towns in England. Historically, towns were any settlement with a charter, including market towns and ancient boroughs. The process of incorporation was reformed in 1835 and many more places received borough charters, whilst other ...


References


External links


Hungerford Virtual MuseumHungerford Town CouncilHungerford Historical AssociationPhotos of Hungerford and surrounding area on geograph
{{authority control Towns in Berkshire Market towns in Berkshire Civil parishes in Berkshire West Berkshire District Kennet and Avon Canal