Hungerford

Narrowboat on the Kennet and Avon Canal

Hungerford Common

John of Gaunt

Hungerford is derived from an Anglo-Saxon name meaning "ford leading to poor land".[2] The town's symbol is the estoile and crescent moon.[3] The place is not described in the Domesday Book of 1086 because four ancient manors each owned some property within Hungerford, a possession located at the extreme western edge of the royal manor of Kintbury,[4] in the ancient hundred of Kintbury.[5] The manor of Standen Hussey, described as Standen in Wiltshire in Domesday,[6] was later in Hungerford parish.[7] The land was granted to Robert de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Leicester. When he died in 1118, he passed his English estates, including Hungerford, to his son Robert and his heirs who encouraged the town's growth over the next 70 years.[4]

By 1241, Hungerford called itself a borough.[8] In the late 14th century, John of Gaunt was lord of the manor and he granted the people the lucrative fishing rights on the River Kennet.[9] 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,[10] and the family seat moved to Heytesbury, Wiltshire.[11] In the 16th century, the parish of Hungerford was included in the formation of the hundred of Kintbury Eagle.[12]

During the 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’s cavalry were quartered in the town. Then, in the November, Charles I’s forces arrived in Hungerford on their way to Abingdon.[13] During the Glorious Revolution of 1688, William of Orange was offered the Crown of England while staying at the Bear Inn in Hungerford.[14] 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.[15]

Hungerford is a civil parish, covering the town of Hungerford and a surrounding rural area, including the small village of Hungerford Newtown. The parish was divided into four tithings: Hungerford or Town, Sanden Fee, Eddington 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 parishes of Lambourn, East Garston, Great Shefford, Kintbury and Inkpen, and with the Wiltshire parishes of Shalbourne, Froxfield, Ramsbury and Chilton Foliat.[18] 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, Indre-et-Loire, France.[19]

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 highest point in the entire South East England region is the 297 m (974 ft) summit of Walbury Hill, 4 mi (6.4 km) 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. 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 60 mi (97 km) west of London and 55 mi (89 km) 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.[20]

Hungerford railway station

Hungerford is situated on several transport routes, including the M4 motorway with access at Junction 14, the Old Bath Road (A4), and the Kennet and Avon Canal, the latter opened in 1811. Hungerford railway station is on the Reading to Taunton line; a reasonable rail service to Newbury, Reading and Paddington 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, Marlborough, Thatcham and Reading.

St. Lawrence's 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 style.[21] The east window contains stained glass by Lavers and Westlake. The church is a Grade II* listed building.[22]

Hungerford has a cricket team,[23] a football team, Hungerford Town F.C., that plays at the Bulpit Lane ground, a rugby team, Hungerford RFC.[24] and a netball club. Hungerford Archers, an archery club, uses the sports field of the John O'Gaunt School as its shooting ground.[23] Hungerford Hares Running Club was established in 2007.[25]

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. 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.

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 took place at Eddington in Berkshire rather than Edington, Wiltshire, or Edington, Somerset.

Hungerford is one of two places which arguably meet the criteria for Kennetbridge in Thomas Hardy's novel Jude the Obscure, being "a thriving town not more than a dozen miles south of Marygreen"[26] (Fawley) and is between Melchester (Salisbury) and Christminster (Oxford).[27] The main road (A338) from Oxford to Salisbury runs through Hungerford. The other contender is the larger town of Newbury.

• Charlie Austin, footballer
• Adam Brown, actor, comedian and pantomime performer
• Samuel Chandler, Nonconformist theologian and preacher
• Christopher Derrick, author
• Edward Duke (1779–1852), antiquary
• Ralph Evans (1915–1996), footballer
• John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, son of King Edward III
• William Greatrakes, connected with the authorship of the Letters of Junius
• Nicholas Monro (b. 1936), artist, had a studio at Hungerford[28]
• 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
• Henry "Harry" Quelch (1858–1913), one of the first British Marxists
• Edmund Roche, 5th Baron Fermoy, maternal uncle of Diana, Princess of Wales, died in Hungerford in 1984
• Robert Snooks, last highwayman to be hanged in England, born in Hungerford in 1761
• James E. Talmage, (1862–1933) LDS Church leader, writer and theologian. Author of Jesus the Christ
• Jethro Tull (agriculturist), died in the town
• Will Young, singer

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

• List of places in Berkshire
• List of towns in England

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hungerford.

• Hungerford Town Council
• Hungerford Virtual Museum
• Hungerford Historical Association
• Photos of Hungerford and surrounding area on geograph