Hatford, Berkshire
Historical Description
Hatford, a village and a parish in Berks, near the river Ock, 3½ miles E by S from Faringdon town and station on the G.W.R. Post town, Faringdon; money order and telegraph office, Stanford-in-the-Vale. Acreage, 993; population, 110. The manor belonged to the poet Chaucer, passed through marriage with the poet's daughter to the Duke of Suffolk, went afterwards to the Crown, and belongs now to the Pnsey family. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Oxford; gross value, £242 with residence. The church of St George is ancient and good, has a Norman doorway, and contains a very ancient tomb, traditionally said to be that of Thos. Chaucer, the son of the poet The church of the Holy Trinity is a building of stone in the Early English style; it was erected in 1874.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
| Ancient County | Berkshire | |
| Ecclesiastical parish | Hatford St. George | |
| Hundred | Ganfield | |
| Poor Law union | Farringdon |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1538.
Churches
Church of England
Holy Trinity (parish church)
The church of the Holy Trinity, erected in 1873-4, at a cost of £4,000, by the Rev. Samuel Paynter M.A. of Nice, then patron, and consecrated May 7, 1874, is an edifice of stone in the Early English style, consisting of apsidal chancel, nave, south porch and an embattled tower at the south-west angle containing a clock and 4 bells: there are 120 sittings.
St. George (parish church)
The ancient church of St. George, a structure of the Early Norman period, and still standing, contains a tomb supposed to be that of Sir Robert de Hatford, the reputed founder of the church, who was lord of the manor in the reign of Henry III.; others, however, believe it to be the tomb of Thomas Chancer, a son of the poet, who also held the manor: the south doorway of the nave is a fine example of Norman work.
Civil Registration
Hatford was in Faringdon Registration District from 1837 to 1937 and Wantage Registration District from 1937 to 1974
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Hatford from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Hatford (St. George))
- Kelly's Directory of Berkshire, 1915
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Berkshire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Hatford are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Berkshire papers online:
Visitations Heraldic
The Visitations of Berkshire 1532, 1566, and 1665-6 is available online.