Pangbourn (St. James)

PANGBOURN (St. James), a parish and small post-town, in the union of Bradfield, hundred of Reading, county of Berks, 5½ miles (W. N. W.) from Reading; containing 804 inhabitants. The parish takes its name from a fine trout stream called the Pang, which runs through it, and falls into the Thames on the east. It comprises 1924a. 36p., of which about 1340 acres are arable, 248 meadow and pasture, and 237 wood. The soil is in general a sharp gravel and chalk, and some of the land adjacent to the village is particularly fertile; the surface is hilly, and the summits of the eminences command fine views. The Great Western railway has a station here. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £10, and in the gift of J. S. Breedon, Esq.: the tithes have been commuted for £609, and the glebe contains about 3 acres, with a house. There is a place of worship for Independents. A school was founded in 1685, by John Breedon, who endowed it with a rent-charge of £40. In October, 1838, the excavators for the railway, at Shooter's Hill, in the parish, lighted upon five human skeletons, the remains of Roman soldiers, in and about whose graves were spearheads, spurs, and battle-axes of British and Roman manufacture, urns of terra cotta, and a large quantity of coins of various Roman emperors.