DONNINGTON, a tything in the parish of SHAW,
hundred of FAIRCROSS, county of BERKS, 1 mile (N.)
from Spcenhamland. The population is returned with
the parish. Donnington castle, built by Sir Richard
de Abberbury, who was guardian to Richard II. in his
minority, stood upon a declivity, at the foot of which
runs the river Kennet: it was garrisoned for Charles 1.,
and withstood two sieges during the civil %var, in the
first of which three of its towers were demolished, and
in 1644 it was almost battered down by Colonel Dalbier,
from whom a field in the vicinity, in which he planted his
cannon, is still named; the only remains of this once impregnable
fortress consist of a gateway flanked by two
towers, a great portion of the ruins having been removed
and appropriated for the erection of a house close by.
A friary of the order of the Holy Trinity was also founded
by Sir Richard de Abberbury, the revenue of which, at
the dissolution, was valued at £20. 16. 6. per annum.
An hospital, called God's House, is supposed to
been founded in 1392, by the same individual, -who endowed
it with lands for a minister and certain poor persons,
whose revenue, at its suppression was valued at
£19. 3. 10.: upon the petition of the Earl of Nottingham
it was rebuilt, in 1570, and restored under the title
of Queen Elizabeth's hospital, for a master and twelve
poor brethren.