WANTAGE, a parish in the hundred of WANTAGE,
county of BERKS, comprising the market-town of Wantage,
and the hamlets of Charlton, Grove, and West Lockinge,
and containing 3256 inhabitants, of which number,
2560 are in the town of Wantage, 24 miles (W. N. W.)
from Reading, and 60 (W.) from London. This town,
celebrated as the birthplace of Alfred the Great, and as
a royal residence in the time of the West Saxons, was
made a borough after the Conquest, through the influence
of. Fulk Fitz-Warine, who had obtained a grant of
the manor from Bigod, Earl Marshal of England. It
js situated at the edge of the Vale of White Horse, on a
branch of the river Ocke; the streets are very irregularly
built, and contain but few good houses; an act of parliament
has been obtained for paving and lighting it: the
inhabitants are supplied with water from wells, and from
a' brook which runs into the river., The principal
branches of trade and manufacture are those of sacking,
twine,malt, and flour; coal is brought hither, and
corn,-flour, and malt sent to different parts, by means
of a branch of the Wilts and Berks canal, which
comes up to the town, affording a communication with
Bath, Bristol, and London. The market, in which the
corn is pitched, is on Saturday, chiefly for corn, also for
pigs and cattle: fairs are on the first Saturdays in
March and May, for cattle and cheese; July 18th, for
cherries; and the 18th of October, a statute fair: a
cheese fair is also held on the first Saturday in every
month. The petty sessions for the division are held here
every Saturday: a manorial court is held annually.
The living is a vicarage, in the peculiar jurisdiction
and patronage of the Dean and Canons of Windsor, rated
in the king's books at £35. 2. 8. The church,'which
is dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul, is a spacious and
handsome cruciform structure, with a square embattled
tower rising from the intersection; it is said to
have been built by some of the Fitzwarrens, to different
members of which family there are several monuments.
There are places of worship for Baptists, Independents,
and Wesleyan Methodists. A free grammar school for
the sons of inhabitants is situated in the churchyard,
and is supported from the proceeds of Town Lands,
given in the reigns of Henry VI. and Henry VII., and,
in 1598, vested in twelve trustees; the income is about
£ 200 per annum; an English school is connected with
it, in which twenty-four boys are educated. An infant
school was established in 1825, and supported by voluntary
contributions, but it has been discontinued from
want of funds: there are Sunday schools connected
with the established church and the dissenters. Seven
almshouses were founded and endowed by Richard
Styles, in 1680, with land in Hampshire, producing
about £70 per annum; twelve poor persons are maintained,
and receive a small weekly allowance. King
Alfred, whose memory is here retained by a well, called
"Alfred's Well," was born in 849, and died in 901. Dr.
Joseph Butler, Bishop of Durham, and the well-known
author of "The Analogy," was born here in 1692; as
was also the Rev. Isaac Kimber, a learned theological
writer; the former died in 1752, and the latter in 1755.