PANGBOURN, a parish in the hundred of
READING, county of BERKS, 5 miles (W. N. W.) from
Reading, containing 703 inhabitants. The living is a
rectory, in the archdeaconry of Berks, and diocese of
Salisbury, rated in the king's books at £ 10, and in the
patronage of J. S. Breedon, Esq. The church is dedicated
to St. James. There is a place of worship for
Independents. A fine trout stream, called the Pang,
runs through the parish, and flows into the Thames,
which separates this from the parish of Whitchurch in
Oxfordshire. A school for twelve boys was founded in
1685, by John Breedon, Esq., who endowed it with a
rent-charge of £40, payable by the lord of the manor
the master's salary is £25 a year, and the remainder is
applied in apprenticing the boys. Mrs. Dibble, in 1800
bequeathed £100 three per cents, towards repairing the
school premises.