The Croft

The Croft is a quiet green, lying away from the hustle and bustle of the High Street. It probably originated as the village green of the original village of Hungerford, before the “new” medieval town was laid out slightly to the east sometime between 1180 and 1250. It was originally known as “Town Croft” and has also been called “Play Croft” and “Church Croft”.
Around 1553 the land was owned by John Undewes and his wife. They gave the land, about one acre, “for the people of Hungerford to sport herein” at the nominal rent of a red rose yearly, if demanded. Such a rent is not demanded, and The Croft is now part of the Town and Manor land.
The alley way to the High Street (now known as Church Lane) was first originally known as Church Passage, and later as Little Church Lane. There are several notes in the Constable’s Accounts of money paid to the Bellman for sweeping Church Lane on Saturday evenings, so it was clean for the townspeople to go to Church on Sundays. In 1837 a turnstile was erected at west end of Little Church Lane, but it proved unsatisfactory, and was replaced by the two cast iron posts in 1863.
The line of trees along the northern part of The Croft has variously been known as “The Avenue” and “The Mall”.
The Croft Nursery School opened in 1942 as a Wartime Nursery (later re-named Day Nursery) administered by the Ministry of Health, to provide young mothers with crèche facilities whilst they worked at local factories involved in the war effort, including the Vickers Armstrong Aircraft Factory in Eddington and the Chilton Aircraft Factory in Church Way. The original prefabricated buildings were replaced in 2005.
The doctors’ surgery was built in 1959 and extended in 1993.

24 High Street

This property is an architectural treasure. It is a timber frame property whose detailed history is known right back to 1470.

26 High Street

This is another splendid and very large timber frame building, dating from the 16th century. It is one of the few with its original gables facing the High Street.

33 High Street

A casual glance at this wonderful brick frontage suggests that the house is Georgian. However, look more carefully and you will see that it has four bays on the second floor, five bays on the first floor and six bays on the ground floor. The re-fronting was added to an ancient timber-frame house, probably in 1710.

42 High Street.

This was built in 1814 as Hungerford’s National School. The adjacent building (41 High Street) was refurbished for the headmaster and clad in Bath stone.

85 & 86 High Street.

Despite the appearance of the High Street frontage, 85 & 86 High Street comprise a two-bay cruck house, which had a single bay open hall at its north end (86 High Street).

Croft Hall.

The Croft Hall opened in 1900. The site was originally part of the land used for the Free Grammar School, founded in 1635, which closed in 1884. In 1898 the school building was sold to Sir William Pearce of Chilton Lodge and soon demolished.

St. Lawrence’s Church

The Parish Church of St. Lawrence was built in 1814-16 in Georgian Gothic style. It is adjacent to the Kennet and Avon canal, and the Bath stone for the church was the largest of the early contracts for the canal company after the canal had opened in 1810.

The Bear Hotel

The Bear is one of the grand coaching inns of England, with a long and rich history. It is thought to have developed a lodging house for the adjacent medieval Priory of St John (see War Memorial) which was founded by 1232. There is documentary proof of its use as a Hospice in 1464.

The John o’Gaunt Inn.

By 1764 it was Hungerford's first workhouse, but when a larger workhouse was required in 1782, the paupers were moved to the "High House", now Charnham Close, 26 Charnham Street.

The Jubilee Bridge.

The brick bridge over the Kennet and Avon canal was designed by John Rennie and built in 1799. For the first 100 years of its life, it carried nothing heavier than horses and wagons. Through the 20th century and onwards, however, it has had to support increasingly heavy vehicles.

The Methodist Church and School.

There is a long and proud history of non-conformism in Hungerford. Records show that John Wesley visited Hungerford 14 times between 1739 and 1786.

The Three Swans

The Three Swans is one of Hungerford’s great old coaching inns – evidenced by the milestone mounted on its front wall showing it lies midway between Oxford and Salisbury. Today the earliest surviving record of an inn on the site is from a document of 1645.

The Town Hall and Corn Exchange.

The Town Hall and Corn Exchange were built in 1871. There had been three earlier town halls dating from the 13th century. All had been in the middle of the marketplace. A new town clock was given to the town in 1862 and the cupola of the 1786 town hall was much altered to accommodate the clock. However, the changes made the building unstable, and it was decided to build a new town hall, including a large and impressive clock tower.

The Tri-Service Station.

On the land between the old Ebenezer Wesleyan Chapel (on your left) and the Hungerford Hub (Library, on your right) a huge animal feed mill was built in 1932 – the Great Western Mill. It was a big employer in the town.

The War Memorial

This is Hungerford’s main War Memorial. It was built on the island in Bridge Street which had, since 1232, been the site of the ancient Priory of St John the Baptist. The Priory was dissolved by Henry VIII.

United Reformed Church.

The plaque above the church door states that this church opened as a Congregational Church in 1840. The Nonconformist congregation, founded in Hungerford in 1671, moved to this site in 1793.