Pangbourne

About

Close to Reading, Pangbourne, in Berkshire, is located on the River Thames and is on the opposite bank of the river to  Whitchurch-on-Thames. The Pang flows through the centre of Pangbourne before joining the Thames. The Whitchurch Bridge connects the two villages and nearby is Whitchurch Lock which is only accessible by boat.

The town has a few independent shops and there is a market every Friday.

Pangbourne was first recorded in 844 and during Norman times belonged to Reading Abbey. It was later owned by Sir John Davis, and Elizabethan mathematician and his monument is in the parish church of Saint James the Less. In 1671 the manor was brought by John Breedon who was High Sheriff of Berkshire and brother of Governor or Arcadia and Nova Scotia.

Kenneth Graham, who lived in Church Cottage until his death in 1932, is said to have been inspired by the local water voles to create the character ‘Ratty’ and the book ‘The Wind in the Willows’. You can now see the ‘Wind in the Willows’ exhibition at the River & Rowing Museum in Henley-on-Thames. It is also alleged that E.H. Shepherd’s illustrations of the book were inspired by the landscape along the Thames here.

Jerome K Jerome’s ‘Three Men in a Boat’ ended their journey at the Swan public House in Pangbourne.