Hungerford is derived from an
Anglo-Saxon name meaning "
ford leading to poor land". The town's symbol is the
estoile and crescent moon. The place is not described in the
Domesday Book of 1086 because four ancient manors each owned some property within Hungerford, a possession located at the extreme western edge of the royal manor of Kintbury, in the ancient
hundred of
Kintbury. The manor of Standen Hussey, described as Standen in Wiltshire in Domesday, was later in Hungerford parish. The land was granted to
Robert de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Leicester. When he died in 1118, he passed his English estates, including Hungerford, to his son Robert and his heirs who encouraged the town's growth over the next 70 years. In the late 14th century,
John of Gaunt was
lord of the manor and he granted the people the lucrative fishing rights on the River Kennet. The family of
Walter Hungerford, 1st Baron Hungerford originated in the town (c. 1450), although after three generations the title passed to
Baroness Hungerford who married Sir
Edward Hastings who became a Baron, and the family seat moved to
Heytesbury,
Wiltshire. In the 16th century, the parish of Hungerford was included in the formation of the hundred of Kintbury Eagle. During the
Civil War, the
Earl of Essex and his army spent the night here in June 1644. In October of the same year, the
Earl of Manchester’s cavalry were quartered in the town. Then, in the November,
Charles I’s forces arrived in Hungerford on their way to
Abingdon. During the
Glorious Revolution of 1688,
William of Orange was offered
the Crown of
England while staying at the Bear Inn in Hungerford. The Hungerford land south of the river Kennet was for centuries, until a widespread growth in cultivation in the area in the 18th century, in
Savernake Forest.
1987 massacre The Hungerford massacre occurred on 19 August 1987. A 27-year-old
unemployed local labourer, Michael Robert Ryan, armed with three legally-held firearms, a
Type 56 assault rifle, a
Beretta pistol and an
M1 carbine, shot and killed 16 people in and around the town – including his mother – and wounded 15 others, then
killed himself in a local school after being surrounded by armed police. All his victims were shot in the town or in nearby
Savernake Forest.
Home Secretary Douglas Hurd commissioned a report on the massacre from the Chief Constable of
Thames Valley Police, Colin Smith. The massacre was one of three significant firearms atrocities in the
United Kingdom after the invention of rapid fire weapons such as the one involved, the other two being the
Dunblane massacre and the
Cumbria shootings. It led to the passing of the
Firearms (Amendment) Act 1988, which banned the ownership of
semi-automatic centre-fire
rifles, and restricted the use of shotguns with a
magazine capacity of more than two rounds. == Government ==