Shaw cum Donnington, Berkshire

Description
Shaw-cum-Donnington, a parish in Berks, on the river Lambourn, 1 1/2 mile N by E of Newbury station on the G.W.R. It has a post office, of the name of Donnington, under Newbury ; money order and telegraph office, Newbury. Acreage, 1996; population, 694. The manor of Shaw, with Shaw House, belongs to the Eyre family, who are chief landowners. Shaw House dates from the time of Elizabeth; was garrisoned for Charles I. at the time of the second battle of Newbury, and has a hole in an oak wainscot, through which a musket ball passed while the king was dressing at the window. Donnington Castle belonged to the family of the poet Chaucer; was a centre of conflict in the civil wars of Charles I.; was engirt at the time of the wars with entrenchments, still visible; and is now represented by an ivy-clad gateway flanked with tall towers, an entrance porch with ancient ceiling, and by a piece of adjoining wall. Donnington Priory stands at the foot of the castle hill, was built in 1576, and occupies the site of a small Trinitarian priory founded in 1394 by Sir R. Abberbury. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Oxford; net value, £400 with residence. The church was rebuilt in 1840. A chancel was added in 1878. There is an hospital consisting of twelve alms-houses, originally founded in the reign of Richard II.