Pangbourne is a large village and civil parish on the River Thames in Berkshire, England. Pangbourne has its own shops, schools, a railway station on the Great Western main line and a village hall. Outside its grouped developed area is an independent school, Pangbourne College. Geography Pangbourne is situated on the A329 road west of Reading, the nearest town, and south east of Oxford. It is across the river from the Oxfordshire village of Whitchurch-on-Thames. The two villages are connected by Whitchurch Bridge and by the traversable weir of Whitchurch Lock. The River Pang flows through the centre of Pangbourne village before joining the Thames between Whitchurch Lock and Whitchurch bridge. Most of the developed area is just above the current flood plain of the River Thames which benefits from hay meadows traditionally used as flood meadows to either side of Pangbourne. Fewer than 15 properties here flooded during the Winter storms of 2013–14 in the United Kingdom. History Pangbourne's name is recorded from 844 as Old English Pegingaburnan (dative case), which means "the stream of the people of [a man called] Pǣga". In Norman times, the manor was given to Reading Abbey and the manor house – also called Bere Court – became the abbot's summer residence. The last abbot, Hugh Cook Faringdon, was arrested there in 1539 and subsequently executed in Reading. The manor was later purchased by Sir John Davis, the Elizabethan mathematician and the Earl of Essex's fellow-conspirator. His monument is in the Church of England parish church of Saint James the Less. The Pangbourne war memorial is found in the grounds of the church. It was designed by the artist Vera Waddington. Other monuments and hatchments in the church are mostly to the Breedon family. John Breedon, Senior, bought the manor in 1671. He was High Sheriff of Berkshire and brother of the Governor of Nova Scotia, whose son later succeeded John at the manor. The family produced a number of sheriffs and MPs for Berkshire, as well as doctors and rectors of the parish. Kenneth Grahame, author of The Wind in the Willows, retired to Church Cottage in Pangbourne.He died there in 1932. E. H. Shepherd's famous illustrations of his book are said to have been inspired by the Thameside landscape there and the water voles of the river are thought to have inspired the character of Ratty. The Falkland Islands memorial chapel at