Dedeman's Lane

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The following notes on Dedeman's Lane were made by Norman Hidden:

The earliest reference occurs in a deed (Henry Bruton to William Iremonger) no. 1187 in the Hastings collection, and dated Feb 1382. The grant is of a messuage "lying in the vill of Hungerford in the street ("vicus") which is called Dedeman's lane". The messuage was situated between a tenement of the Holy Trinity chantry on one side the the tenement of Isabella, widow of Henry Bailiff on the other. Whether the neighbouring tenements were lands or dwellings is not clear. However, the messuage is specifically described as being in the town of Hungerford, and the names Henry Bruton and William Iremonger both occur as former burgage holders in the c1470 rental. Their burgages with rentals close to each other are situated on the west side of the High Street a little below the crossroads. (Norman Hidden's notes elsewhere refer to William Iremonger's property as being on the west side of the High Street, possibly one of the properties later demolished for the railway bridge).

A second reference occurs in the 1513 terrier of rectorial holdings in Hungerford and Sanden Fee, where a croft called Shortcroft, by estimation 16 acres ("from a part temporarily apart") and lying between Middlefield on the west and "a little lane called Dedeman lane" on the east, and Pidden on the south. (Shorte-croft was also known as Short cut in the 1819 Enclosure Award map). This location of Shortcroft is pefectly in accord with the early-mid 18th century map showing field creations, but Shortcroft itself is in Sanden Fee, though at its north-eastern extremity reaching to the southern edge of the town. Three roads are shown on the 18th century map, each forming a portion of the boundary of Shortcroft, viz on the east the road High Street to Sanden, on the west a lane which runs from the church through the common fields and on to Salisbury, and joining these two roads diagonally a short lane separating Homefield from Shortcroft.

The will of John Yonge (1457) contains a request for a stone to be erected in the high way of the town of Hungerford at the end of a lane there called Deadman's.

(In the 1819 Enclosure Award map, a Deadman's Lane is indicated in a totally different area, and cannot be the same as the several centuries earlier Dedeman's.)

A survey (Berks RO H/M8) of 1609 states "We present that John Curr of the town hath cut four trees within the commons of Sanden Fee, viz two trees in Helmes Heath and two trees in Deadman Lane".

The only place the lane could be "in the vill" (see above) and running along one of the boundaries of Shortcut (see above), would be if the messuage concerned was at the northern tip of the town. One possibility might be if the lane ran behind the backs of the town dwellings at that end of the town and then continued as the diagonal lane shown on the 18th century map.