WASTAGE, Berkshire, a market-town and the seat of a Poor-Law Union, in the parish of Wantage, is situated in 51° 35' N. lat., 1° 26' W. lone., distant 10 miles S.W. from Abingdon, and 60 miles W. by N. from London by road. The popuiatiou of the town in 1851 was 2951. The living is a vicarage in the arehdeaconry of Berks sad diocese of Oxford. Wantage Poor-Law Union contains 34 parishes and town ships, with an area of 75,700 acres, and a population iu 1851 of 17,433.
Wantage was a place of importance in the time of the Saxons, when it formed, with the neighbouring lands, part of the patrimony of the West Saxon kings, who bad a residence here in which Alfred the Great was born in 849. A public festival in comtnemoration of the birth of Alfred was held at Wautago on October 25th 1849.
Wantage bad formerly a"manufacture of woollen-cloth and Sacking, but this having declined, the town was gradually decaying, when, ou tho opening of the Great Western railway, the leading inhabitauts established a new pitched market, on Wednesdays, for the sale of agricultural produce, and the town has in consequence been greatly benefited. Among other improvements may be named the erection of
a town.hall, a National school of a superior character, a Grammar or Middle school (the revival of an old and nearly obsolete foundation), a new cemetery and chapel, and two district chapels. The parish church is an aucicot cruciform edifice of mixed 'Styles, with a square embattled tower rising from the intersection, In the interior are some monumental brasses of the 14th and 15th centuries. The Wesleyan Methodists and Baptiste have chapels; and there are the Alfred literary and scientific institute, the church library, and a savings bank. A county court is held. There is a market-cross, erected in 1550. A branch of the Wilts and Berke Ceuta comes up to the town. There are a monthly cheese-fair, two yearly fairs for cattle and cheese, one for cherries, and a statuto fair.