Speenhamland is a suburb of Newbury, Berkshire.
Name and location Its name is probably derived from Old English Spen-haema-land, "land of the inhabitants of Speen", with "Speen" perhaps being formed on a Brittonic root deriving from Latin spinis, "thorns".Coates and Breeze (2000) Celtic voices, English places: studies of the Celtic impact on place-names in England, p. 41.
Speenhamland was a tithing, or administrative subdivision, of the parish of Speen, though even in the early 19th century it was contiguous with the suburbs of Newbury.Lysons & Lysons (eds., 1813: Magna Britannia, vol I, part II, London: Cadell & Davies, p. 372. It lies to the north of the River Kennet, between the centre of Newbury and Speen village to the north-west.
Poor relief The Speenhamland system of poor relief was devised at a meeting in the area in 1795. It set poor-relief rates by the bread price and the number of household members, in or out of work.Chris Grover (Lancaster University), "Hard Work", History Today, June 2020.Walter Elder, "Speenhamland Revisited", Social Service Review 38.3 (1964), pp. 294–302 online.
References
External links Berkshire record office Vision of Britain FrancisFrith