Goring (July 2019) • © VCH Oxfordshire • Intro
VCH Oxfordshire • Texts in Progress • Goring (July 2019) • © VCH Oxfordshire • Intro. • p. 1 VCH Oxfordshire Texts in Progress Goring Introduction: Landscape, Settlement, and Buildings Goring parish church with Mill Cottage, as viewed from the former toll bridge to Streatley (Berks.) over the river Thames Situated by the Thames opposite the village of Streatley (Berks.), Goring village grew rapidly from the mid 19th century, its setting and improved communications attracting wealthy incomers who transformed its character.1 Its large ancient parish, perhaps the core of an Anglo-Saxon minster parochia and royal estate, encompassed the nearby riverside hamlets of Cleeve and Gatehampton to north and south, and extended eastwards into areas of more dispersed settlement at Goring Heath on the Chiltern hills, where a large tract of common heathland was enclosed in 1812. A small Augustinian nunnery founded at the parish church soon after 1100 continued until the Dissolution, and almshouses established in the village and at Goring Heath in the early 18th century remained active as charities in 2017. Following the opening of a toll bridge to Streatley in 1837 (replacing a ferry) and of a station on the Great Western Railway in 1840, the village became a fashionable riverside resort for the middle and upper classes, who built substantial new houses and established social and sporting clubs. The village’s expansion continued throughout the 20th century, when it 1 This account was written in 2017 and revised in 2019. VCH Oxfordshire • Texts in Progress • Goring (July 2019) • © VCH Oxfordshire • Intro. • p. 2 absorbed Cleeve entirely. Goring Heath, by contrast, largely maintained its rural character despite attracting some large houses, and in 1952 was joined with part of Whitchurch to form a separate civil parish.
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