| Type: | Village and civil parish |
| Official Name: | Goring-on-Thames |
| Static Image Name: | GoringMill01.JPG |
| Static Image Caption: | Goring mill and parish church from the bridge |
| Coordinates: | 51.523°N -1.135°W |
| Os Grid Reference: | SU6080 |
| Population: | 3187 |
| Population Ref: | (2011 census)[1] |
| Area Total Km2: | 9.61 |
| Civil Parish: | Goring-on-Thames |
| Shire District: | South Oxfordshire |
| Shire County: | Oxfordshire |
| Region: | South East England |
| Country: | England |
| Post Town: | READING |
| Postcode District: | RG8 |
| Postcode Area: | RG |
| Dial Code: | 01491 |
| Constituency Westminster: | Henley and Thame |
| Website: | Goring Parish Council |
Goring-on-Thames (or Goring) is a village and civil parish on the River Thames in South Oxfordshire, England. Situated on the county border with Berkshire, it is 60NaN0 south of Wallingford and 80NaN0 north-west of Reading. It had a population of 3,187 in the 2011 census and was estimated to have increased to 3,335 by 2019.[2]
Most land is farmland, with woodland on the Goring Gap outcrop of the Chiltern Hills. Its riverside plain encloses the residential area, including a high street with shops, pubs and restaurants. Goring & Streatley railway station lies on the Great Western Main Line, providing trains between London and Oxford.
The village church is dedicated to St Thomas Becket with a nave that was built within 50 years of the saint's death, in the early 13th century, along with a later bell tower. Goring faces the smaller Streatley across the Thames; the two are linked by Goring and Streatley Bridge.
Goring is on the left bank of the River Thames in the Goring Gap between the Berkshire Downs and Chiltern Hills, about 80NaN0 north-west of Reading and 160NaN0 south of Oxford. Across the river is the Berkshire village of Streatley, often seen as a twin village. They are linked by Goring and Streatley Bridge and its adjacent lock and weir. The Thames Path, Icknield Way and the Ridgeway cross the Thames at Goring.
The Great Western Main Line serves Goring & Streatley railway station; Great Western Railway operates trains between London Paddington, Reading, Didcot and Oxford.[3]
The local bus service between Goring and Wallingford is run by a Goring-based community interest company, Going Forward Buses, which was established in December 2016.[4]
The name Goring first appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Garinges, then as Garingies in a charter once held in the British Museum. It translates as "Gara's people".[5]
The Church of England parish church of St Thomas of Canterbury displays Norman architecture of the early 12th century,[6] with the bell-stage of a bell tower added in the 15th century.[6] This has a ring of eight bells,[7] one dating from 1290. The wood for the rood screen was taken from, one of Nelson's fleet at Trafalgar.[8] A church hall was added in 1901.[9]
The Anglican Churches of Goring, Streatley and South Stoke form a united benefice.[10] A priory of Augustinian nuns was built late in the 12th century with its own priory church adjoining St Thomas's.[6] This survived until demolished with the early 16th-century Dissolution of the Monasteries.[11] The foundations of the priory church, cloister, dormitory, vestry, chapter house and parlour were excavated in 1892.[9]
Goring Free Church belongs to the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion. The congregation was founded in 1788 and its first chapel built in 1793.[12] At its centenary in 1893, a new church building was added[9] and the original chapel converted into a church hall.[12] It holds two Sunday services.[13]
The Catholic Church of Our Lady and St John the Apostle was designed by the architect William Ravenscroft and built in 1898.[9] It now forms a single parish with the Roman Catholic Church of Christ the King in Woodcote.[14]
Goring United Football Club plays in the Reading Football League.[15] Goring-on-Thames Cricket Club, founded in 1876,[16] has two teams in the Berkshire Cricket League.[17] Goring has a lawn tennis club with teams that play in two local leagues.[18] Goring and Streatley Golf Club is located in adjoining Streatley.
Goring-on-Thames' Decorative and Fine Arts Society, founded in 1987, belongs to the National Association of Decorative and Fine Arts Societies.[19] Goring has a Women's Institute.[20]
On 10 July 2009, Goring was named Oxfordshire's Village of the Year, ahead of 11 other villages and succeeding Woodcote.[21] The £1000 prize was put towards the village's hydro-electric project to generate electricity from the River Thames.[22] The competition considered the depth of infrastructure and activity in the village and at Goring's £1 million hydro-electric plans.
Goring-on-Thames was the winner in the Sustainability and Communications category and the Overall Regional Winner of the 2011 Calor Village of the Year regional heat for South England.[23]
Goring was a finalist in the small towns category of the Britain in Bloom contest in 2019.
In the summer of 1893, Oscar Wilde stayed at Ferry House in Goring with Lord Alfred Douglas. While there, Wilde began writing his play An Ideal Husband, which includes a main character named Lord Goring.
An enlarged Ferry Cottage became the retirement home of Sir Arthur Harris, wartime leader of RAF Bomber Command, from 1953 until his death in 1984.[24] He was buried in Burntwood Cemetery in Goring.[25]
In order of birth:
The privilege of Freedom of the Parish of Goring on Thames has been awarded to:
12 April 2020, for work on the Britain in Bloom competition and Goring Gap Local History Society[30]
A History of the County of Oxford, Volume 2
. 1907 . 103–104.Oxfordshire
. 1974 . . Harmondsworth . 0-14-071045-0 . 613–616.