Randonnées Goring on Thames, Chilterns

Goring: At the time of the Domesday Book Goring was known as ‘Garinges’. Its history goes back much further, as there is evidence that prehistoric man travelled the Ridgeway and crossed the Thames at this point. Indeed Goring stands on one of the oldest crossroads in the country – the meeting place of the Icknield Way, the Ridgeway and the Thames. The crossing of the river between Goring and Streatley was particularly shallow at this point. The Romans built a causeway here, which was later replaced by a ferry.

St Thomas’s Church was built c1100, probably by Robert d’Oilly, a Norman baron and staunch supporter of William the Conqueror. In the late 12th century the Augustinian Priory of Goring was founded and the nuns were given the rights to Streatley ferry and mill. The Priory survived until the early part of the 16th century, when it was destroyed as part of Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries.