Sonning-on-Thames

This page provides information on the neighbouring villages of Sonning-on-Thames (Berkshire) and Sonning Eye (Oxfordshire) on the River Thames:

Sonning is recommended in the book Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome as ``the most fairy-like little nook on the whole river.''
Sonning Bridge links Sonning-on-Thames and Sonning Eye. See also further photographs of Sonning Lock, the lock keeper and water lillies.

Sonning Deanery is one of the branches of the Oxford Diocesan Guild of Church Bell Ringers (ODG). St. Andrew's Church in Sonning has 8 bells.
The Deanery in Sonning is one of the finest houses by the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944), who also designed Queen Mary's Dolls' House at nearby Windsor Castle, with the garden laid out by his frequent collaborator Gertrude Jekyll. It was first owned by Edward Hudson, founder of Country Life magazine.
The Mill at Sonning, an 18^th Century flour mill that has been converted into a theatre. See the What's On guide, including on-line booking. See also the Woodley Theatre, close to Sonning.

Sonning has a selection of hotels, pubs and restaurants - e.g., The French Horn hotel / restaurant (see photograph), The Great House at Sonning (formerly the White Hart) and the Bull. See also information on other local hotels. Alternatively you could drive up the road to The Crown at Playhatch.
The village used to have its own bishops and the only Bishop's Palace in Berkshire, now totally ruined. King John stayed at the palace before going to sign the Magna Carta in 1215.
Sonning Golf Club lies on the edge of the village. See also here.
328 bus timetable (High Wycombe - Marlow - Reading) which passes through Sonning.
The nearest station is at Twyford, used by many commuters to London and elsewhere. Charvil, with much new housing, lies between Sonning and Twyford.
Reading Blue Coat School is located on the edge of the village in Holme Park, formerly owned by the Palmer family ("not the biscuits!"), who were great benefactors of the village. See the Old Blues Association.
You may fish in Sonning and on the River Thames in general.
William Holman Hunt (1827-1910), the Victorian Pre-Raphaelite artist, lived at The Acre in Sonning towards the end of his life. He painted his later version of The Light of the World in the village. The earlier version (1851-53) hangs in the side-chapel inside the Chapel of Keble College, Oxford. The second version (started 1899) hangs in St. Paul's Cathedral, London, where Holman Hunt is buried.
Sonning Farm is owned by the University of Reading. Sonning Aquatic Research Centre is adjacent.
The village is twinned with Ligugé in France; see the Abbaye St Martin.
Dotcom Design Ltd occupy The Old Forge, Pearson Road, and do Web site design. See also GT Design, Dotcom's parent company, who undertake graphic design.
Companies such as Microsoft UK and Oracle are located on the Thames Valley Business Park within the Sonning parish boundary.
Redland PLC extract gravel near Sonning Eye.
Sonning and Sonning Eye business directory from Freepages.
Sonning is in Wokingham District Council in the Royal County of Berkshire. Sonning Eye is part of the parish of Eye and Dunsden, South Oxfordshire District Council, Oxfordshire County Council.
A local map is available from Multimap.
See Electronic Yellow Pages for Sonning and the surrounding area.

Residents

Theresa May, elected Conversative Member of Parliament for the new constituency of Maidenhead on 1st May 1997, lives in the village. See the Maidenhead Conservative Association.
Uri Geller of spoon bending fame is a resident of Sonning. See also Uri Geller's Reference Page and an interview in the Fortean Times.
The Bowen family live in Sonning Eye.

Around Sonning

See information on the Henley area, including Sonning, in a highly recommended virtual tour of the River Thames, now updated as a frames version.

Selected local places of possible interest on the River Thames (from upstream to downstream):

Thames Head ("Source of the Thames") - Lechlade - Kelmscott - Godstow - Oxford - Sandford - Nuneham Courtney - Abingdon - Clifton Hampden - Dorchester - Wittenham Clumps - Wallingford - Goring - Pangbourne - Reading and Caversham - Sonning - Shiplake and Wargrave - Henley - Hambledon Mill - Marlow (see virtual tour) - Cookham - Cliveden - Maidenhead - Bray - Windsor and Eton - Kingston - Richmond - Kew Gardens - London

- Greenwich

Poem about Sonning:

Is there a spot more lovely than the rest,
By art improved, by nature truly blest?
A noble river at its base running,
It is a little village known as Sonning.

James Sadler, bee keeper, poet, Sonning lock keeper (1845-1885).

Note: the original pronounciation of Sonning rhymed with "running" and indeed it used to be spelt "Sunning". The name derives from the Viking name "Sunna".

Extract from Chapter XIV of Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome (1859-1927):

The river up to Sonning winds in and out through many islands, and is very placid, hushed, and lonely. Few folk, except at twilight, a pair or two of rustic lovers, walk along its banks. `Arry and Lord Fitznoodle have been left behind at Henley, and dismal, dirty Reading is not yet reached. It is a part of the river in which to dream of bygone days, and vanished forms and faces, and things that might have been, but are not, confound them.
We got out at Sonning, and went for a walk round the village. It is the most fairy-like little nook on the whole river. It is more like a stage village than one built of bricks and mortar. Every house is smothered in roses, and now, in early June, they were bursting forth in clouds of dainty splendour. If you stop at Sonning, put up at the "Bull," behind the church. It is a veritable picture of an old country inn, with green, square courtyard in front, where, on seats beneath the trees, the old men group of an evening to drink their ale and gossip over village politics; with low, quaint rooms and latticed windows, and awkward stairs and winding passages.
We roamed about sweet Sonning for an hour or so, and then, it being too late to push on past Reading, we decided to go back to one of the Shiplake islands, and put up there for the night. It was still early when we got settled, and George said that, as we had plenty of time, it would be a splendid opportunity to try a good, slap-up supper. He said he would show us what could be done up the river in the way of cooking, and suggested that, with the vegetables and the remains of the cold beef and general odds and ends, we should make an Irish stew.

See also full source text (large!) and local compressed copy of the book.

Other quotes about Sonning:

"The view of the church and bridge from the tow-path is one of the best composed groups for a landscape painter I ever saw."

George D. Leslie, R.A. (Our River, London: Bradbury Agnew & Co., 1881)

"The floral tastes of the lock-keeper generally make Sonning Lock very bright and gay."

Charles Dickens (1882)

"There is no other village on the Thames to compare with Sonning."

R.R. Bolland (In the Wake of Three Men in a Boat, Tonbridge Wells: Oast Books, 1995)

"Turn off the busy A4 down Sonning Lane, and at once you sense the magic . . ."
"It is difficult to realize today, wandering around this small, peaceful village, that a thousand years ago it was the nerve centre of one of the largest parishes in Wessex, stetching from Sonning Common to Sandhurst. It boasted, in the 10th and 11th centuries, its own Saxon Bishops, three of whom became Archbishops of Canterbury; . . . and was very much on the map when Reading was but a huddle of huts hugging the banks of the Kennet."

(The Old Berkshire Village Book, Newbury: Countryside Books, 1972)

"Let's land at the lawn of the cheery White Hart
Now gay with the glamour of June;
For here we can lunch to the music of trees
In the sight of the swift river running.
Offcuts of cold beef and a pure Cheddar cheese,
And a tankard of bitter, at Sonning

Lays of a Lazy Minstrel (Punch magazine, early 20th century)

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This page is mentioned in the July 1996 issue of the Sonning Parish Magazine.