TIMELINE - Through the Centuries
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These two villages are very old. Due to their unique location at the intersection of three of the most ancient routes in Britain, they have been inhabited continuously for at least 10,000 years. There is evidence that Old Stone Age man travelled from Europe through Goring and Streatley along the Ridgeway before Britain was separated from mainland Europe and became an island after the last Ice Age.
c. 8,000 BC. Flint blades and reindeer bones found near the river in Gatehampton, Goring is evidence of Stone Age settlers killing animals here in the Palaeolithic period, at the end of the Ice Age, about 10,000 years ago.
7th CENTURY BC
c. 700 B.C. Celtic tribes settled in Goring and made their characteristic square fields. Their Iron Age hut circles can still be seen on aerial photographs near the river at Gatehampton. Gold coins dating back to this age found in Goring and a vase found in Streatley.
1st CENTURY
43 - 96 A.D. Romans settled in Goring and Streatley and built a raised causeway or rebuilt a pre-existing one, near what is now Ferry Lane, Goring. Remains of a Roman villa and military stations unearthed in Goring, along with a drying oven. Aerial photography has shown the presence of another villa in the Streatley area. Roman coins dated 69 - 96 A.D. found in Goring, along with other artefacts including 2 brooches and pottery dredged from the river.
7th CENTURY
650 The section of the Thames in the Goring and Streatley area was an ancient boundary dividing the kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon Wessex and Mercia (Danelaw).
687 Streatley first documented as ‘Strata’, derived from the Latin, meaning ‘road’. Goring is thought to be derived from the Anglo-Saxon ‘Garinges’ (the home of Gara’s people).
8th CENTURY
757 - 795 Goring was in Mercia under King Offa and Streatley was in Wessex under King Ine.
9th CENTURY
871 King Alfred fought and defeated the Vikings at the Battle of Ashdown on the Downs, believed to be near Streatley. Ethelred ruled the Kingdom of Wessex.
878 The Vikings final assault on the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex launched from the Reading area. Under Alfred the Great, born in Berkshire, the two kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia effectively became one. Bones of a Saxon warrior, together with his weapons, were recently found in Streatley Churchyard.
10th CENTURY
1000 Goring and Streatley in Wessex in the reign of Ethelred the Unready.
11th CENTURY
1066 When William of Normandy (‘the Conqueror’) won the Battle of Hastings, Streatley was controlled by the Saxon ‘Asgard the Staller’, an official of Edward the Confessor’s Court. Streatley had a church and a mill and the village had fishing rights. Goring was owned by Saxon Wigod, Thane of Wallingford. Goring also had a mill, but no mention of a church at that point. Goring Church was built by The Norman Baron, Robert d’Oilly, a staunch supporter of William the Conqueror. The Norman font still remains in use in the church today. D’Oilly was rewarded for his services with the grant of 60 Manors, including the Manor of Goring and went on to build Oxford Castle. After the Norman Conquest, there were 3 manors in Goring and Gatehampton and
one in Streatley.
1086 Goring valued at £15 and Streatley at £24 in Domesday Book.
12th CENTURY
1100 - 1260 Chalk excavated from Hartstock quarry (downstream from Goring) transported by barge probably to build Reading Abbey and Wallingford and Oxford castles.
1181 Charter of Confirmation, issued by King Henry II, confirms a grant by his grandfather, Henry I, to the Augustinian Nuns and Church of Goring.
1190 A ferry provided an alternative method to the causeway of crossing the river between Goring and Streatley.
13th CENTURY
1200s Goring Priory, an extension to Goring Church, built when the 36 resident nuns grew out of the available space at the Church. Margaret was the first Prioress in 1200. Visible remains of the Priory still exist today. The corbels on the south wall of St Thomas’ Church used to support the roof of the cloisters of the priory.
1290 A Latin-inscribed bell at Goring Church was cast, being one of the oldest bells in the country. (Goring’s bell was cast about 200 years before England’s oldest manufacturing company, The Whitechapel Bell Foundry, was established in 1570 and which cast Pennsylvania’s Liberty Bell in 1752 and Big Ben in 1858).
14th CENTURY
1300s Ancient Dovecot built in Streatley on the site of the old Manor.
15th CENTURY
1400s The oldest lay structure, a barn, still surviving is thought to have been built in Station Road, Goring.
1415 A field near Ferry Lane, Goring, reputedly used for the training of the local longbow archers for the Battle of Agincourt.
16th CENTURY
1530 Another of Goring’s oldest buildings, The Catherine Wheel, incorporating a smithy, was built. It soon had
its own brew.
1536 Goring Priory dissolved by Henry VIII when he became head of the newly formed Church of England.
1580 Flash Lock at Goring kept by William Whystler. (The Whistler family lived at Gatehampton Manor for many years thought possibly to be related to the famous English painter, Reginald John [Rex] Whistler).
1580 ‘Earl of Derby’ flash lock built at Cleeve.
1588 May have been a beacon on Streatley Hill to warn of the approach of the threatening Spanish Armada.
17th CENTURY
1647 Sixty people (and a mare) drowned at 7pm on 6th July when a ferry overturned in the weirpool due to the boatman rowing too close to the weir when 72 passengers were returning to Streatley after celebrating Saints Day at the traditional ‘Goring Feast’.
1673 Streatley House and Streatley Farm built.
1600s During the 16th and 17th centuries, the spring at the old Leatherne Bottel hostelry was promoted as having ‘medicinal properties’, claiming the water could cure skin diseases, eye complaints and the ‘ache of corns’. Pilgrims and other sufferers came from far and wide to purchase bottles of the famous spring water.
1600s The Swan at Streatley built. (One of its many owners in the 1970s was the entertainer, Danny La Rue).
18th CENTURY
1711 Goring Alms Houses built and endowed by Richard Lybb (for the maintenance for ’Four Poor old Men’.
1787 Pound locks replaced the flash lock at Goring and Cleeve. (The ancient causeway, useable up until the completion of the locks, supplemented by the ferry).
1788 Goring Enclosure Act abolished the ‘strip’ system of cultivation, replaced by the ’field’ system. Apart from the social impact, some of the local roads are now straighter than before. (To the East of Goring the Enclosures were delayed until 1812).
1789 Countess of Huntingdon’s Connection Chapel built, now Goring Free Church.
19th CENTURY
1801 The first national census showed the population of Goring was 677. J.M.W.Turner painted Goring Church and Mill.
1805 Flint cottages in Goring High Street built.
1806 Napper’s shop and cottage built. Originally a pork butchers shop.
1810 John Barleycorn pub first recorded as an ‘Ale House’.
1814 Streatley Enclosure Act passed. Most of the land allocated to Rev. D. Morrell.
1818 Charitable Foundation in Streatley established by Jethro Tull, local agriculturist of the seed drill fame, was funded with £2 a year with 5 shillings to provide books for the education of 4 children.
1830 Streatley was larger and more important than Goring due to the gate on the turnpike road from Reading to Oxford. The post house was The Bull Inn at Streatley.
1830 Moses Saunders established a business at the Swan Boathouse at Streatley, specialising in repair and construction of weirs and locks on the Thames. Later the firm turned to boat building and was split in 1890. One grandson, Arthur, remained at the Swan, while another Samuel took over Goring Wharf, on the opposite side of the river. His showroom is now Goring Royal Mail Sorting Office, although the boat building works were up-river at Withymead. Samuel’s company went on to grow into the world-famous Saunders Roe company, of flying boat, Hovercraft and aircraft fame, based on the Isle of Wight.
1835 Goring Brewery established.
1837 A toll bridge was built over the river to join Goring and Streatley, to replace the ferry at a cost of £6,000.
1840 The new Great Western Railway line between London and Bristol, built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, passed through Goring. Its presence, with a halt in the village, changed the balance between Goring and Streatley where the turnpike soon declined. The area was opened up to commuters working in London and to visitors seeking recreation on the river.
1848 A Streatley school, erected by subscription, was in operation.
1850 Goring and South Stoke British School built in Goring High Street. (Nonconformist, founded by the British and Foreign School Society and funded by subscriptions).
1855 Goring School built with voluntary contributions in Station Road (now the Visitor Information Centre and Community Centre).
1860s Renovations of the parish church of St Mary’s Streatley began.
1871 Goring and Streatley Golf Club founded on Streatley Downs.
1872 Streatley Parochial School erected. Ninety pupils attended.
1876 Goring Cricket Club founded.
1878 Temperance Hall built in Station Road (across road from pub!). Now Goring Library.
1880 Goring and Streatley and Thames Valley Water Company started, with a bore hole in Cleeve.
1880s Squire Gardiner sold his land between Goring and Cleeve as building plots. Large houses, such as Clevemede, Nun’s Acre and Thames Bank, were built by wealthy professional and business men who moved into the village and influenced local activities.
1887 The first Goring and Streatley Regatta held.
1888 Her Majesty’s Inspector’s report on Goring School read ‘On the whole, this is a fair rural school... A firmer discipline is needed’.
1888 Goring Working Man’s Club built for ‘the amusement and instruction of the village working men’.
1889 Gas Works opened in Cleeve.
1892 Great Western Railway changed from broad gauge to standard gauge lines and the number of lines doubled from two to four. The old brick railway bridge was blown up and replaced by a new iron girder one. The station was demolished, re-sited and named Goring and Streatley.
1893 Foundation stone laid of the newly established Goring Free Church.
1895 Goring Mill (then Goring Electric Light and Power Co Ltd) reputedly the first communal electric power supply, sold electricity locally and then extended the supply to Streatley in 1908, or thereabouts, when the company was sold.
1896 Malthouse and laundry in Church Lane, Streatley, converted into a Gentleman’s Club with reading room by the Morrell family (now the Morrell Room).
1897 Catholic Church built in Ferry Lane.
1899 Building commenced on Goring Parish Room (now the Village Hall) which opened in 1900.
20th CENTURY
1900s During the late 1800s and early 1900s, Goring became a very fashionable place to live and now famous people lived here. (eg Oscar Wilde, in the late 1890s, Air Chief Marshall of the RAF, Sir Arthur (Bomber) Harris and Admiral Sir William Harwood, victor of the Battle of the River Plate).
1901 Goring’s population reached 1,419. Goring Volunteer Fire Brigade formed.
1903 Kelly’s Directory list 5 cottages for ‘Letting to visitors’. 1906 The Morrell family, brewers of Oxford, own most of Streatley.
1923 New river bridge completed at a cost of £31,000 and made toll free.
1924 Security measures were introduced in Goring and Streatley when the Ulster Cabinet held a crisis meeting at Cleeve Court in Streatley, the English home of Sir James Craig, the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. The meeting was called following escalating violence in Ireland and plain clothes detectives questioned villagers and strangers looking for IRA suspects.
1925 Clock on Goring Village Hall installed.
1926 Streatley Mill burned down.
1936 Goring Fire Station opened in Icknield Road.
1938 Major Edmonson (Lord Sandford) bequeathed Rectory Garden to the village.
1939 Mrs Morrell died and her estate, most of Streatley, was broken up.
1939 Goring Brewery closed down.
1939 Goring and Streatley welcomed various evacuated individuals and organisations during the war, including: The Royal Veterinary College (from Potters Bar, staying until 1958), The Royal School for Deaf and Dumb (from Margate), The Alexandra Orphanage, The Belgian Air Force Command, London schools from West Ham and Ealing and Czech refugees amongst many others.
1940 One stick of bombs fell on Goring, killing 1 person.
1955 Mains sewerage came to Goring (having been considered since 1898).
1956 Small housing estates started to be built in Goring increasing the population to double the size it was at the beginning of the century.
1964 Several Tudor black and white, timber framed cottages demolished to build ‘a modern Arcade’.
1979 Goring became twinned with Bellême, Normandy.
1983 The rare discovery of a young woolly mammoth’s lower jaw, with a whole tooth and one erupting on each side, was found in the river in Goring. It is 60cm wide and between 40,000 - 12,000 years old and is exhibited in the Oxfordshire Museum, Woodstock.
1997 Current (second) river bridge strengthened and refurbished.
1998 Goring won the Best Kept Village in Oxfordshire and was a finalist in the National competition.
1999 On 31 December, Goring and Streatley celebrated the eve of the new Millennium with street parties and other activities during day and night. A special Millennium book was later published to record those events and also the many other activities which took part throughout the year.
2000 Millennium Time Capsule buried under Goring Village Hall. It contains a number of contemporary items of interest for future generations to discover, including The Goring and Streatley Millennium Book and the Electoral Roll.
21st CENTURY
2006 Old 1892 iron railway bridge demolished on Christmas Day 2006 and the new steel one opened for traffic on 1 March 2007.
2009 Goring won ‘Oxfordshire Village of the Year’ competition followed by the ‘South of England Village of the Year’ 2009/2010 award. Goring’s St Thomas’ Church refurbished and the Canterbury Room extension added.
2012 On 3 June, Goring & Streatley held the largest Diamond Jubilee street party in the UK. Over 4,000 people attending the kilometre-long party when both Goring and Streatley High Streets and the bridge between were closed. Celebrations organised by over 300 volunteers included eight major events over 2 days and 500 souvenir books and DVDs, entitled ‘Celebration’, were produced in December as a record of the events.
2014 The inaugural Goring & Streatley Festival took place with 44 events over 10 days (27 June - 6 July). This is the legacy project chosen from 20 other proposals by residents to carry on the community spirit in the two villages shown during the Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 2012.
c. 8,000 BC. Flint blades and reindeer bones found near the river in Gatehampton, Goring is evidence of Stone Age settlers killing animals here in the Palaeolithic period, at the end of the Ice Age, about 10,000 years ago.
7th CENTURY BC
c. 700 B.C. Celtic tribes settled in Goring and made their characteristic square fields. Their Iron Age hut circles can still be seen on aerial photographs near the river at Gatehampton. Gold coins dating back to this age found in Goring and a vase found in Streatley.
1st CENTURY
43 - 96 A.D. Romans settled in Goring and Streatley and built a raised causeway or rebuilt a pre-existing one, near what is now Ferry Lane, Goring. Remains of a Roman villa and military stations unearthed in Goring, along with a drying oven. Aerial photography has shown the presence of another villa in the Streatley area. Roman coins dated 69 - 96 A.D. found in Goring, along with other artefacts including 2 brooches and pottery dredged from the river.
7th CENTURY
650 The section of the Thames in the Goring and Streatley area was an ancient boundary dividing the kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon Wessex and Mercia (Danelaw).
687 Streatley first documented as ‘Strata’, derived from the Latin, meaning ‘road’. Goring is thought to be derived from the Anglo-Saxon ‘Garinges’ (the home of Gara’s people).
8th CENTURY
757 - 795 Goring was in Mercia under King Offa and Streatley was in Wessex under King Ine.
9th CENTURY
871 King Alfred fought and defeated the Vikings at the Battle of Ashdown on the Downs, believed to be near Streatley. Ethelred ruled the Kingdom of Wessex.
878 The Vikings final assault on the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex launched from the Reading area. Under Alfred the Great, born in Berkshire, the two kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia effectively became one. Bones of a Saxon warrior, together with his weapons, were recently found in Streatley Churchyard.
10th CENTURY
1000 Goring and Streatley in Wessex in the reign of Ethelred the Unready.
11th CENTURY
1066 When William of Normandy (‘the Conqueror’) won the Battle of Hastings, Streatley was controlled by the Saxon ‘Asgard the Staller’, an official of Edward the Confessor’s Court. Streatley had a church and a mill and the village had fishing rights. Goring was owned by Saxon Wigod, Thane of Wallingford. Goring also had a mill, but no mention of a church at that point. Goring Church was built by The Norman Baron, Robert d’Oilly, a staunch supporter of William the Conqueror. The Norman font still remains in use in the church today. D’Oilly was rewarded for his services with the grant of 60 Manors, including the Manor of Goring and went on to build Oxford Castle. After the Norman Conquest, there were 3 manors in Goring and Gatehampton and
one in Streatley.
1086 Goring valued at £15 and Streatley at £24 in Domesday Book.
12th CENTURY
1100 - 1260 Chalk excavated from Hartstock quarry (downstream from Goring) transported by barge probably to build Reading Abbey and Wallingford and Oxford castles.
1181 Charter of Confirmation, issued by King Henry II, confirms a grant by his grandfather, Henry I, to the Augustinian Nuns and Church of Goring.
1190 A ferry provided an alternative method to the causeway of crossing the river between Goring and Streatley.
13th CENTURY
1200s Goring Priory, an extension to Goring Church, built when the 36 resident nuns grew out of the available space at the Church. Margaret was the first Prioress in 1200. Visible remains of the Priory still exist today. The corbels on the south wall of St Thomas’ Church used to support the roof of the cloisters of the priory.
1290 A Latin-inscribed bell at Goring Church was cast, being one of the oldest bells in the country. (Goring’s bell was cast about 200 years before England’s oldest manufacturing company, The Whitechapel Bell Foundry, was established in 1570 and which cast Pennsylvania’s Liberty Bell in 1752 and Big Ben in 1858).
14th CENTURY
1300s Ancient Dovecot built in Streatley on the site of the old Manor.
15th CENTURY
1400s The oldest lay structure, a barn, still surviving is thought to have been built in Station Road, Goring.
1415 A field near Ferry Lane, Goring, reputedly used for the training of the local longbow archers for the Battle of Agincourt.
16th CENTURY
1530 Another of Goring’s oldest buildings, The Catherine Wheel, incorporating a smithy, was built. It soon had
its own brew.
1536 Goring Priory dissolved by Henry VIII when he became head of the newly formed Church of England.
1580 Flash Lock at Goring kept by William Whystler. (The Whistler family lived at Gatehampton Manor for many years thought possibly to be related to the famous English painter, Reginald John [Rex] Whistler).
1580 ‘Earl of Derby’ flash lock built at Cleeve.
1588 May have been a beacon on Streatley Hill to warn of the approach of the threatening Spanish Armada.
17th CENTURY
1647 Sixty people (and a mare) drowned at 7pm on 6th July when a ferry overturned in the weirpool due to the boatman rowing too close to the weir when 72 passengers were returning to Streatley after celebrating Saints Day at the traditional ‘Goring Feast’.
1673 Streatley House and Streatley Farm built.
1600s During the 16th and 17th centuries, the spring at the old Leatherne Bottel hostelry was promoted as having ‘medicinal properties’, claiming the water could cure skin diseases, eye complaints and the ‘ache of corns’. Pilgrims and other sufferers came from far and wide to purchase bottles of the famous spring water.
1600s The Swan at Streatley built. (One of its many owners in the 1970s was the entertainer, Danny La Rue).
18th CENTURY
1711 Goring Alms Houses built and endowed by Richard Lybb (for the maintenance for ’Four Poor old Men’.
1787 Pound locks replaced the flash lock at Goring and Cleeve. (The ancient causeway, useable up until the completion of the locks, supplemented by the ferry).
1788 Goring Enclosure Act abolished the ‘strip’ system of cultivation, replaced by the ’field’ system. Apart from the social impact, some of the local roads are now straighter than before. (To the East of Goring the Enclosures were delayed until 1812).
1789 Countess of Huntingdon’s Connection Chapel built, now Goring Free Church.
19th CENTURY
1801 The first national census showed the population of Goring was 677. J.M.W.Turner painted Goring Church and Mill.
1805 Flint cottages in Goring High Street built.
1806 Napper’s shop and cottage built. Originally a pork butchers shop.
1810 John Barleycorn pub first recorded as an ‘Ale House’.
1814 Streatley Enclosure Act passed. Most of the land allocated to Rev. D. Morrell.
1818 Charitable Foundation in Streatley established by Jethro Tull, local agriculturist of the seed drill fame, was funded with £2 a year with 5 shillings to provide books for the education of 4 children.
1830 Streatley was larger and more important than Goring due to the gate on the turnpike road from Reading to Oxford. The post house was The Bull Inn at Streatley.
1830 Moses Saunders established a business at the Swan Boathouse at Streatley, specialising in repair and construction of weirs and locks on the Thames. Later the firm turned to boat building and was split in 1890. One grandson, Arthur, remained at the Swan, while another Samuel took over Goring Wharf, on the opposite side of the river. His showroom is now Goring Royal Mail Sorting Office, although the boat building works were up-river at Withymead. Samuel’s company went on to grow into the world-famous Saunders Roe company, of flying boat, Hovercraft and aircraft fame, based on the Isle of Wight.
1835 Goring Brewery established.
1837 A toll bridge was built over the river to join Goring and Streatley, to replace the ferry at a cost of £6,000.
1840 The new Great Western Railway line between London and Bristol, built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, passed through Goring. Its presence, with a halt in the village, changed the balance between Goring and Streatley where the turnpike soon declined. The area was opened up to commuters working in London and to visitors seeking recreation on the river.
1848 A Streatley school, erected by subscription, was in operation.
1850 Goring and South Stoke British School built in Goring High Street. (Nonconformist, founded by the British and Foreign School Society and funded by subscriptions).
1855 Goring School built with voluntary contributions in Station Road (now the Visitor Information Centre and Community Centre).
1860s Renovations of the parish church of St Mary’s Streatley began.
1871 Goring and Streatley Golf Club founded on Streatley Downs.
1872 Streatley Parochial School erected. Ninety pupils attended.
1876 Goring Cricket Club founded.
1878 Temperance Hall built in Station Road (across road from pub!). Now Goring Library.
1880 Goring and Streatley and Thames Valley Water Company started, with a bore hole in Cleeve.
1880s Squire Gardiner sold his land between Goring and Cleeve as building plots. Large houses, such as Clevemede, Nun’s Acre and Thames Bank, were built by wealthy professional and business men who moved into the village and influenced local activities.
1887 The first Goring and Streatley Regatta held.
1888 Her Majesty’s Inspector’s report on Goring School read ‘On the whole, this is a fair rural school... A firmer discipline is needed’.
1888 Goring Working Man’s Club built for ‘the amusement and instruction of the village working men’.
1889 Gas Works opened in Cleeve.
1892 Great Western Railway changed from broad gauge to standard gauge lines and the number of lines doubled from two to four. The old brick railway bridge was blown up and replaced by a new iron girder one. The station was demolished, re-sited and named Goring and Streatley.
1893 Foundation stone laid of the newly established Goring Free Church.
1895 Goring Mill (then Goring Electric Light and Power Co Ltd) reputedly the first communal electric power supply, sold electricity locally and then extended the supply to Streatley in 1908, or thereabouts, when the company was sold.
1896 Malthouse and laundry in Church Lane, Streatley, converted into a Gentleman’s Club with reading room by the Morrell family (now the Morrell Room).
1897 Catholic Church built in Ferry Lane.
1899 Building commenced on Goring Parish Room (now the Village Hall) which opened in 1900.
20th CENTURY
1900s During the late 1800s and early 1900s, Goring became a very fashionable place to live and now famous people lived here. (eg Oscar Wilde, in the late 1890s, Air Chief Marshall of the RAF, Sir Arthur (Bomber) Harris and Admiral Sir William Harwood, victor of the Battle of the River Plate).
1901 Goring’s population reached 1,419. Goring Volunteer Fire Brigade formed.
1903 Kelly’s Directory list 5 cottages for ‘Letting to visitors’. 1906 The Morrell family, brewers of Oxford, own most of Streatley.
1923 New river bridge completed at a cost of £31,000 and made toll free.
1924 Security measures were introduced in Goring and Streatley when the Ulster Cabinet held a crisis meeting at Cleeve Court in Streatley, the English home of Sir James Craig, the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. The meeting was called following escalating violence in Ireland and plain clothes detectives questioned villagers and strangers looking for IRA suspects.
1925 Clock on Goring Village Hall installed.
1926 Streatley Mill burned down.
1936 Goring Fire Station opened in Icknield Road.
1938 Major Edmonson (Lord Sandford) bequeathed Rectory Garden to the village.
1939 Mrs Morrell died and her estate, most of Streatley, was broken up.
1939 Goring Brewery closed down.
1939 Goring and Streatley welcomed various evacuated individuals and organisations during the war, including: The Royal Veterinary College (from Potters Bar, staying until 1958), The Royal School for Deaf and Dumb (from Margate), The Alexandra Orphanage, The Belgian Air Force Command, London schools from West Ham and Ealing and Czech refugees amongst many others.
1940 One stick of bombs fell on Goring, killing 1 person.
1955 Mains sewerage came to Goring (having been considered since 1898).
1956 Small housing estates started to be built in Goring increasing the population to double the size it was at the beginning of the century.
1964 Several Tudor black and white, timber framed cottages demolished to build ‘a modern Arcade’.
1979 Goring became twinned with Bellême, Normandy.
1983 The rare discovery of a young woolly mammoth’s lower jaw, with a whole tooth and one erupting on each side, was found in the river in Goring. It is 60cm wide and between 40,000 - 12,000 years old and is exhibited in the Oxfordshire Museum, Woodstock.
1997 Current (second) river bridge strengthened and refurbished.
1998 Goring won the Best Kept Village in Oxfordshire and was a finalist in the National competition.
1999 On 31 December, Goring and Streatley celebrated the eve of the new Millennium with street parties and other activities during day and night. A special Millennium book was later published to record those events and also the many other activities which took part throughout the year.
2000 Millennium Time Capsule buried under Goring Village Hall. It contains a number of contemporary items of interest for future generations to discover, including The Goring and Streatley Millennium Book and the Electoral Roll.
21st CENTURY
2006 Old 1892 iron railway bridge demolished on Christmas Day 2006 and the new steel one opened for traffic on 1 March 2007.
2009 Goring won ‘Oxfordshire Village of the Year’ competition followed by the ‘South of England Village of the Year’ 2009/2010 award. Goring’s St Thomas’ Church refurbished and the Canterbury Room extension added.
2012 On 3 June, Goring & Streatley held the largest Diamond Jubilee street party in the UK. Over 4,000 people attending the kilometre-long party when both Goring and Streatley High Streets and the bridge between were closed. Celebrations organised by over 300 volunteers included eight major events over 2 days and 500 souvenir books and DVDs, entitled ‘Celebration’, were produced in December as a record of the events.
2014 The inaugural Goring & Streatley Festival took place with 44 events over 10 days (27 June - 6 July). This is the legacy project chosen from 20 other proposals by residents to carry on the community spirit in the two villages shown during the Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 2012.
Compiled by Ron Bridle, who would like to thank Goring & Streatley Local History Society for the original research of much of the above information which has been taken from their various publications.
