Cookham

Cookham
Berkshire
The Thames from Cookham Bridge
Location
Grid reference:	SU895855
Location:	51°33’29"N, -0°42’29"W
Data
Population:	5,519  (2001)
Post town:	Maidenhead
Postcode:	SL6
Dialling code:	01628
Local Government
Council:	Windsor and Maidenhead
Parliamentary constituency:	Maidenhead

Cookham is a village in the north-easternmost corner of Berkshire, on the River Thames, two miles north of Maidenhead. It had a population of 5,519 at the 2011 Census. In 2011 The Daily Telegraph deemed Cookham Britain's second richest village.

This is a pretty place by the water and appears in several of the paintings of the artist Stanley Spencer, who was born here and lived in Cookham most of his life.

Geography

Cookham Parish Church

The parish includes three villages:

• Cookham Village – the centre of the original village, with a High Street that has changed little in appearance over the centuries.
• Cookham Dean – the most rural village in the parish.
• Cookham Rise – the area in the middle that grew up around the railway station.

The village's neighbours are Maidenhead to the south, Bisham to the west and Taplow to the east, while north across the Thames in Buckinghamshire lie Bourne End and Marlow.

The River Thames flows past Cookham on its way from Marlow to Taplow, and forms the boundary with Buckinghamshire. Several islands in the Thames belong to Cookham, including as Odney Island, Formosa Island and Sashes Island which separates Cookham Lock from Hedsor Water. The Lulle Brook and the White Brook are tributaries of the River Thames which flow through the parish.

A good amount of common land remains in the parish, such as Widbrook Common, Cookham Dean Common and Cock Marsh. Winter Hill affords excellent views over the Thames Valley.

The headquarters of the Chartered Institute of Marketing are at Moor Hall in Cookham. The John Lewis Partnership has a residential training and holiday centre based at Odney.

History

The area has been inhabited for thousands of years. There were several prehistoric burial mounds on Cock Marsh which were excavated in the 19th century and the largest stone axe ever found in Britain was one of 10,000 that has been dug up in nearby Furze Platt. The Roman road called the Camlet Way is reckoned to have crossed the Thames at Sashes Island, now cut by Cookham Lock, on its way from St Albans to Silchester. By the 8th century there was an Anglo-Saxon abbey in Cookham and one of the later abbesses was Cynethryth, widow of King Offa of Mercia. It became the centre of a power struggle between Mercia and Wessex. Later King Alfred made Sashes Island one of his burhs to help defend against Viking invaders. There was a royal palace here where the Witan met in 997.

The village is recorded in the Domesday Book as Cocheham. The name may be from the Old English coc hām, meaning 'Cook Village', or more likely "Cock Village". Another suggestion has the first element from Coc meaning 'hill'.

Although the earliest stone church building may date from 750, the earliest identifiable part of the current Holy Trinity parish church is the Lady Chapel, which was built in the late 12th century on the site of the cell of a female anchorite who lived next to the church and was paid a halfpenny a day by Henry II.

In the Middle Ages, most of Cookham was owned by Cirencester Abbey and the timber-framed 'Churchgate House' was apparently the Abbot's residence when in town. The "Tarry Stone" – still to be seen on the boundary wall of the Dower House – marked the extent of their lands.

In 1611 the estate at Cookham was the subject of the first ever Country house poem, in Aemilia Lanyer's "Description of Cookham". In the poem Lanyer pays tribute to her patroness, Margaret Clifford, Countess of Cumberland, through a description of her residence as a paradise for literary women. The estate at Cookham did not actually belong to Margaret Clifford, but was rented for her by her brother while Clifford was undergoing a dispute with her husband.

The town people have resisted many attempts to enclose parts of the common land, including by the vicar, Rev. Thomas Whateley in 1799, Miss Isabella Fleming in 1869 (who wanted to stop nude bathing at Odney) and the Odney Estates in 1928 who wanted to enclose Odney Common. The Maidenhead and Cookham Commons Preservation Committee was formed and raised £2,738 to buy the manorial rights and the commons which were then donated to the National Trust by 1937. These included Widbrook, Cockmarsh, Winter Hill, Cookham Dean Commons, Pinkneys Green Common and Maidenhead Thicket.

Attractions

The village is a tourist destination as it is a convenient base for a number of walks along the Thames Path and across National Trust property. There are a good selection of restaurants and pubs in the High Street. The Stanley Spencer Gallery, based in the former Methodist chapel, also has a permanent exhibition of the artist's works.

Arts and literature

Stanley Spencer's birthplace and home in Cookham

• Kenneth Grahame is said to have been inspired by the River Thames at Cookham to write The Wind in the Willows, as he lived at 'The Mount' in Cookham Dean as a child and returned to the village to write the book. Quarry Wood in Bisham, adjoining, is said to have been the original 'Wild Wood'. He later lived in Winkfield, Blewbury and Pangbourne.
• The painter Sir Stanley Spencer was born here and most of his works depict villagers and village life in Cookham. His religious paintings usually had Cookham as their backdrop and a number of the landmarks seen in his canvases can still be seen in the village. A number of his works can be seen at the small Stanley Spencer Gallery in the centre of the village, close to where he lived. He also painted frescoes in at least one of the private houses in Cookham but these are not open to public viewing. His ashes are buried in the churchyard in the village.
• In Noël Coward's play Hay Fever, retired actress Judith Bliss and her family live in Cookham.

Trivia

Bel and the Dragon, Cookham

• In 2002 Cookham was at the centre of a row over the Department for Work and Pensions' description of the village's social profile as "somewhat spoiled by the gin and Jag brigade".
• In 1997, 1999 and 2006 Cookham had its own radio station, Cookham Summer FM, that broadcast from the railway station waiting room and included a large number of Cookham residents.
• Cookham features as the primary location of the first ever television episode of The Saint, "The Talented Husband", including scenes shot at Cookham railway station.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Cookham)

• Cookham.com
• Cookham Parish Council

References

• {{brithist|43192|A History of the County of Berkshire, Volume 3] - Victoria County History
• Pevsner, Nikolaus (1966). Berkshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. pp. 122–123.