Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for SONNING

SONNING, a village and a hundred in Berks, and a parish in Berks and Oxford. The village stands on the Thames, 2 miles W by N of Twyford r. station, and 3 ENE of Reading; was the seat of a bishopric, afterwards removed to Sherborne, and finally to Salisbury; retained an episcopal palace till the time of Elizabeth; contains a house in which Sydney Smith wrote "Peter Plymley's Letters; '' and has a post-office under Reading, and an excellent inn. The parish comprises the liberties of S.-Town, Earley, and Woodley and Sandford, in Wokingham district, Berks, and the liberty of Eye and Dunsden in Henley district, Oxford. Acres, 9,813. Rated property, £15,083. Pop., 2,747. Houses, 566. Holme Park, Bulmershe Court, Earley Court, and Maiden Earley are chief residences. A cattle market is held every Monday at Loddon-Bridge. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford. Value, £514.* Patron, the Bishop of O. The church was restored in 1853. A chapel of ease is in Eye and Dunsden. The p. curacy of Earley is a separate benefice. There are an endowed school with £30 a year, a national school, church lands £54, and general charities £101. The Reading cemetery also is in the parish.-The hundred contains 3 parishes, and 3 parts. Acres, 22,119. Pop., 8,268. Houses, 1,570.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village and a hundred"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Berkshire AncC       Oxfordshire AncC
Place: Sonning

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