Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England, United Kingdom

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Goring-on-Thames is a village and civil parish on the River Thames in South Oxfordshire, England, about 5+1⁄2 miles (9 kilometres) south of Wallingford and eight miles (thirteen kilometres) north-west of Reading. Goring & Streatley railway station is on the main Oxford–London line. Most land is farmland, with woodland on the Goring Gap outcrop of the Chiltern Hills. Its riverside plain encloses the residential area, including a high street with shops, pubs and restaurants. Nearby are the village churches – one dedicated to St Thomas Becket has a nave built within 50 years of the saint's death, in the early 13th century, along with a later bell tower. Goring faces the smaller Streatley across the Thames. The two are linked by Goring and Streatley Bridge.

Geography Goring is on the left bank of the River Thames in the Goring Gap between the Berkshire Downs and Chiltern Hills, about eight miles (thirteen kilometres) north-west of Reading and 16 mi (26 km) south of Oxford. Across the river is the Berkshire village of Streatley, often seen as a twin village. They are linked by Goring and Streatley Bridge and its adjacent lock and weir. The Thames Path, Icknield Way and the Ridgeway cross the Thames at Goring. The Great Western Main Line serves Goring & Streatley railway station with Great Western Railway trains between London Paddington, Reading and Didcot.

Early history The name Goring first appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Garinges, then as Garingies in a charter once held in the British Museum. It translates as "Gara's people".

Religious sites The Church of England parish church of St Thomas of Canterbury displays Norman architecture of the early 12th century, with the bell-stage of a bell tower added in the 15th century. This has a ring of eight bells, one dating from 1290. The wood for the rood screen was taken from HMS Thunderer (1783), one of Nelson's fleet at Trafalgar. A church hall was added in 1901.

The Anglican Churches of Goring, Streatley and South Stoke form a united benefice. A priory of Augustinian nuns was built late in the 12th century with its own priory church adjoining St Thomas's. This survived until demolished with the early 16th-century Dissolution of the Monasteries. The foundations of the priory church, cloister, dormitory, vestry, chapter house and parlour were excavated in 1892.

Goring Free Church belongs to the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion. The congregation was founded in 1788 and its first chapel built in 1793. At its centenary in 1893, a new church building was added and the original chapel converted into a church hall. It holds two Sunday services. The Catholic Church of Our Lady and St John the Apostle was designed by the architect William Ravenscroft and built in 1898. It now forms a single parish with the Roman Catholic Church of Christ the King in Woodcote.

Amenities Goring United Football Club plays in the Reading Football League. Goring-on-Thames Cricket Club, founded in 1876, has two teams in the Berkshire Cricket League. Goring has a lawn tennis club with teams that play in two local leagues. Goring and Streatley Golf Club is located in adjoining Streatley. Goring on Thames Decorative and Fine Arts Society, founded in 1987, belongs to the National Association of Decorative and Fine Arts Societies. Goring has a Women's Institute. The local bus service between Goring and Wallingford is run by the Goring-based community interest company Going Forward Buses, established in December 2016.

Awards: Oxfordshire Village of the Year 2009 On 10 July 2009, Goring was named Oxfordshire's Village of the Year, ahead of 11 other villages and succeeding Woodcote. The £1000 prize was put towards the village's hydro-electric project to generate electricity from the River Thames. The competition considered the depth of infrastructure and activity in the village and at Goring's £1 million hydro-electric plans.

Calor success Goring-on-Thames was the winner in the Sustainability and Communications category and the Overall Regional Winner of the 2011 Calor Village of the Year regional heat for South England.

Britain in Bloom Goring was a finalist in the small towns category of the Britain in Bloom contest in 2019.