Sonning

Background (to read before walk)

Archaeological finds have revealed the existence of earlier Romano-British settlement at Sonning Hill (now the site of the Thames Valley Business Park) and Neolithic stone circles near Charvil,  but it was circa 5th century AD (Anglo Saxon times) that ‘Suna’s people’ reputedly pitched camp in clearings along the River Thames.

In the 7th century Missionaries brought Christianity to the Thames Valley with the arrival of St. Birinus, Bishop of Dorchester-on-Thames.

Soon afterwards, the very first foundations of Sonning’s St. Andrew’s parish church would have been laid probably on or near the site of an earlier place of pagan worship.

Following a substantial grant of land from the Crown, the ancient parish of Sonning gradually extended from Sonning Common (five miles to the north-west and higher grazing ground) to the heath lands of Sandhurst (15 miles south-east).

In 909, Sonning including the parish of Ramsbury in Wiltshire was constituted a separate bishopric. Sonning, meanwhile, became the seat of a sizeable ‘hall’ or ‘palace’ built upon a steep incline on the bishop's Holme Park estate.

In the early twentieth century, the palace site was excavated : floor plan is in St Andrew's church.

In 1075, only nine years after the Norman Conquest, the entire see of ‘Sonning’ was handed over to Old Sarum (Salisbury) as William the Conqueror centralised the old Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastical administration.

The 1086 Domesday Survey also bears witness to a thriving and prosperous community sustained by ample woodland, plentiful pasture, five fisheries and a flour mill, all representing valuable sources of income. It is estimated that Sonning had a population of about 330 at this time.

The 2011 census indicates a population of 1631.