Goring Heath is a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in the

Chiltern Hills The Chiltern Hills is a chalk escarpment in England. The area, northwest of London, covers stretching from Goring-on-Thames in the southwest to Hitchin in the northeast - across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, and Bedfordshi ...

South Oxfordshire South Oxfordshire is a local government district in the ceremonial county of Oxfordshire, England. Its council is temporarily based outside the district at Abingdon-on-Thames pending a planned move to Didcot, the district's largest town. The a ...

. The civil parish includes the villages of

Whitchurch Hill Whitchurch Hill is a village in the Chiltern Hills in Oxfordshire, about northwest of Reading, Berkshire, near Whitchurch-on-Thames. The Church of England parish church of Saint John the Baptist was designed by the architect Francis Bacon (1842 ...

and Crays Pond and some small hamlets. Goring Heath is centred southeast of Goring-on-Thames and about northwest of

Reading, Berkshire Reading ( ) is a town and borough in Berkshire, southeast England. Located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the rivers Thames and Kennet, the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway serve the town. Reading is east ...

. In 1724 Henry Alnutt, a lawyer of the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's I ...

in London, established a set of

almshouse An almshouse (also known as a bede-house, poorhouse, or hospital) was charitable housing provided to people in a particular community, especially during the medieval era. They were often targeted at the poor of a locality, at those from certain ...

s at Goring Heath. They form three sides of a courtyard, flanking a

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common type ...

of the same date.Sherwood & Pevsner, 1974, pages 616-617 In the 1880s a school was built beside the almshouses in what was intended to be the same architectural style.Sherwood & Pevsner, 1974, pages 617 A

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional se ...

was added in 1900. Alnutt also left a continuing income from his estate at Goring Heath to teach, clothe and apprentice boys from five parishes.Crossley & Elrington, 1990, page 53 One of the parishes was

Cassington Cassington is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire about northwest of Oxford. The village lies on gravel strata about from the confluence of the River Evenlode with the River Thames. The parish includes the hamlet of Worton northeast of ...

West Oxfordshire West Oxfordshire is a local government district in northwest Oxfordshire, England, including towns such as Woodstock, Burford, Chipping Norton, Charlbury, Carterton and Witney, where the council is based. Area The area is mainly rural downland ...

, where Alnutt's charity established a small school for boys. In 1833 the Alnutt school was absorbed into a new Cassington parish school, which in 1853 became Cassington's present St. Peter's

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Brit ...

primary school.

References

Sources

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Nearest places

{{South Oxfordshire Civil parishes in Oxfordshire Hamlets in Oxfordshire