Cookham
Village andcivil parish
Holy Trinity parish church
Cookham Location withinBerkshire
Population	5,779  United Kingdom Census 2011[1]
OS grid reference	SU895855
Civil parish	Cookham
Unitary authority	Windsor and Maidenhead
Ceremonial county	Berkshire
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Maidenhead
Postcode district	SL6
Dialling code	01628
Police	Thames Valley
Fire	Royal Berkshire
Ambulance	South Central
UK Parliament	Maidenhead
List of places UK England Berkshire 51°33′29″N0°42′29″W / 51.558°N 0.708°W /51.558; -0.708

Cookham is a historicThames-side village andcivil parish on the north-eastern edge ofBerkshire, England, 2.9 miles (5 km) north-north-east ofMaidenhead and opposite the village ofBourne End. Cookham forms the southernmost and most rural part of theHigh Wycombe urban area. With adjoining Cookham Rise andCookham Dean, it had a combined population of 5,779 at the2011 Census.^[1] In 2011,The Daily Telegraph deemed CookhamBritain's second richest village.^[2]

It is recorded in theDomesday Book of 1086 asCocheham. The name may be from theOld Englishcōc +hām, meaning 'cook village', i.e. 'village noted for its cooks', although the first element may be derived from the Old Englishcōc(e) meaning 'hill'.^[3]

The parish includes three settlements:

• Cookham Village – the centre of the original village, with a high street that has changed little over the centuries
• Cookham Dean – the most rural village in the parish
• Cookham Rise – the middle area that grew up round the railway station

The ancient parish of Cookham covered all of Maidenhead north of theBath Road until this was severed in 1894, including thehamlets ofFurze Platt andPinkneys Green.^[4] There were several manors: Cookham, Lullebrook, Elington, Pinkneys,Great Bradley, Bullocks, White Place and Cannon Court. The neighbouring communities are Maidenhead to the south, Bourne End to the north,Marlow andBisham to the west andTaplow to the east.

The River Thames flows past Cookham on its way between Marlow and Taplow. Several Thames islands belong to Cookham, such asOdney Island,Formosa Island andSashes Island, which separatesCookham Lock fromHedsor Water. The Lulle Brook and the White Brook are tributaries of the Thames that flow through the parish. Much common land remains in the parish, such as Widbrook Common, Cookham Dean Common andCock Marsh. Winter Hill affords views over theThames Valley andChiltern Hills. Cock Marsh is asite of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) just to the north of the village.^[5]

The area has been inhabited for thousands of years. Several prehistoricburial mounds on Cock Marsh 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. TheRoman road called theCamlet Way is reckoned to have crossed the Thames at Sashes Island, now cut by Cookham Lock, on its way fromSt. Albans toSilchester.^[8] By the 8th century there was anAnglo-Saxonabbey in Cookham, under the patronage of theKingdom of Mercia, and one of the later abbesses wasCynethryth, widow ofOffa of Mercia. It became the centre of a power struggle between Mercia andWessex, with the Thames forming a boundary between the two. In 2021 archaeological excavations by a team from theUniversity of Reading discovered the site of the abbey, adjacent to Cookham's parish church, and items associated with it, while the following year additional excavations revealed extensive ancient infrastructure suggesting a larger settlement and trading centre.^[9][10] Later,Alfred the Great made Sashes Island one of hisburhs to help defend againstViking invaders. There was a royal palace here where theWitan met in 997.^{[citation needed]}

Although the earliest stone church building may have existed from 750, the earliest identifiable part of the currentHoly Trinityparish church is the Lady Chapel, built in the late 12th century on the site of the cell of a femaleanchorite who lived next to the church and was paid ahalfpenny a day byHenry II.^[11]

In theMiddle Ages, most of Cookham was owned byCirencester Abbey and the timber-framed Churchgate House was apparently theAbbot's residence when in town. The Tarry Stone – still to be seen on the boundary wall of theDower House – marked the extent of their lands. In 1611 the estate at Cookham was the subject of the first evercountry house poem,Emilia Lanier's "Description of Cookham", which pays tribute to her patroness,Margaret Clifford.^{[citation needed]}

The townspeople resisted many attempts to enclose parts of the common land, including those by the Rev. Thomas Whateley in 1799, Miss Isabella Fleming in 1869, who wanted to stop nude bathing at Odney, and the Odney Estates in 1928, which wanted to enclose Odney Common.^[12] 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 theNational Trust by 1937. These included Widbrook, Cock Marsh, Winter Hill, Cookham Dean Commons, Pinkneys Green Common and Maidenhead Thicket.^[13]

Holy Trinity parish church is a Grade II*listed building containing several monuments, including aPurbeck marble tomb for Robert Peeke, clerk of thespicery toHenry VI, (died 1517), and his wife; a tablet byFlaxman, to mariner Sir Isaac Pocock, uncle of dramatistIsaac Pocock, who drowned in the Thames in 1810; and amural tablet to Arthur Babham (died 1560) with anentablature and a shield.^[14]

CookhamWesleyan Methodist chapel was built in 1846 and extended in 1911. It now houses theStanley Spencer Gallery.^[15]

Cookham is home to theChartered Institute of Marketing, based in Moor Hall. TheJohn Lewis Partnership, operator of John Lewis department stores andWaitrose supermarkets, has a subsidised hotel and conference centre based at Odney for partners and their guests. The Partnership has four other subsidised hotels, atAmbleside (Lake District),Bala (northWales),Brownsea Island (Poole Harbour) and Leckford (Hampshire).^{[citation needed]}

Cookham's municipal services are provided by theRoyal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead and forms part of the Bisham and Cookham ward. Since May 2019 the village has two borough councillors, Mandy Brar (Lib Dem) and Gerry Clark (Conservative). Cookham also has aparish council with 15 councillors in three wards, Cookham (2 councillors), Cookham Rise (9 councillors) and Cookham Dean (4 councillors). Since May 2019 there have been four Conservative, nine Lib Dems and two independent councillors. The Council has a part-time Parish Clerk, and Assistant Clerk.^[16] The local health services are managed by theEast Berkshire PCT (primary care trust) –NHS Services.

Cookham is in theMaidenhead parliamentary constituency, the seat has been held since its creation in 1997 byTheresa May (Conservative).

Cookham village is on theA4094 between Maidenhead and Bourne End. TheA404 from Maidenhead to High Wycombe is just to the west of Cookham Dean.Cookham railway station, at Cookham Rise, is on theMarlow branch line. There are half-hourly services to Maidenhead and Bourne End, with peak services extended to Marlow. An hourly bus service to Maidenhead, Bourne End and High Wycombe is provided byArriva Shires & Essex six days a week. The river Thames has a long stretch of moorings aboveCookham Bridge.

The village as a tourist destination is a convenient base for walks along theThames Path and across National Trust property. There is a selection of restaurants and pubs in the High Street. TheStanley Spencer Gallery, based in the former Methodist chapel, has a permanent exhibition of the artist's works.^[17]

• Kenneth Grahame is said to have been inspired by theRiver Thames at Cookham to writeThe 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.
• The English painterStanley Spencer was born here and most of his works depict villagers and their life in Cookham. His religious paintings usually had Cookham as a backdrop and a number of the landmarks in his canvases can still be seen in the village. Several of his works can be seen in the gallery in the centre of the village, close to where he lived. He also paintedfrescoes in at least one of the private houses in Cookham; however, they are not open to public viewing. His ashes are buried in the churchyard in the village.
• InNoël Coward's playHay Fever, retired actress Judith Bliss and her family live in Cookham.
• Cookham is mentioned inHarold Pinter's short playVictoria Station which premiered at theRoyal National Theatre withPaul Rogers andMartin Jarvis.^{[citation needed]}

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• Simon Aleyn (died 1565), supposedSinging Vicar of Bray
• Maidie Andrews (1893–1986), actress and singer, lived here for some years
• Chris Barrie (born 1960), actor, comedian and impressionist
• William Battie (died 1776), editor ofIsocrates and founder of the UniversityScholarship atCambridge
• Margaret Clifford, Countess of Cumberland (1560–1616), to whom tribute paid inEmilia Lanier's 1611country house poem "Description of Cookham"
• Wendy Craig (born 1934), actress
• Henry Dodwell (1641–1711), scholar and theologian
• Benjamin Ferrers (1667–1732), deaf portraitist, whose family held the locallord of the manor of Lullebrook (or Cookham) for about 70 years
• Jessica Brown Findlay, actress, grew up in Cookham. Her maternal family come from the area.^{[citation needed]}
• Dorothy Hepworth (1894–1978), painter and the life partner ofPatricia Preece
• Nathaniel Hooke (died 1763), historian
• Kenneth Grahame (1859–1932), writer
• Ulrika Jonsson (born 1967) television presenter – lived in Cookham Dean for 21 years until 2011^[18][19]
• Timmy Mallett (born 1955), TV presenter, broadcaster and artist
• Guglielmo Marconi (1874–1937), wireless pioneer, lived on Whyteladyes Lane and is said to have conducted experimental transmissions from there in 1897.
• Isaac Pocock (1782–1835), artist and dramatist buried in Cookham
• Patricia Preece (1894–1966), artist associated with theBloomsbury Group and the second wife ofStanley Spencer
• Chris Rea (born 1951), lived in Cookham until c. 2019 and ownedSol Studios^[20][21]
• Henry Thomas Ryall (1811–1867), engraver
• Frank Sherwin (1896–1986), railway poster artist
• Stanley Spencer (1891–1959), artist
• Ralph Thompson (1913–2009), animal artist and illustrator
• Frederick Walker (1840–1875), ARA
• Admiral SirGeorge Young, proposer of the settlement ofNew South Wales^[22]

Cookham istwinned with:

• Saint-Benoît, Vienne, a village nearPoitiers,France.^[23]

• In 2002 Cookham was at the centre of a row over theDepartment for Work and Pensions' description of the village's social profile as"somewhat spoiled by the gin and Jag brigade".^[24]
• In 1997, 1999 and 2006 Cookham had its ownradio station, Cookham Summer FM, that broadcast fromCookham railway station's waiting room and included a large number of Cookham residents.^[25]

Wikimedia Commons has media related toCookham.

Wikivoyage has a travel guide forCookham.

• Cookham community website
• Cookham Parish Council
• Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead: Cookham

• Cookham
• Villages in Berkshire
• Civil parishes in Berkshire
• Populated places on the River Thames
• Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead

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