Streatley, Berkshire. Streatley is a village and civil parish on the River Thames in Berkshire, England. The village faces Goring-on-Thames. The two places share in their shops, services, leisure, sports and much of their transport; across the river is Goring & Streatley railway station and the village cluster adjoins a lock and weir. The west of the village is a mixture of agriculture and woodland plus a golf course. The village has a riverside hotel. Much of Streatley is at steeply varying elevations, ranging from 51m AOD to 185m at Streatley Warren, a hilltop point on its western border forming the eastern end of the Berkshire Downs. This Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is topped by the 87-mile The Ridgeway path, which crosses the Thames at Goring and Streatley Bridge. Streatley is centred 9 miles north-west of Reading and 17 miles south of Oxford. Its developed area occupies half of the narrow Goring Gap on the River Thames and is directly across the river from the Oxfordshire village of Goring-on-Thames. The two villages are connected by Goring and Streatley Bridge, with its adjacent lock and weir, and are often considered as a single settlement: Goring & Streatley railway station on the Great Western Main Line is in Goring and serves both villages. The village is mostly surrounded by National Trust land: Lardon Chase, the Holies and Lough Down. Nearby villages include Aldworth, Goring-on-Thames, Lower Basildon, Moulsford and Pangbourne The Ridgeway long distance path passes through the village, which is the finishing line for the annual Ridgeway 40 walk and trail run. The Thames Path, Icknield Way and the Ridgeway cross the Thames at Streatley. Being in such a vital crossing point on the Thames, Streatley has been around for a long time and was mentioned in the Domesday book. Its history is even older; Neolithic tools have been found at the base of Lough Down, and Bronze age artefacts have been found in the village. There is also a Roman milestone still present in the village, at the Bull crossroads. The iron wheel pump, on the forecourt of The Bull pub, was the only reliable water source in the great freeze of 1895 and water was sold from this point for six pence a bucket. Photos of the wheel and historic images of the local area can be found on the pub's website bullstreatley.com/history Sixty people were drowned at Streatley in 1674 when a ferry capsized in the flash lock. The whole of Streatley used to be owned by the Morrell family of brewers from Oxford, whose resistance to change enabled the village to withstand the trainline and extra houses that went to Goring. However, the mill burned down in 1926, and wasn't rebuilt. On the death of Emily Morrell, in 1938, the estate was sold, and the manor house as well as other houses in the village became part of the Royal Veterinary College, which had moved out of London during the Blitz. They left in 1958. The village is mentioned in the poem A Streatley Sonata by J. Ashby-Sterry from the late 19th century And when you're here, I'm told that you Should mount the hill and see the view; And gaze and wonder, if you'd do Its merits most completely; The air is clear, the day is fine, The prospect is, I know, divine-But most distinctly I decline To climb the hill at Streatley But from the Hill, I understand You gaze across rich pasture-land; And fancy you see Oxford and P'r'aps Wallingford and Wheatley: Upon the winding Thames you gaze, And, though the view's beyond all praise, I'd rather much sit here and laze Than scale the Hill at Streatley! A bomb exploded in a postman's bag on a bicycle in the village in 1979. It was targeted at a retired judge in the village, but went off early when the postman's bicycle fell over. It was apparently the work of the IRA. Streatley is a civil parish with an elected parish council. Besides the riverside village of Streatley, the parish covers an area of the Berkshire Downs to the west, and includes the small cluster of homes named Stichens Green. The parish is bordered to the north and east by the Oxfordshire parishes of Moulsford, South Stoke and Goring. To the west and south, it is bordered by the Berkshire parishes of Basildon, Ashampstead and Aldworth. The parish falls within the area of the unitary authority of West Berkshire. Both the parish council and the unitary authority are responsible for different aspects of local government. The parish also forms part of the Newbury parliamentary constituency. Streatley contains one public house, The Bull at Streatley. Its garden is the unusual burial site for a monk and a nun executed in 1440 for misconduct and contains an ancient yew tree.