Cookham, Berkshire
Historical Description
Cookham, a village and a parish in Berks. The village stands on the right bank of the Thames, 3 miles N from Maidenhead, much of which town is within the boundaries of the parish. There is a station here on the G.W.R., and the village has a post, money order, and telegraph office (S.O.) There is an iron toll bridge over the Thames here, and the portion of the river opposite and below the village is popularly considered to be the most beautiful of its whole course from the source to the sea. Cookham was once a market-town, and in Saxon times was a place of some importance. Area of the parish, 6343 acres of land and 205 of water; population, 8752. The church is an ancient building of chalk, sandstone, and flint in the Early English style. It contains several good brasses, an alabaster monument of the 16th century to the memory of Arthur Babham and wife, with a quaint inscription, a canopied altar-tomb of 1526, and a monument to the celebrated painter, Frederick Walker, A.R.A. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford; net yearly value, £256 with residence. There is a Wesleyan chapel, and there are charities worth about £70 a year. Cookham is largely used during the summer as a place of holiday resort, and there are paper mills. The civil parish includes within its limits the ecclesiastical parishes of Cookham Dene and Stubbings, and the hamlets of North Town, Ray Mill, Pinkneys Green, and Furze Platt. Cookham Dene was formed into an ecclesiastical parish in 1845. The church, consecrated in 1845, is a building of flint in the Early Decorated style. The living is a vicarage; net yearly value, £111 with residence, in the gift of the Vicar of Cookham. There are also Primitive Methodist and Wesleyan chapels. Winter Hill, at Cookham Dene, commands magnificent views of the suiTOunding country and the valley of the Thames. Stubbings, which is about 3 miles from Maidenhead, was formed in 1856. The church, which was consecrated in 1850, is a building of flint and stone in the Early Decorated style. The living is a vicarage; net yearly value, £153 with residence. North Town hamlet now forms part of the town of Maidenhead. Pinkneys Green is a picturesque place about 3 miles S from Great Marlow. It has large red brick and tile works. Bay Mill is a hamlet on the Thames, about a mile from the Taplow and Maidenhead stations of the G.W.R. At Boulter's Lock there is a large corn mill, which is worked by the river. Furze Platt, near Pinkneys Green, has grown recently from two or three cottages to a fair sized hamlet.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
| Ancient County | Berkshire | |
| Ecclesiastical parish | Cookham Holy Trinity | |
| Hundred | Cookham | |
| Poor Law union | Cookham |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The register of Holy Trinity dates from the year 1662, the fourteenth of Charles II.
The register of St. John the Baptist dates from the year 1846.
Churches
Church of England
St. John the Baptist, Cookham Dean (parish church)
The church of St. John the Baptist, consecrated in 1845, is an edifice of flint with stone dressings, in the Early Decorated style of the 13th century, and consists of chancel, nave of four bays, south aisle, south porch, organ chamber and a small turret containing one bell: nearly all the windows are stained, one being a memorial presented in 1893 by John Philip Weatherby esq. in memory of his late wife: in 1892 a new vestry was built by subscription at a cost of about £200. and in 1894 the interior of the church was restored and re-fitted at a cost of about £140, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the laying of the foundation stone: in 1898 the interior was re-decorated and the pulpit restored: there are 300 sittings.
The Holy Trinity (parish church)
The church of the Holy Trinity is an ancient building of chalk, sandstone and flint, chiefly in the Early English style, with some portions of Norman date, and consists of chancel, nave of four bays, aisles, south porch and an embattled western tower of massive proportions, with a turret and containing a clock, 6 bells and a sanctus bell: the north aisle formerly consisted of two chapels, dedicated respectively to S. Catherine, and (east of this) to Our Lady: the south aisle terminated in a chapel dedicated to S. Clement: most of the windows are stained: the church was restored in 1860, and affords 600 sittings.
Methodist
Primitive Methodist Chapel, Cookham Dean
There is a Primitive Methodist chapel with a burial ground at Cookham Dean.
Wesleyan Chapel
The "King's Hall" reading and recreation room, presented to the parish by Col. F. C. Ricardo C.V.O. was formerly a Wesleyan chapel, and was built in 1846.
Wesleyan Chapel, Cookham Rise
There is a Wesleyan chapel at Cookham Rise.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Cookham was in Cookham Registration District from 1837 to 1896 and Maidenhead Registration District from 1896 to 1974
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Cookham from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Cookham (Holy Trinity))
- Kelly's Directory of Berkshire, 1915
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Berkshire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Cookham are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Berkshire papers online:
Visitations Heraldic
The Visitations of Berkshire 1532, 1566, and 1665-6 is available online.