Sunninghill, Berkshire
Historical Description
Sunninghill, a village and a large parish in Berks. The village stands near the Staines and Reading branch of the L. & S.W.R., 10 miles WSW of Staines. It is a straggling place, and has a station on the railway, and post, money order, and telegraph offices under Ascot. The parish includes parts of Cranbourne and Ascot chapelries, contains Ascot racecourse, and comprises 3094 acres of land and 41 of water; population, 3929. There is a parish council consisting of thirteen members. Sunninghill Park, Buckhurst Park, Harewood Lodge, Silwood Park, Titness Park, and Tetworth Park are chief residences, and there are many other good mansions. There is a chalybeate spring, which formerly was much frequented. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford; gross value, £318 with residence. Patron, St John's College, Cambridge. The church is a building chiefly of brick, erected in 1807 and 1826, and enlarged in 1888-89. A large and very ancient yew tree stands in the churchyard. There are a Congregational mission-room and a Wesleyan chapel. A Roman Catholic convent belonging to the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary was opened in 1885, and has a boarding school attached.
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 | Sunninghill St. Michael | |
| Hundred | Cookham | |
| Poor Law union | Windsor |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The register dates from the year 1561.
Churches
Church of England
St. Michael and All Angels (parish church)
The church of St. Michael and All Angels, originally built in the 12th century, was partially rebuilt in 1888-9, when a chancel, vestry and a chapel of stone, in the Perpendicular style, were added at a cost of £4,000: there are also nave, aisles, north porch, and an embattled western tower with 3 bells: the church affords 700 sittings. In the churchyard is a yew tree supposed to be 1,000 years old.
Civil Registration
Sunninghill was in Windsor Registration District from 1837 to 1967
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Sunninghill from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Sunninghill (St. Michael))
- 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 Sunninghill 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:
Villages, Hamlets, &c
BromhallVisitations Heraldic
The Visitations of Berkshire 1532, 1566, and 1665-6 is available online.