The Sonning Works are a gravel works owned by

Lafarge La Farge, LaFarge or Lafarge can refer to: People * Antoinette LaFarge (1966–), American artist and writer * Christopher Grant LaFarge (1862–1938), American architect and partner in the firm Heins & LaFarge * Christopher Grant La Farge ( ...

, located near

Sonning Eye Sonning Eye is a hamlet on the River Thames in the Sonning Common ward of South Oxfordshire, England, in the civil parish of Eye & Dunsden (one of its four small settlements), at what is, since 1974, the southernmost tip of Oxfordshire. Geo ...

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire ( ; abbreviated ''Oxon'') is a ceremonial county in South East England. The county is bordered by Northamptonshire and Warwickshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, and Wiltshire and Glouceste ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

Overview

The

gravel Gravel () is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally on Earth as a result of sedimentation, sedimentary and erosion, erosive geological processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gr ...

works is positioned on the south side of the B478 Playhatch Road between Playhatch to the west and Sonning Eye on the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, s ...

to the east. To the west and north is

Berry Brook The Berry Brook is a stream close to Sonning Eye in the flood plain of the River Thames, in southern Oxfordshire, England. The stream flows northeast from close to the Redgrave-Pinsent Rowing Lake, parallel with the A4155 Henley Road out of C ...

, which joins the River Thames at

Hallsmead Ait Hallsmead Ait is an island in the River Thames in Berkshire, England. It is on the reach above Shiplake Lock near Lower Shiplake. The island is large and triangular shaped, forming a pair with The Lynch, a similar shaped island. It is uninha ...

to the northeast. Gravel has been extracted from the

floodplain between Caversham, a suburb of

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...

, and Sonning Eye for much of the second half of the 20th century. The facility was previously owned by

Redland plc Redland plc was a leading British building materials business. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. History The company can trace its origins back to the ''Redhill Tile Company'', which was ...

before it was taken over by the French firm Lafarge in the late 1990s. The gravel pits are permanently flooded as a set of

artificial lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from t ...

s known as

Caversham Lakes Caversham Lakes is a set of lakes created through gravel extraction between the suburb of Caversham, Berkshire, Caversham in Reading, Berkshire and the hamlet of Sonning Eye in Oxfordshire, just north of the River Thames and also refers to th ...

Sports

To the southwest is the Redgrave-Pinsent Rowing Lake, formed from former

gravel pit A gravel pit is an open-pit mine for the extraction of gravel. Gravel pits often lie in river valleys where the water table is high, so they may naturally fill with water to form ponds or lakes. Gravel pit lakes are typically nutrient rich and ...

s extracted by the works in the past. Also located here are facilities for

sailing Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, Windsurfing, windsurfer, or Kitesurfing, kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' (Land sa ...

Reading Sailing Club Caversham Lakes is a set of lakes created through gravel extraction between the suburb of Caversham in Reading, Berkshire and the hamlet of Sonning Eye in Oxfordshire, just north of the River Thames and also refers to the sports buildings a ...

and

waterskiing Water skiing (also waterskiing or water-skiing) is a surface water sport in which an individual is pulled behind a boat or a cable ski installation over a body of water, skimming the surface on one or two skis. The sport requires sufficien ...

Princess Margaret Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon (Margaret Rose; 21 August 1930 – 9 February 2002) was the younger daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. She was the younger sister and only sibling of Queen Elizabeth II. ...

and her husband

Lord Snowdon Antony Charles Robert Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon (7 March 1930 – 13 January 2017) was a British photographer. He is best known internationally for his portraits of world notables, many of them published in ''Vogue (magazine), Vogu ...

waterskied here during the 1960s. In addition, there is

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...

in the artificial lake.

Sonning Regatta Sonning Regatta is the regatta of the village of Sonning in Berkshire and the hamlet of Sonning Eye in Oxfordshire, England, on the north and south banks of the River Thames.Perkins (1999), pages 139, 140, 145, 150, 154. It is a part of the Sonni ...

is held every two years on the river here near the sailing club or on the lake if the weather is bad.

References

Year of establishment missing

Works Works may refer to: People * Caddy Works (1896–1982), American college sports coach * John D. Works (1847–1928), California senator and judge * Samuel Works (c. 1781–1868), New York politician Albums * ''Works'' (Pink Floyd album), a Pi ...

Buildings and structures in Oxfordshire Surface mines in England Economy of Oxfordshire {{Oxfordshire-geo-stub