Water Oakley is a hamlet 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 ...

in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

Bray Bray may refer to: Places France * Bray, Eure, in the Eure ''département'' * Bray, Saône-et-Loire, in the Saône-et-Loire ''département'' * Bray-Dunes, in the Nord ''département'' * Bray-en-Val, in the Loiret ''département'' * Bray-et-Lû ...

, in the

Windsor and Maidenhead The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead is a unitary authority area with royal borough status in Berkshire, England. The borough is named after its two largest towns of Maidenhead (where the council is based) and Windsor. The borough also ...

district, in the ceremonial county of

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...

, England. It is the location of both Bray Film Studios and the

Oakley Court Oakley Court is a Gothic Revival architecture, Victorian Gothic country house set in overlooking the River Thames at Water Oakley in the civil parish of Bray, Berkshire, Bray in the England, English county of Berkshire. It was built in 1859 and ...

Hotel.

History

It first appeared on maps around 1800. However, the name 'Oakley' is derived from the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

''ac-leah'' which translates as 'a clearing in an oak wood'. Local folklore suggests a

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

church there was demolished around 1293 to build St Michael's Church in Bray.

Geography

Water Oakley has a site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) just to the north of the village, called Bray Pennyroyal Field.

Notable people

* Manpreet Bambra, actress

References

External links

{{Commons category, Water Oakley
Royal Berkshire History: Water Oakley
Hamlets in Berkshire Bray, Berkshire