Sonning Common

Kidmore House is a Grade II* listed stately home in the village of Kidmore End, in Oxfordshire, England.It was built in 1680 and is described by Historic England as being "Late C17. Flint base; grey brick with red brick dressings; plain tile roof; brick stacks. 2 storey and attic 5-window range. Central 6-panel door with fanlight and Doric pilaster to each side supporting segmental pediment.12-pane unhorned sashes to all openings. Flat brick band between ground and first floor, and below eaves. Dentil cornice to eaves. 2 gabled dormers. Hipped roof. Internal stacks to left and right return. Interior noted as having contemporary staircase and 3 panelled rooms ... Listed buildings account for about 2% of English building stock. Grade II* buildings are particularly important buildings of more than special interest; 5.5% of listed buildings are Grade II*." On 29 May 1927 the house and estate were described in The Times as having; "entrance and lounge halls, oak-panelled dining room, two other reception rooms, six principal bed rooms, four maids' rooms, three bath room etc." The "pleasure grounds" of fourteen acres included "spacious lawns with stately trees and parklike meadowland".

Maiden Erlegh Chiltern Edge (formerly Chiltern Edge Community School) is a coeducational secondary school located in Sonning Common, Oxfordshire, England.Students come from Caversham, Emmer Green, Sonning Common, Henley on Thames, Shiplake and other nearby areas in both Oxfordshire and Berkshire. Previously a community school and Language College administered by Oxfordshire County Council, in August 2018 Chiltern Edge Community School converted to academy status and was renamed Maiden Erlegh Chiltern Edge. The school is now sponsored by the Maiden Erlegh Trust. Maiden Erlegh Chiltern Edge is also the location of the secondary department of Bishopswood School.

Chalkhouse Green is a village in Oxfordshire, England. The village is approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) north of Reading, at an average elevation of 83 metres above the sea level. The 2011 Census recorded the population of the area as 215.

Kidmore End is a village and civil parish in South Oxfordshire, centred 6 miles (10 km) NNW of Reading, Berkshire, an important regional centre of commerce, research and engineering. It is in the low Chiltern Hills, partly in the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The A4074 from Reading towards Oxford passes through the west of the parish and it is located 6 miles from Henley on Thames.

Gallowstree Common is a hamlet in South Oxfordshire, England, about 4.5 miles (7.2 km) north of Reading, Berkshire. The village had a public house, the Reformation, which was controlled by the Brakspear brewery. The brewery sold the pub garden for housing and the pub is to be turned into a vet's surgery. The village has two woods: New Copse to the north and Withy Copse to the west.

Reading Abbey R.F.C is an English Rugby Union club. Although the club is named after, and historically connected with, the Berkshire town of Reading, it is now located between Reading and Peppard and just over the boundary into the county of Oxfordshire. Reading Abbey was born in the early 1950s as a youth side meeting the playing demand of boys who went to non-rugby playing schools. As a consequence when they wanted adult rugby they were uncomfortable with the established hierarchy at the two clubs in town. So in 1956 they formed Abbey RFC and played in the Town's public park moving from pub to pub for changing and post match refreshments. By 1971 life had become more heterogeneous and the club scraped together the wherewithal to buy 22 acres of ground and by their own efforts three pitches and a clubhouse were built. With all the energy released by the change of venue and an ever-growing membership, it rapidly established itself as a leading club in the area for adult and youth rugby, three of whom have represented England at various youth levels. League rugby saw Abbey start in South West 1 East with a declared policy of amateurism aiming to cultivate rugby within the community; membership has thrived and leading it to adopt the name Reading Abbey; the club is proud that its finances are sound and the 22 acres are owned outright without any borrowings. Its playing fortunes have been equally stable for, bar a couple of years in one level below and one level above, Abbey has remained a constant dynamic force at the same level at which it entered the leagues. Abbey currently play four senior teams as well as a colts and a vets team. The first team and second team train together as a squad on Tuesdays and Thursday nights and the third team and fourth team train together as a development squad on Thursdays. All the senior teams, apart from the colts, play their matches on Saturday with the colts playing on Sundays. The first team play in South West 1 East, second team play in Berks/Bucks & Oxon Premier A and the Berkshire Cup, the thirds play in the Thames Valley Invitational League Division A and the colts play in the English Colts Club Knockout Cup and the OBB Colts Division one. Every Sunday the club is taken over by the mini and junior rugby. Mini's rugby is from under-5s to under-12s. They play in their age groups, mainly working on their core rugby skills and playing in semi-competitive friendly matches against other clubs. The juniors, who are under-13s to under-17s, train on Wednesday evenings and play matches on Sundays. Women's and girls' rugby is a growing force at Abbey. Each Sunday Abbey hosts a girls only training session for girls from 8 to 11 with an open door policy where any age girl can come and not be turned away. The women's team play as Abbey Nuns and train Monday and Wednesday night. Having been promoted after their first season in a league, the Nuns now compete in Women's National Challenge (NC) South East West 1 league from the 2016–17 season.

Crowsley Park is a 160-acre (65 ha) country estate in South Oxfordshire, central-southern England, owned by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

Rotherfield Peppard (often referred to simply as Peppard by locals) is a village and civil parish in the Chiltern Hills in South Oxfordshire. It is centred 3 miles (5 km) west of Henley-on-Thames, 4+1⁄2 miles (7 km) north of Reading, Berkshire and 1 mile (1.6 km) southwest of Rotherfield Greys. The 2011 Census recorded the parish population as 1,649. The area includes Peppard Hill, which is 1⁄2 mile (800 m) west of the centre of the village and adjoins Sonning Common. Peppard Common is public woodland and meadow in between in a ravine. The far east of the parish is a golf course and the far west is Kingwood Common which is also wooded common land. In 1951, Elizabeth Goudge (1900-1984), novelist and winner of the Newberry Award for Best Children's Book (The White Horse), moved to Rotherfield Peppard, where she lived until her death. A blue plaque, unveiled in 2008, identifies her home.

The 1947 Thames flood was the most severe 20th century flood of the River Thames, affecting much of the Thames Valley as well as elsewhere in England during the middle of March 1947 after a severe winter. The worst in over 100 years, it was exacerbated by an extremely high tide.

Tokers Green is a hamlet in South Oxfordshire, England, about 4 miles (6.4 km) north of Reading, Berkshire. Its village neighbours are Chazey Heath and Kidmore End. Tokers Green is a village of houses apart from a farm. It stretches on two roads, Tokers Green Lane and Rokeby Drive.

The Emmer Green (Hanover) Chalk Mine is an extensive abandoned subterranean chalk mine at Emmer Green, north of Reading in Berkshire, located just north of the junction of Peppard Road and Kiln Road (OS Grid Ref: SU722769). The mine is so named because the land is now owned by the Hanover Housing Association who have a development adjacent at Wordsworth Court. The mine is one of a number of known mines in the Emmer Green and Reading area where chalk mining was often done in conjunction with brick making as chalk and clay are found together in the area and chalk was use in the making of bricks. It is likely other abandoned mines remain undiscovered. The area was once known as Rose Hill and contained brickfield and chalk mining works. The mine was discovered in 1977 during building works. Access is through a 50 ft fixed steel ladder in a narrow vertical shaft below a locked iron cover.

Bug's Bottom, also known as Bugs Bottom or Hemdean Bottom, is a public open space on the outskirts of the village and suburb of Caversham in the English town of Reading. It comprises a steep chalk bank that runs from east to west and slopes to the south in the form of a coombe. The site is managed as meadow grassland with a small mature woodland. Some planting has been carried out in order to screen adjacent housing. At the foot of the coombe, the open space can be accessed via an alleyway from Hemdean Road. From here a bridleway allows cyclists and horses to pass through Bug's Bottom to the north, where it meets Gravel Hill, an old sunken lane, now closed to motorised traffic, that connects Emmer Green to Caversham Heights across the north of the open space. Bug's Bottom forms the remains of an agricultural area that was acquired for development in the 1980s. This development was contested by existing local residents, but the developers eventually prevailed, and house building began in the mid-1990s. However, as part of the legal agreement, the land that now makes up the Bug's Bottom open space was not built-on, and was transferred into the ownership of Reading Borough Council. In 2021, Bug's Bottom was the site of the murder of Olly Stephens, a 13-year-old schoolboy who was lured to the site and then fatally stabbed to death. The crime attracted much media attention, primarily because of the young ages of the victim and the perpetrators, and because of the role played by social media. A memorial bench, in the form of a sofa carved out of redwood, is now sited on the field.