Goring Gap

The Goring Gap is an interesting geological feature located on the River Thames some 8 miles upstream from Reading, Berkshire and 16 miles downstream of Oxford.

Until around half a million years ago, the River Thames flowed on its existing course through what is now Oxfordshire, before turning to the north east through Hertfordshire and East Anglia and reaching the North Sea near Ipswich. At the end of the ice age, the ice started to melt and huge amounts of water entered this river system, causing it to cut down a new route through the chalk at the site of the Goring Gap, creating a new river route flowing down through Berkshire and on into London.

Today the Goring Gap is a constricted narrowing in the otherwise quite broad river valley, with steep hills rising southwards to Lardon Chase, the nearest section of the Berkshire Downs, and northwards to the Chiltern Hills. Nestling within the gap are the twin villages of Goring and Streatley, on the Oxfordshire and Berkshire banks of the river respectively.

The gap is still quite important for modern communications, with a major road running from Reading to Oxford passing through Streatley, and the principal railway line west out of London passing through Goring.