Goring Gap

The Goring Gap seen from Lardon Chase on a snowy January day, with the Chilterns in the background

The River Thames as it passes through the Gap

The Goring Gap is a British geological feature located on the River Thames approximately 8 miles upstream from Reading.

Half a million years ago the River Thames flowed on its existing course through Oxfordshire, but then turned northeast to flow through Bedfordshire before eventually reaching the North Sea in East Anglia near Ipswich. During the last ice age the ice sheet blocked its exit to the sea the amounts of melt water entering the Thames caused it to pond up into a lake that eventually cut a new route through the chalk at the site of the Goring Gap. The newly formed route flowed through Berkshire and present day Hertfordshire before finally reaching the North Sea in Essex .^[1]

Today, the Goring Gap constricts the River Thames narrowing the otherwise broad river valley. Steep hills rise southwards to Lardon Chase, the nearest section of the Berkshire Downs while the Chiltern Hills rise to the north. The twin villages of Goring and Streatley straddle the River Thames at the Goring Gap.^[2][3]

The Goring Gap represents an important communications and transportation corridor accommodating a major road connecting Reading to Oxford along with the principal railway line west from London (Paddington).

Coordinates: 51°31′19.28″N 1°8′19.33″W / 51.5220222°N 1.1387028°W

^[4]

The Goring Gap on a summer's evening from Lardon Chase

References

1. Michael J Crawley. "Geology and Soils" (PDF). Imperial College. Retrieved March 21, 2007.
2. "GEOGRAPHY & GEOLOGY". Visit Goring and Streatley. Retrieved 2016-01-23.
3. "The Goring Gap". Save the Goring Gap. Retrieved 2016-01-23.
4. Sir A. STRAHAN, K.B.E., F.R.S (1924). "THE GEOLOGY OF THE THAMES VALLEY NEAR GORING, as illustrated by the Model in the Museum of Practical Geology.". Reports & Proceedings—Geologists Association. Mem. Geol. Surv. Retrieved 2016.