Rotherfield Greys

"ROTHERFIELD-GRAYS, a parish in the hundred of Binfield, county Oxford, 3 miles S.W. of Henley-on-Thames, its post town, and 7.5 from Reading. The village is situated on the Thames, and is principally agricultural. The manor was formerly held by the De Greys, Lovels, and Knollyses, from whom it afterwards passed to the Stapletons of Grey's Court, a venerable mansion containing part of the ancient baronial residence of the De Greys, from whom the parish derives its suffix. The surface is well wooded, the prevailing timber being beech. The soil is gravelly, alternating with flint and chalk. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Oxford, value £714, in the patronage of Trinity College, Oxford. The church has a square wooden belfry. The interior of the church contains a canopied brass of Robert de Grey, bearing date 1387, also tombs of the above-mentioned families, including a monument to Sir Francis Knollys. There are also the district churches of Trinity church and Highmore, the livings of which are perpetual curacies The parochial charities produce about £2 per annum. There is a parochial school." [The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]