Cookham

A Thames-side village where the painter Stanley Spencer was born and set many of his pictures.

From King's Cross St Pancras: 1 h 9 min by train · 1 h 11 min by car

Travel times by TravelTime

Time there: 4–7 h to see all 3 places

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VillageLakes & riversGardens & parksGalleries

Must-see places

Cliveden

Garden · A National Trust estate of formal gardens, a long lime avenue and woodland on a ridge about 40 metres above the Thames.

Stanley Spencer Gallery

Gallery · A small gallery in the former Methodist chapel where Stanley Spencer worshipped as a boy, devoted to his paintings of the village he called heaven.

Holy Trinity Church

Church · Cookham's riverside parish church, whose churchyard holds the ashes of Stanley Spencer.

Quick facts

Stanley Spencer was born in Cookham, and a gallery in the village's former Methodist chapel is given over to the paintings he made of it.

Cliveden's Grade I listed gardens and Thames-side woods, run by the National Trust, lie just beside the village.

Kenneth Grahame spent part of his childhood at The Mount in Cookham Dean, and the Thames here is said to have inspired The Wind in the Willows.

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