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Goring Gap




The Goring Gap is an interesting geological feature located on the River Thames some 8 miles upstream from Reading 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.