Sunninghill

"SUNNINGHILL, a parish in the hundred of Cookham, county Berks, 6 miles from Windsor, the same from Egham, and 8 N.W. of Chertsey. It is a station on the Staines and Reading branch of the London and South-Western railway. The village is large and scattered, and is situated on the Bath and Reading roads, near Windsor Forest. It had formerly a Benedictine nunnery at Bromhall, founded in the reign of John, and which was given to St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1522. It is the place to which Richard II.'s queen, Isabella, retired. In this parish is Ascot Heath racecourse. At the Wells, also in this parish, is a chalybeate spring, formerly in great repute. A railway has been recently formed from Wokingham to Staines, which passes through this parish. The living is a vicarage* in the diocese of Oxford, value £328, in the patronage of St. John's College, Cambridge. The church, dedicated to St. Michael, was re-built in 1828. In the churchyard is a yew-tree supposed to have been planted before the Norman conquest. The parochial charities produce about £9. There are a National school for both sexes, and a Sunday-school endowed with an annuity of £40. The Wesleyans have a chapel. The principal residences are Sunninghill Park, Silwood Park, and Titnest."

From The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland(1868). Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003.

Other descriptions can be found from other periods in various trade directories covering Berkshire from the early 19th century onwards from Berkshire FHS (members only) and from A Vision of Britain Through Time.