|
|
|
Henley is one of the most important historic towns in Oxfordshire.
It is sited by a prehistoric ford over the River Thames where two ancient route-ways converge, but the topography of the town centres as it survives today is predominantly that of the planned town, founded in the late twelfth or early thirteenth centuries.
The approximate area of the medieval town is bounded by New Street to the north, Friday Street to the south, the river to the east and the upper end of Market Place to the west. Competition for space was a common feature of town life in the Middle Ages, every property owner in the centre of town wanting to have a frontage onto one of the chief commercial streets. This led to the creation of long narrow plots of land, known as burgage plots after the townsmen or burghers who occupied them.
The chief economic importance of Henley in the late middle ages was as a collecting centre for grain grown in the Upper Thames Valley and its shipment to London. This trade continued into the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and, coupled with the development of the malting industry and the town“s new importance as a coaching halt, resulted in a period of considerable prosperity. During the eighteenth century several houses were built in the fashionable Georgian style, but even more characteristic of the time was the re-fronting in brick of earlier timber-framed buildings, many examples of which are to be seen in the centre of town.
The arrival of the railway in 1857 provided some impetus for expansion, mainly to the south of the historic core. Even more important, however, was the increasing number of visitors attracted to the town by the river, especially after the creation of the Henley Regatta. This quickly led to the redevelopment of the river frontage, which previously had been occupied by warehouses associated with the grain shipping business. The private boathouses along Wharf Lane are a striking symbol of the new recreational role of the river.
|
|
|
|
 |
Hotel Options |
 |
 |
|
|
| |
| Budget Hotels |
Premier Budget Hotels |
Late Availability |
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
