Henley-on-Thames

Henley-on-Thames is a historic market town and civil parish on the River Thames in Oxfordshire, England, northeast of Reading, west of Maidenhead and southeast of Oxford. One of its boundaries has the tripoint of Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. The 2011 Census recorded the parish population as 11,619.HistoryHenley does not appear in Domesday Book of 1086; often it is mistaken for Henlei in the book which is in Surrey. The first record of Henley is from 1179, when it is recorded that King Henry II "had bought land for the making of buildings". King John granted the manor of Benson and the town and manor of Henley to Robert Harcourt in 1199. A church at Henley is first mentioned in 1204. In 1205 the town received a paviage grant, and in 1234 the bridge is first mentioned. In 1278 Henley is described as a hamlet of Benson with a chapel. The street plan was probably established by the end of the 13th century.As a demesne of the crown it was granted in 1337 to John de Molyns, whose family held it for about 250 years. It is said that members for Henley sat in parliaments of Edward I and Edward III, but no writs have been found to substantiate this.