Cookham Abbey

Cookham Abbey stands on the south bank of the River Thames in Berkshire. It began as an Anglo-Saxon monastery founded before 726. The site lies near a Roman river crossing, which made it a prize for neighbouring kings. In 733 Mercian forces captured the abbey, and later Offa of Mercia took it again in 779. The struggle over its deeds dragged on until Cynewulf of Wessex returned them to Canterbury in an act of penance. The abbey’s history is marked by royal disputes and church councils. Archbishop Cuthbert’s pupils stole the deeds in the 760s, and Offa’s widow Cynethryth became abbess in 796. At Clofesho in 798 the archbishop confirmed the abbey belonged to Canterbury in exchange for land supporting 160 households. Archaeologists from the University of Reading uncovered remains of Cynethryth’s monastery in 2021. Visitors find the abbey’s story told through finds at Holy Trinity Church. Excavations revealed food remains, cooking pots, a bronze bracelet and a dress pin. The churchyard now holds traces of the 8th-century monastery, linking past and present on the Thames.