Purley on Thames
Purley on Thames, known locally as simply Purley, is a village and civil parish in Berkshire, England.
Purley on Thames, known locally as simply Purley, is a village and civil parish in Berkshire, England. Purley is centred 3 miles (4.8 km) north-west of Reading, 1 mile (1.6 km) east of Pangbourne, and 22 miles (35 km) south-east of Oxford. Historically, Purley comprised three separate manors and associated settlements. In the centre there is an historic area named variously Lething or Burley (Domesday) which accommodated traders and craftsmen alongside the main Reading to Oxford road.
Adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Worth seeing in and around Purley on Thames
10 places within 25 km that the world writes about, in the order of how widely: the ones a visitor has heard of first, then the ones only a local would name.
- 01Tilehurst Water Tower
Tilehurst Water Tower is a distinctive water tower in Tilehurst, a suburb of the English town and borough of Reading. It lies on a ridgeline at the highest point of both the borough and the town, with its base at 100 metres AMSL. Together with its own intrinsic height, this makes it a prominent landmark that can be seen from a considerable distance, especially when approaching Reading from the west along the M4 motorway.
3.2 km · water tower in Tilehurst, Reading, England, UK · Wikipedia - 02Brock Barracks
Brock Barracks is a British Army barracks in the town of Reading in the English county of Berkshire. Located on Oxford Road in the district of West Reading.
3.8 km · military building in Reading, Berkshire, England · Wikipedia - 03Hardwick House
Hardwick House is a Tudor house on the banks of the River Thames on a slight rise at Whitchurch-on-Thames in the English county of Oxfordshire. It is reputed to have been the inspiration for E. H. Shepard's illustrations of Toad Hall in the book The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, although this is also claimed by Mapledurham House, Fowey Hall Hotel, Foxwarren Park and Fawley Court.
1.7 km · Grade I listed English country house in South Oxfordshire, England, UK · Wikipedia - 04McIlroy Park
McIlroy Park is a 12-hectare urban park and local nature reserve in Tilehurst, a suburb of Reading in Berkshire. Round Copse is an adjoining 1.7-hectare local nature reserve.
2.3 km · public park and local nature reserve in Tilehurst, Reading, UK · Wikipedia - 05
- 06Arthur Newbery Park
Arthur Newbery Park is a park in Tilehurst, Reading, Berkshire. It is named after Arthur Newbery, who donated the land in 1932.
1.7 km · public park in Tilehurst, Reading, UK · Wikipedia - 07Calcot Park
Calcot Park is a country house, estate, and golf club in the English county of Berkshire. It is situated between Calcot and Tilehurst, suburbs of the town of Reading, and within the civil parish of Tilehurst.
3.9 km · country house in Tilehurst, West Berkshire, Berkshire, England, UK · Wikipedia - 08Church of St Michael
St. Michael's Church, Tilehurst, is the parish church of Tilehurst in the English county of Berkshire.
3.3 km · church in Reading, Berkshire, England, UK · Wikipedia - 09Reading Festival Bridge
The Reading Festival bridge is a temporary footbridge over the River Thames near Reading, Berkshire. First built in 2008, the bridge is installed annually for the Reading Festival to allow access to the main festival site from camping and parking on the north side of the river.
2.8 km · bridge in United Kingdom built for the final weekend in August most years and removed shortly afterwards. · Wikipedia - 10Wilder's Folly
Wilder's Folly is a folly and dovecote at Nunhide, near the village of Sulham in the English county of Berkshire.
3.8 km · brick tower in Berkshire, England, UK · Wikipedia
Ranked by the number of language editions of Wikipedia with an article on each, from Wikidata; the sentences are the openings of those articles, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Getting to Purley on Thames
- Airports
- London Heathrow (LHR), 41 km · London Luton (LTN), 64 km · London Gatwick (LGW), 70 km
- Stations
- Tilehurst railway station, 1.5 km · Pangbourne railway station, 3.1 km
- London → Purley on Thames64 km · quickest by road, 1h 52m · £7–10
- Luton, Luton → Purley on Thames62 km · quickest by road, 1h 57m · £9–12
- London, Essex → Purley on Thames64 km · quickest by road, 1h 52m · £7–10
- Plan a tripFrom anywhereThe planner compares every way there from wherever you are.
Road and air are today’s quick answer; timetabled trains, buses and ferries load on the results page from the operators’ feeds.
No local-transport research exists yet for Purley on Thames
Our researched notes are written from a sourced entry: every shared taxi, boat and village bus with its operator, its rule, its fare and the year we saw it, and what could not be confirmed. Nobody has done that work for Purley on Thames. What is above is what we hold from open sources; nothing here pretends to be more.
- Get aroundThe local authority has published a cycle map, which shows off-road and low-traffic routes around the town.
From Wikivoyage: Reading (England), CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us; that article was last edited 2026-09.
- 0190 km
- 02254 km
- 03455 km
- 04530 km
- 05566 km
If you know how people move in Purley on Thames – the stand, the rule, the fare – tell us, and the note gets an entry.
Next door to Purley on Thames
Purley on Thames is 6 km from Reading, the nearest large city, whose note carries the wider picture.
- Pangbournevillage in Berkshire, England, UK2.9 km
- Sulhama village located in West Berkshire, United Kingdom2.7 km
- Tidmarshvillage in Berkshire, England, UK3.2 km
- Mapledurhamvillage and civil parish in South Oxfordshire district, Oxfordshire, England800 m
- Whitchurch-on-Thamesvillage and civil parish in South Oxfordshire district, Oxfordshire, England3 km
- Tilehurstsuburb of Reading in Berkshire, England2.2 km