Goring Heath is a hamlet

Hamlet (place)

A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...

 and civil parish in the Chiltern Hills

Chiltern Hills

The Chiltern Hills form a chalk escarpment in South East England. They are known locally as "the Chilterns". A large portion of the hills was designated officially as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1965.-Location:...

 in South Oxfordshire

South Oxfordshire

South Oxfordshire is a local government district in Oxfordshire, England. Its council is based in Crowmarsh Gifford, just outside Wallingford....

. The civil parish includes the villages of Whitchurch Hill

Whitchurch Hill

Whitchurch Hill is a village in the Chiltern Hills in Oxfordshire, about northwest of Reading, Berkshire.The Church of England parish church of Saint John the Baptist was designed by the architect Francis Bacon and built in 1883....

 and Crays Pond

Crays Pond

Crays Pond is a hamlet situated in the parish of Goring Heath in South Oxfordshire. Crays Pond is about northeast of Goring-on-Thames and about northwest of Reading, Berkshire....

 and some small hamlets. Goring Heath is about 4 miles (6.4 km) southeast of Goring-on-Thames

Goring-On-Thames

Goring-on-Thames is a large village and civil parish on the River Thames in South Oxfordshire, about south of Wallingford.-Geography:...

 and about 4.5 miles (7.2 km) northwest of Reading, Berkshire

Reading, Berkshire

Reading is a large town and unitary authority area in England. It is located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some west of London....

.

In 1724 Henry Alnutt, a lawyer of the Middle Temple

Middle Temple

The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers; the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn...

 in London, established a set of almshouse

Almshouse

Almshouses are charitable housing provided to enable people to live in a particular community...

s at Goring Heath. They form three sides of a courtyard, flanking a chapel

Chapel

A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...

 of the same date. In the 1880's a school was built beside the almshouses in what was intended to be the same architectural style. A post office was added in 1900.

Alnutt also left a continuing income from his estate at Goring Heath to teach, clothe and apprentice boys from five parishes. One of the parishes was Cassington

Cassington

Cassington is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire about northwest of Oxford. The village lies on gravel strata about from the confluence of the River Evenlode with the River Thames. The parish includes the hamlet of Worton northeast of the village and the site of the former hamlet of...

 in West Oxfordshire

West Oxfordshire

West Oxfordshire is a local government district in north west Oxfordshire, England including towns such as Woodstock, Burford, Chipping Norton, Charlbury, and Witney ....

, where Alnutt's charity established a small school for boys. In 1833 the Allnut school was absorbed into a new Cassington parish school, which in 1853 became Cassington's present St. Peter's Church of England

Voluntary controlled school

A voluntary controlled school is a state-funded school in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in which a foundation or trust has some formal influence in the running of the school...

primary school.