Coordinates: 51°30′09″N 0°40′33″W / 51.50246°N 0.67593°W / 51.50246; -0.67593

Dorney
Dorney  Dorney shown within Buckinghamshire
Population	713 [1]
OS grid reference	SU929790
District	South Bucks
Shire county	Buckinghamshire
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	WINDSOR
Postcode district	SL4
Dialling code	01628
Police	Thames Valley
Fire	Buckinghamshire
Ambulance	South Central
EU Parliament	South East England
List of places: UK • England • Buckinghamshire

Dorney is a village and civil parish within South Bucks district in the English county of Buckinghamshire, near Slough and about two and a half miles west of Eton.

The village name is Old English and means "island frequented by bumble bees". This refers to the fact that it was once a patch of hard ground in the middle of a marshy bog, though with modern farming methods the marshland has more or less disappeared. In the Domesday Book of 1086 the village was referred to as Dornei.

The manor house, Dorney Court, is listed among England's many fine country houses. The nearby Dorneywood is used as country home for a senior member of the Government, usually a Secretary of State or Minister of the Crown.

Today the village's proximity to the M4 motorway (therefore with a close link into London) has meant that it is now an area popular with executives and commuters. It is also the location of Dorney Lake, where the canoeing and rowing events at the 2012 Summer Olympics are to be held.

The village is on the north bank of the River Thames, and is surrounded to the south, east and west by the non-metropolitan county of Berkshire, with only a narrow strip of land running north (through Burnham) to the main body of Buckinghamshire. This anomaly dates to the Local Government Act 1972, which came into force on April 1, 1974 – the village had been originally included in Berkshire as the Bill, but an amendment to keep it in Buckinghamshire was proposed by local MP Ronald Bell, and accepted by the government.^[2]

The parish church is dedicated to Saint James.

Dorney is where the first pineapple in the UK was grown^{[citation needed]}. There is a pub in the village named The Pineapple.

In 1961 a cornfield at Dorney was the scene of a famous abduction. A lone gunman, James Hanratty, abducted Valerie Storie and Michael Gregsten in a Morris Minor parked in the cornfield. He forced them at gunpoint to drive to a lay-by on the A6 just south of Bedford where he shot and murdered Gregsten, raped Valerie Storie before shooting her as well. She survived but was paralysed.

Within the parish of Dorney are the hamlets of Dorney Reach and Lake End.

References[link]

1. ^ 2001 Census
2. ^ Hansard, 6 July 1972. Column 995-1001

External links[link]

Media related to Dorney at Wikimedia Commons

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