Taplow is the village across Maidenhead Bridge on the Buckinghamshire bank of the Thames. Though Maidenhead’s neighbour, it is a Buckinghamshire parish: Buckinghamshire Council looks after its roads and Taplow Parish Council is the first tier. Details below were checked on 31 October and 1 November 2026.
Getting there
- Train: Taplow station (Station Road, SL6 0NU) is managed by the Elizabeth line, with step-free access and a weekday-morning ticket office. Its car park has 101 spaces, reduced from 28 September 2026 to 26 February 2027 while Network Rail works are under way.
- Bus: route 53 (Thames Valley Buses) between Bracknell and Wexham Park Hospital calls at Taplow station; route 15 (Carousel) runs Maidenhead to Slough via Eton Wick; routes 63 and 68 (Red Eagle, for Buckinghamshire Council) run Maidenhead to Slough via Dorney on Tuesdays and Fridays only.
- Road: the A4 Bath Road runs through the parish.
Things to see and do
- Cliveden (National Trust), Cliveden Road: the National Trust’s gardens and woodlands above the Thames, with the house run as a hotel; The Snow Queen trail runs from 20 November 2026 to 3 January 2027. Check opening times on the National Trust site. Cliveden House hotel and its restaurants are on our hotels page.
- Taplow Court, Cliveden Road: the national centre of SGI-UK since 1989, open to the public on open days only; the Heritage Open Day on Sunday 13 September 2026 opened the grounds from 12.30pm and the house from 2pm, free and unbooked. Check SGI-UK or the Heritage Open Days site for future dates.
- St Nicolas Church, High Street: a Victorian church (chancel by George Gilbert Scott, 1865; nave 1912) with the brass of Nicholas of Amerden from about 1350, said to be the earliest surviving civilian brass, and the Saxon burial mound in the old churchyard.
- Taplow Riverside and the Jubilee River: the flood channel completed in 2002 starts at the Taplow weir gates, with footpaths along it; the riverside conservation area was once dominated by the Skindles Hotel.
- Burnham Beeches at Farnham Common is woodland managed by the City of London Corporation, with grazing livestock.
Eating and staying
Confirmed trading on 31 October 2026: Taplow House Hotel and Spa at Berry Hill and Norfolk House Hotel on the Bath Road (see hotels); Miller and Carter Taplow, the steakhouse in the former Dumb Bell on the Bath Road, and The Oak and Saw Village Inn on Rectory Road (see pubs and bars); and Cliveden’s dining rooms.
A little history
The name comes from Tæppa’s hlaw, the mound of Tæppa, an early seventh-century barrow in the old churchyard. The barrow was dug in 1883 and its gold belt buckle, drinking horns, swords, shields and bucket are in the British Museum and Reading Museum. Taplow Court was home to the lords of the manor for three hundred years until 1939; its best-known owner, William Grenfell, Lord Desborough, chaired the Thames Conservancy for 32 years, presided over the 1908 London Olympics and was Mayor of Maidenhead from 1895 to 1897; he is buried at St Nicolas. The village green was made from a farmyard in the 1960s.
Parish council: taplow-pc.gov.uk.
