Cookham is a historic village and civil parish on the River Thames in the north-easternmost corner of Berkshire, England. It is notable as the home of the artist Stanley Spencer. It lies 2.9 miles (5 km) north-north-east of Maidenhead on the county border with Buckinghamshire, opposite the village of Bourne End. Cookham forms the southernmost and most rural part of the High Wycombe Urban Area. Cookham and its adjoining villages of Cookham Rise and Cookham Dean had a combined population of 5,779 at the 2011 Census. In 2011 The Daily Telegraph deemed Cookham Britain's second richest village.

The area has been inhabited for thousands of years. There were several prehistoric burial mounds on Cock Marsh which were excavated in the 19th century and the largest stone axe ever found in Britain was one of 10,000 that has been dug up in nearby Furze Platt. The Roman road called the Camlet Way is reckoned to have crossed the Thames at Sashes Island, now cut by Cookham Lock, on its way from St. Albans to Silchester. By the 8th century there was an Anglo-Saxon abbey in Cookham and one of the later abbesses was Cynethryth, widow of King Offa of Mercia. It became the centre of a power struggle between Mercia and Wessex. Later King Alfred made Sashes Island one of his burhs to help defend against Viking invaders. There was a royal palace here where the Witan met in 997.

It is recorded in the Domesday Book as Cocheham. The name may be from the Old English coc + ham, meaning 'cook village', i.e. 'village noted for its cooks', although the first element may be derived from the Old English coc(e) meaning 'hill'.

Although the earliest stone church building may date from 750, the earliest identifiable part of the current Holy Trinity parish church is the Lady Chapel, built in the late 12th century on the site of the cell of a female anchorite who lived next to the church and was paid a halfpenny a day by Henry II.

In the Middle Ages, most of Cookham was owned by Cirencester Abbey and the timber-framed 'Churchgate House' was apparently the Abbot's residence when in town. The "Tarry Stone" - still to be seen on the boundary wall of the Dower House - marked the extent of their lands.

In 1611 the estate at Cookham was the subject of the first ever country house poem, Emilia Lanier's "Description of Cookham". In the poem Lanier pays tribute to her patroness, Margaret Clifford, Countess of Cumberland, through a description of her residence as a paradise for literary women. The estate at Cookham did not actually belong to Margaret Clifford, but was rented for her by her brother while Clifford was undergoing a dispute with her husband.

The town people have resisted many attempts to enclose parts of the common land, including by the vicar, Rev. Thomas Whateley in 1799, Miss Isabella Fleming in 1869 (who wanted to stop nude bathing at Odney) and the Odney Estates in 1928 who wanted to enclose Odney Common. The Maidenhead and Cookham Commons Preservation Committee was formed and raised £2,738 to buy the manorial rights and the commons which were then donated to the National Trust by 1937. These included Widbrook, Cockmarsh, Winter Hill, Cookham Dean Commons, Pinkneys Green Common and Maidenhead Thicket.

The village is a tourist destination as it is a convenient base for a number of walks along the Thames Path and across National Trust property. There is a selection of restaurants and pubs in the High Street. The Stanley Spencer Gallery, based in the former Methodist chapel, also has a permanent exhibition of the artist's works.