Local history websites: Eton

Eton College website 

In 1440 Henry VI founded ‘The King’s College of Our Lady of Eton beside Windsor’ and, a year later, King’s College Cambridge, which was to be supplied with scholars from Eton. The school was to be part of a large foundation which included a community of secular priests, 10 of whom were Fellows, a pilgrimage church, and an almshouse. Provision was made for 70 scholars to receive free education. Read more ......

A brief history of Eton Fives  

Most cultures in the world have invented games in which players hit a ball against a wall with their hands. Some form of fives was played by the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, Today the Irish and Americans have handball, the Basques have Pelota. In England, medieval peasants played a form of fives against their local chapel walls. The present game of Eton Fives is in that tradition. Read more ......

Vision of Britain 

Maps of Eton and the surrounding area from the early 1800's to the 1950's. View the website here.

Wikipedia on Eton

The land that is now Eton once belonged to the manor of Queen Edith, wife of Edward the Confessor. The land was appropriated by the Normans after 1066, the main road between Windsor and London went through the area and a hamlet sprang up amid pasture meadows to maintain the road and the bridge. Read more here......

British History on Eton

Eton is situated on the north bank of the Thames, and is connected with Windsor by a bridge across that river. The land lies low, and nowhere reaches a greater height than 75 ft. above ordnance datum. It is on a bed of gravel deposited in the Thames basin clay which overlies the chalk. Besides the Thames the parish is watered by several small streams, of which the largest, Colenorton Brook, flows through Eton Wick, read more here.....

Information Britain on Eton

Although there is evidence of an ancient crossing of the Thames at Windsor and Eton, the history of Eton as we know it today probably started with a Saxon settlement. It is said to have been called ‘Eyton’ or ‘Eytun’ meaning a settlement on an island. Read more here......

The Windsor and Eton Society

The official website of The Windsor and Eton Society. Read more here......

The History of Eton Church

The earliest history of the church in Eton is very obscure. The care of the Parish appears to have been in possession of the monks of Merton Priory in Surrey. There is a legend that there was a church in King's Stable Street. Later a church existed on or very near to the site of the present College Chapel, probably on the south side of the churchyard, as records show that this was being used when Henry VI was building his chapel, begun in 1441 read more here......