Wednesday 27 November 2019

Manor Farm

Manor Farm
The photograph shows the Farm House, the origins of which date to the 1700s. John Penn is on record as having bought the Manor in 1793. The photograph below shows the entrance to the farm yard from Common Road. Both were taken around the 1960s. The area of the pond in the photograph is on Saddocks Farm land; it extended under the fence to the Manor Farm side from where there was a shallow ditch running from Little Common Farm. The pond was a popular skating venue for villagers before it was infilled in the 1960s. In the 20th century, the farm has been occupied by Urquarts, Tarrants and Kinrosses.


The Inventory of Manor Farm on change of tenancy from
William Stuart (for the Crown) to James Tarrant,
dated 19th December 1905. 

Horse Sculpture 1997. 
This life size sculpture by Fidel Garcia, was made at Manor Farm and erected in South Field between the Eton Wick Road and the river (along the tree line), where it stood for some weeks before succumbing to the weather, etc. It made an interesting relief to the otherwise featureless area of South Field. 

This article was first published in A Pictorial History of Eton Wick & Eton.



Wednesday 20 November 2019

Eton Wick Remembered - Home and Childhood

Many memories centre round the home and childhood, though naturally they vary from family to family and decade to decade.  In general homes were less sophisticated then those today.  There were few household gadgets and luxury items, and for much of this period many homes in the Wick ware without gas, electricity or running water. None had main drainage.  Fire and elbow-grease provided the energy.  Floors were usually often a home-made peg rug, bright with colours of cut-up rags. Next to this the fender would gleam like silver, having been burnished weekly with a square pad which looked like a piece of chain mail. In contrast to the silver was the black of the cottage range made shiny by dint of hard rubbing and blacklead. The range burnt solid fuel and had two hobs and a small oven. They were still being installed in the 1930s in homes which until then had managed with open grates arid side ovens. The side ovens were heated by the open fire; once hot, they retained their heat for a long time, and the skilful housewife could very  successfully regulate the temperature by  judiciously refuelling the fire. Often there was a trivet on which a kettle or saucepan could be stood to boil; but saucepans were also stood  directly on the glowing coals, and it was hard work to clean off the soot without the use of  detergents and 'Brillo' pads. Bread and even fish could be toasted in front of the fire, and in one family at least it was the regular Sunday job for one of the daughters to toast a bloater for  Father's tea.

One disadvantage of both kitchener and open grate oven was that they made cooking an  
unpleasantly hot job in summer.  The summer months could be trying in other ways. In homes near the brook, clouds of mosquitoes made hot, sticky children hide their heads under the sheets trying to sleep. Flypapers were hung in the downstairs rooms and were soon festooned with dead flies.  However their effectiveness did not last forever, and in time the dead flies would drip off - a horrid but commonplace occurrence which was simply accepted as the way of life.

Those were days when many families still had to fetch water from a communal pump or outside tap. It was a wearisome chore, and on winter mornings the pump had to be primed with a kettle of hot water before it would work and the tap unfrozen with a candle or paper burnt close to the closed stem of the tap. Buckets of water had to be carried in to fill up the copper on washdays and bath nights; afterwards the water had to be baled out into buckets and then tipped on to the garden or common.  Few houses had bathrooms - there are said to have been only two in the village when the first District Nurse came to live there in 1916, and she insisted on living in one of them (Wheatbutts Bungalow). For other households washing in a tin tub in front of the fire was a once weekly routine.  One story concerning bath night is now forever frozen in my  imagination. It tells of an elderly lady bathing in the kitchen but discreetly hidden from view by a draped clothes horse - or at least she was until 'God Save the King' was played on the wireless and, loyal to the chore, she rose to the occasion.

Of necessity most children were required to help a considerable amount in the home. Washing by hand was a long, wearisome task, especially when there were ten children in the family; and there are still sad memories of  mothers washing in the evening by candlelight. When the rubbing, scrubbing, boiling and rinsing was finished., the mangling could begin.  The children could help by folding the things and then turning the handle of the mangle with both hands if necessary - while mother guided the linen through. Washing up, dusting, chopping wood and running errands were jobs which perhaps are not so different  today, but it is rare in the Wick now to see children looking after their younger sisters and brothers - including the baby in the pram or  basinette, as was quite usual in the early years of this century. Gone too is the Saturday morning job of cleaning the knives.  The stains could be removed by a special machine, which some families had; but in others the job was done by rubbing each knife blade with moistened, powdered bathbrick or Oakey paste. Woe betide any youngster who forgot to clean the part of the knife where blade and handle joined.' Children worked on the allotments and while still at school helped in the family business, if there was one.  Young Bob Bond collected the horse from where it was grazing, on the way home from school, and at the age of twelve must have been one of the youngest people in the country with a cab licence.  Some families were poor enough to take   advantage of the soup kitchen in Eton and so perhaps twice a week one of the children would run to Eton in the long school lunch hour to buy a jug of soup.This could be filled out with peas to make a nourishing meal.

In many homes children were expected to earn a few pence whenever possible looking after a neighbour's children, running errands, mangling or maybe even helping in a shop. Payments were small, but when families were large every bit helped and mothers were thankful for 'small mercies'. One man, who worked as a schoolboy for a greengrocer in Eton before school, in the lunch hour and in the evenings for about 2s. 6d. a week before the First World War, remembers one week receiving only a 'hatful of specky apples'. In those years childhood ended with the labour exam at school, and children might start their working life from the age of twelve though   certainly some children stayed until they were fourteen. From then on life was likely to be hard, especially for those who went into service.   At sixteen young Winifred Sibley began working as housemaid at Cippenham Lodge, the home of Mr Twinch, a gentleman farmer. This was her second place and easier than most. Her day did not begin until 6.30 am with the dining room to sweep and dust before the family had breakfast. Mrs Twinch was very strict; there was no skimping on jobs. Church was compulsory on Sunday mornings and young Winifred on her  fortnightly Sunday off had to be back before nine o'clock in the evening.

While so many girls were in service the  launderies provided employment for the married women. It was hot steamy work, without the benefit of electric irons or detergents. Soap was bought by the hundredweight in mottled blue or yellow seven-pound blocks, which were left to dry and then chopped up for use. Washboards and scrubbing-brushes were used for really dirty items, and at Thatch Cottage a second small copper in the yard was used to bring back the whiteness to soiled teacloths. At this laundry the irons were heated and kept hot on a special 'ironing stone' with a ridged surface, which was set by the fire; but at other laundries there was an 'ironing stove' around which the irons could be rested and heated. As well as the flat-irons for the main work there were round-bottomed irons for polishing the starched and glazed shirt  collars; for frills and delicate work there was a range of gophering irons.

The main work of washing was usually done in the cottage scullery, where the copper produced the gallons of hot water needed. Mrs Miles converted one of the pair of cottages known as Vine Cottage into her laundry so that there was room for the various operations indoors, but at other launderies the business had to spread into sheds outside. At Thatch Cottage there was one for mangling, another for drying and a third in which the ironing was done. Some women did one job and others another. Woollen socks and sports gear from College were washed not at the laundries but by individual women, who collected them after games and returned them clean and dry the next day.'

Iron Hoop courtesy of
1900s.org.uk
The children of Eton Wick were country children who knew every hedgerow and footpath in the parish. They knew where to find the birds' nests and that the best cowslips grew in the Hyde. The bushy elms along Bell Lane made marvellous playhouses for the girls, and Blind Alley, the narrow strip of land leading from Little Common to Chalvey Ditch, was a place to light a camp fire and cook wild ducks' and moorhens' eggs. Children played with tops and marbles as in any English village, but I like the picture of schoolboys at the turn of the century rolling their marbles down the centre of Eton Wick Road on their way home from Porny School. Both boys and girls played with iron hoops which could be bought at Hearn's shop. If they had to be mended they were taken to the smithy; this too was a favourite haunt of many boys who would creep in quietly to watch the horseshoes being fitted.  They would wrinkle up their noses at the acrid smell of the burning hooves as they peered through the smoke to admire the skill of the blacksmith - joy of joys if one was allowed to work the bellows.

Although they did not all belong to the same era there are scores of other memories which bring back pleasant and exciting days. At the turn of the century a German one-man-band   occasionally visited the village with a dancing bear, and for many years a man with a   barrel-organ and monkey came to the Wick. The girls loved to dance to his music and sometimes he would encourage a few of them to try out their steps on a kind of platform attached to the organ. Another event belonging to the early years of the century and the 1920s was diving for plates in the river. It was part of the competitions and races organised by the Porny School for the boys who learnt to swim at the Royal Humane Swimming Baths at Cuckoo Weir. There were distance races too, and certificates to be awarded; and the school competed against others.


Thursday 14 November 2019

The Eton Wick Newsletter - April 2015 - `Our Village' Magazine



Our rural village - then and later

In 2014 our village history group programme included a talk on the local common and lammas lands. The speaker was Mr Ian Mellor from Eton College, and his talk was very interesting and well received by a customary sized audience of forty to fifty people. As usual this number was approximately two thirds of Eton Wick residents and the others from local districts of Eton, Windsor, Burnham, Dorney and Datchet.

It was in the early 1940s when Eton College purchased Manor Farm (Eton Wick) and in consequence became Lord of the Manor of Eton cum Stockdales and Colenorton, giving them much of the jurisdiction over the Eton, or Great Common as it is variously known; and Little Common; situated north of the village. The College of course owns much of the surrounding land that is not necessarily all lammas. The Lord of the Manor administers lammas through a Court Leet (Committee); a Bailiff and a Hayward. At least that is the custom in normal times, and had been so through the centuries, perhaps since Saxon times. 'Lammas' meaning loaf mass is of Saxon origin and means the celebration (mass) of the harvest (probably rye). Unfortunately if that long continuity was the 'norm' then we have now moved into abnormal times.

I write this while contemplating the seven to nine dairy herds that grazed the commons, under the watchful charge of the Hayward, during my pre WW2 youth. Farmers could use the commons between May 1st and October 31st for a stipulated number of animals; governed by their farm acreage. Cottagers in old Eton Wick (east of Bell Lane) could use the commons for one cow, horse or two pigs). Through the ages this varied according to the need. Certainly until a couple of centuries ago there were less cows, but more sheep. Home weaving for woollen clothes was an absolute necessity at a time of little or no cotton or man-made fibres. The numerous farmers and cottagers with these rights jealously guarded their interests, barring misuse, or use by others with no entitlement. There are a couple of interesting examples of this protective vigilance. The first I may have mentioned in an earlier issue, and it was in 1846 concerning a well-known Eton Town man named Tom Hughes. He had purchased land in Eton Wick that had lammas grazing rights, permitting grazing by farmers and cottagers from August of every year. Mr Hughes disregarded the regulations forbidding dwellings on lammas land, and built himself two houses. County Court ruled against Hughes and he was obliged to remove the houses. Seventeen years later he provided a sheep for the Eton Town feast, on the Brocas, to celebrate the wedding of the Prince of Wales. He also planted a tree on the Brocas, so it would appear he bore no rancour, and was himself a man of no mean means.

More recently, in the 1970s, a friend of mine who did have commoners' rights to use the common, had very extensive improvements to her old house, necessitating complete new flooring and walls. She refused to temporarily change her place of residence because she was sure it would cause her to lose her rights. She had no wish to graze the common, but did want to maintain her right to ensure proper use and not abuse of what she saw as her birth right. With no dairy cows to use the commons or lammas lands we may well say 'what does it matter, it is no concern of ours'. We can do nothing to revitalise the once busy farms, of which probably only one can now claim to be daily active, but this really needs more vigilance, not less. If there had been no interest in Tom Hughes building on his own land, what would have been our inheritance? Would others have done as he had done, resulting in much of our natural surroundings becoming housing estates. There was some local opposition when Eton College created the Rowing Lake, but it has very effectively stopped the creeping east of the riverside houses from Dorney Reach. There are many houses along the Thames from Bray, Dorney and Old Windsor, so with thanks to Eton College, green belt, lammas and north of the river the commons, we continue to enjoy our green and pleasant land.

Regulations are changed by the Court Leet. One example being an old ruling that certain crops must not be grown on lammas designated land. This included turnips and clover. Turnip of course included mangolds which was grown extensively for winter cattle feed. The reason for the ban was practical and common sense, as they were not harvested in time for the August 1st freedom to graze on all lammas land. In 1871 the Court Baron authorised the growing of turnip. Before WW2 South Field (large open area opposite the Church of St. John the Baptist) was frequently covered with mangolds, and the long earth covered clamps which stored the crop, were a very familiar sight along the Eton Wick Road.

Following the harvesting of the mangolds, horses were used to deep plough South Field; and the long earth furrows from north to south (Eton Wick Road to the old highway to Eton) were left to the frosts, winds and rain of winter before the land was used again. A farmer friend once say to me, the furrows afforded much used shelter from the elements for the hares. Perhaps so, and certainly when modern crops and farming methods saw the end of the lovely furrowed land, the hares seemed to disappear also.

The many farms that used the Commons and fields for grazing included Bell Farm; Dairy (or Wick); Saddocks; Manor; Little Common; Crown; Jersey; Long Close and Common Farm. In earlier times at the Eton end of the Great Common was Mustians Farm; a name we now only associate with an Eton College Boys' House. Additionally at various times there were small holdings with cattle; at Thatch Cottage and Wheatbutts, and one or two dairymen who probably owned a field and a few cows. All these retailed their milk to householders in Eton and the village, and to Eton College. All ladled their milk from churns into household jugs, and none to my knowledge used bottles during the pre mid 1930s. In fact the first bottle of milk I can remember was as a schoolboy around 1930 when small, one third pint bottles of milk were sold at morning playtime for one penny (less than %p today). Many families were large and in my instance with four brothers also at school at the same time, five pence a day was a prohibitive sum, and in so many cases those perhaps needing the milk most, never got it.

The reader may ask why could the commons be grazed from May 1st and the lammas lands not grazed before August 1st. Commons throughout the land have various uses to the local cottagers. Some places such as Stoke Common allowed furze to be taken, others perhaps, willow or turf, but here the commoner's rights are restricted to grazing. Grass makes rigorous growth in the spring and May 1st allows that it be grazed. Lammas however is a right to graze and glean on privately owned land when the crop grown on it had been harvested. August 1st was considered the date when the crops would have been gathered. Often the corn crop of today would not have been gathered, but when the rules were originally set, the quicker maturing rye was the generally grown crop. The village recreation ground is on lammas land but of course we now consider it an irrelevance as there are no cattle needing to use the commons or the lammas. In the early 20th century it would have been grazed; if for no better reason than the Haywards' need to herd all the cows over lammas lands. To do this it was necessary to have an access point at both ends of the Rec; and perhaps the relic of this can still be seen. There is a gate at the top end by the car park, and in the opposite corner leading to the river the gate has been replaced by an access structure that of course if it were still needed for cattle would not be suitable.

Now in the 21st century we have no dairy herds, no Hayward, probably no bailiff and maybe no cottagers with a right to graze for the simple reason that they did not register their rights in 1965. It matters, because it would only take an Act of Parliament to relinquish any or all of the protective conditions we enjoy. It could be later than we think. Apathy is no replacement for observant vigilance. Without commoner's rights, and certainly nobody living west of Bell Lane would ever have had these rights, we have no legal voice, but we can draw attention to known violation and abuses to those who do have the responsibility. Those with rights are the farmers and of course the Lord of the Manor. Listing the farms and small holdings in the village of the pre WW2 years when the population was about 1,100 reflects how much more rural Eton Wick was before the mid 20th century.

Submitted by Frank Bond



This article was originally published in the Eton Wick Newsletter - Our Village and is republished with the kind permission of the Eton Wick Village Hall Committee. Click here to go to the Collection page.

Friday 1 November 2019

World War 2 Eighty Years On - Dig for Victory and Rationing


The phoney panic was short lived as no enemy action followed these initial raid warnings.  Memories of the use of gas during World War I brought real fear of aerial  gas attacks and the need to be prepared.   One precaution was to apply green gas detector paint to the tops of pillar post boxes in the area.  During these early days of the war everyone was encouraged to practice wearing their gas mask whilst at school, at work and at home.          

Increasing home food production to replace the imported seventy per cent from overseas resulted in pasture and derelict land being ploughed for arable crops. Agricultural workers and tractor drivers, together with agricultural engineers and mechanics if over 21 years old were classed as being in a reserved occupation exempt from conscription, but those who had joined the Territorial Army or were Military Reservist were called up.  The organization for the ploughing and planting  of crops came  under the control of the War Agricultural Committees whose officers advised farmers and local Councils which land to plough, which crops to grow and where but this  advice was not always suitable for the designated land or the farmers. The newly acquired arable land often failed to produce good yields, the village recreation ground being one such area.  Legal action followed if the land was not farmed to the satisfaction of the War Ag. Committee, Wartime Emergency Acts allowing the farmer to be dispossessed of his land if found necessary.   Buckinghamshire War Agriculture Committee requisitioned 120 acres of Dorney Common, the Eton Wick recreation ground, lammas fields and commons for arable crops.

The area of  Burnham, Taplow, Dorney, Eton and Eton Wick was managed by local agriculture officer,  Mr C.J. Twist. 


Photograph courtesy of Buckinghamshire County Council
Dig for Victory’, a wartime slogan adopted by the Ministry of Food to encourage the population to grow more of their own food.  Responding to the call, Eton College boys under the guidance of their masters, took over allotments along the Eton Wick road close by the Slough - Windsor railway line cultivating vegetables during their school half days.  Children at Eton Wick school also did their bit by growing lettuce and other vegetables.   

Amy Buck, landlord of the 'Three Horse Shoes' public house was a lady who knew her way around.  Despite the rationing, Amy always seemed to have the extra bag of sugar or other things that were in short supply.  With these she would trade, such as  with the greengrocers wife, Mrs Bond in return for those scarce vegetables, such as onions.
           
Pigs and chicken had always been kept by some people in the village but the war brought greater need for this practice.  Various regulations were introduced to control the keeping and slaughter of livestock, a license being required from the local Ministry of Food office to slaughter a pig for home consumption.  This did not always stop the pig suffering an unfortunate accident.  A makeshift copper for the required hot water, a secluded spot in a garden or yard and someone with the skill, would quicken the demise of the unfortunate animal.  This illegal slaughtering at times led to acrimony amongst pig owners, with one party or the other threatening to report the incident to the police.  Killing of the pig was disturbing to some children, one lady remembering that as a child she would take herself to the far end of the village to get away from the squeals of the animal. 

The recipients of the meat asked no questions as to the source of supply observing the wartime slogan ‘Be like Dad, Keep Mum’.  Eggs, rationed to one egg per week for each person, also became a commodity for barter.  Keeping rabbits was another way to supplement the meat ration.

George Piggott, an evacuee, hearing his host needed a chicken killed, offered to do the job.  Assuring his host that he knew what to do, he was told to carry on.  Perhaps George had no knowledge for the traditional way of killing a chicken, for he proceeded to dispatch the unfortunate chicken by execution with an axe.

Evacuees found village life very different from that of London, to them, the new growing crops of cereal looked the same as grass.  Having been caught playing in a field of oats, they failed to understand why they would damage the crop which to them looked the same as grass.

The local Ministry of Food office set up at 39 High Street, Eton by the Urban District Council was managed by Mr J.D. Gale as Food Executive Officer, and Mr G. Walley as chief assistant.  The loan of a typewriter by Harry Chandler for the duration of the war gave a saving of £12 to the office. The task of preparing the five thousand ration books in readiness for local distribution took three and half days and required the voluntary assistance of ladies from Eton College and a number of residents of Eton.  Licenses were also issued to retailers to sell rationed foods and to those dealing solely in butter, particularly farmers. The license was later amended to include margarine.
           
Inspectors appointed to check the organization and control of the rationing system were offered by the County Chief Inspector and accepted by the Eton food control committee with the proviso that no legal proceedings would be taken without reference to the committee.

The grocer held about two weeks supply of rationed foods for customers registered with him. The Ministry of Food required the shop keeper to furnish weekly returns of ration food stock, shortages and complaints.  Snap visits by Ministry Inspectors to check on hoarding and any other irregularities was always a possibility therefore accurate records of registered customers had to be kept.
(Harry Chantler)



This is an extract from Round and About Eton Wick: 1939 - 1945. The book was researched, written and published in 2001 by John Denham.