Dairy Farm

Dairy Farm circa 1900

The earliest known deed for Dairy Farm House is dated 1704, but refers to previous owners, so the house is likely to be older than this. At that time the farm is recorded as comprising forty acres, which included Wheatbutts Field and the land on which Hope Cottages were later built. There were also five closes of arable and pasture land, and sixteen strips dispersed in North Field, the Hyde and Waterslades. Within a few decades, Dairy Farm had been reduced to a mere seventeen acres, the greater part being lost to other farms. 

In the early 1900s when this picture was taken, the farm was run by Charles Nottage. Charles died in 1913. His son Arthur, together with Arthur's brother-in-law Edwin Ashman farmed the land through World War I. Nottage and Ashman were followed in the 1920s by Harry Blakiston Morris and his family. The eldest son, Ted Morris, was co-founder of the well-known Slough Builders Merchants Miller, Morris and Brooker. 

Bob Bond (son of Roland Bond, the founder of R Bond & Sons, Contractors) bought Dairy Farm in the late 1930s and worked it (in addition to his role in the Contracting Company) until his death in 1975. It is no longer a farm. Some of the land and buildings have been developed as livery stables, and two houses have been built on the land fronting the western end of the Common. 

This is an extract from A Photographic History of Eton Wick and Eton published by the Eton Wick History Group in 2000.