The History Group met on the 10th, November to
celebrate two anniversaries; one, was to recognise the 8th anniversary of the
group's first meeting in November 1991. When the newly formed Eton Wick History
Group met for that first time it was expected that about eight people might
attend, in fact 46 people were at that inaugural meeting. Seven or eight meetings
have been held every year since and the topics have rarely ranged further
afield than Cliveden.
The other anniversary, the subject of the evening's talk and
display of memorabilia, was the 150th anniversary of the railways coming to
Windsor. Dr. Judith Hunter had kindly volunteered to tell the tale of the
railways' coming, and to her own research had been added material provided by
Renee and Tom Thompson of Tilstone Close. The fine display of railway
memorabilia was provided by John Coke of the Slough and Windsor RailwaySociety.
Dr. Hunter began by showing a map of the Slough area dated
c1830 when Slough was just a little village with two to three hundred people,
Windsor had just half-a-dozen streets, and Eton (apart from the College) was
barely more than the High Street. The main methods of transport were by horse, stagecoach
or private carriage. But in 1830 the railway era had begun and merchants in
Bristol and London were interested in having a railway connect the two cities.
There were lots of proposals put forward from 1830 to 1835
until eventually the route for the line was agreed upon; going through Slough,
Maidenhead, Didcot and on to Bristol - not yet, of course, branching to Windsor
- but including Isambard Kingdom Brunel's nationally important 'Sounding Arch'
at Maidenhead. Later he was to design the single-span (approximately 200 ft.)
iron bridge over the Thames at Eton, linking the viaducts on the Slough to
Windsor line.
Work on construction of the main line began in 1835 and by
1838 it had got as far as Slough, but there was no station at Slough. The
reason for this was that Eton College had objected most strongly to proposed
routing of a railway close to the College; the Headmaster, Dr. Hawtrey, had
talked about the difficulties for masters in preventing the boys taking the
train to London (for vice!); it was also suggested the lively Eton boys might
drop stones and bricks from the bridges onto the railway carriages. There was
long and vociferous opposition and in 1835 the Lords' Committee added clauses
to the Great Western Railway Act to prevent any station being opened within 3
miles of Eton College. (There was also some opposition from The Crown, but it
was impossible to get a railway into Windsor without going over Crown land
somewhere).
A station was constructed at Langley, where there was a
church, an inn and alms-houses, but it remained closed (for 8 years)' and
trains stopped at Slough: where there were no platforms, where there was
nowhere to buy tickets (so they were sold in The Crown Inn on Crown Corner;
later the 'North Star' was built - nearer to the railway halt - and tickets
were sold there).
Members of the Royal Family would board the train at Slough
for Paddington; and despite their own objections, Eton College hired a whole
train to take boys to Queen Victoria's Coronation. By 1840, College objections
had been withdrawn and Slough Station was built (with both the 'Up' and 'Down'
platforms on the Slough side). The 'Royal Hotel' was built close by and had its
own Royal Waiting Room.
Within 18 years of the railway coming to Slough it had grown
into a market town - but still only half the size of today's Eton Wick. In
1842, the first terminus for the electric magnetic telegraph service from
Slough to London was in-stalled, in a cottage on a small hill by Slough
Station. In 1845 the telegraph was used in the capture of a murderer, JohnTawell, who had poisoned his former mistress in Slough, then boarded a tram for
London. His description was telegraphed ahead; he was followed from Paddington
to his lodgings and was arrested tried and hanged.
Meanwhile members of Windsor Council were pressing for
trains into Windsor, Henry Darville for GWR and James Bedborough for the
Southern Railway. Apart from assuming that a railway terminus in Windsor would
boost trade, it should also resolve the problem of full carts having to be
half-emptied before horses could draw them up Thames Street hill - goods could
come in by train instead. The Crown withdrew its opposition to railways
crossing its land, after negotiating compensation; and two Railway Acts were
passed, both in 1848 - first the Great Western Railway (opened 8 October 1849)
and then the South Western Railway (which initially, from December 1849, had to
stop at Black Potts and only came on into Windsor in 1851, to the Riverside
Station with its 14 sets of doors which gave the Cavalry easy access and
ensured the Queen's carriage was always stopped close to an exit.
The GWR's original viaduct was constructed of timber and was
replaced by the present brick-built structure between 1861 and 1863, and its
Windsor Station was very modest; the present excessively large and 'Royal'
station was built in 1897. In 1929 another station was opened, in Chalvey, but
it only operated for 13 months before closure. The branch line into Windsor had
crossed Lammas Land and the parish were compensated, but no-one knew what to do
with the compensation until, in 1894, Eton Urban District Council and Eton Wick
Parish Council agreed that it should be used for the Recreation Grounds we
enjoy today.
During the 1990's the Parish Magazine of Eton, Eton Wick and Boveney reported on the meetings of the Eton Wick History Group. A member of the audience took shorthand notes in the darkened hall. This article was published in the December 1999 edition.