The Story of a Village - Eton Wick - Preface and Acknowledgements

EVERY VILLAGE HAS A HISTORY and discovering it can be absorbing, exciting - and sometimes frustrating. As long ago as 1968 I began delving into the history of Eton Wick. The village is not obviously 'historical' - its oldest houses lie away from the village centre, no events of national importance appear to have happened here and only one famous person, David Niven, is known to have lived in the Wick. Yet it has a long and fascinating history stretching back over at least seven centuries; long before Eton College was built or Windsor became a borough, Eton Wick was in existence.

As with any village or town, the story that can be discovered and retold depends on the records that have survived. Some of the records have long been lost and many questions must therefore remain unanswered, but there are a great variety of records - documents, maps, old newspapers and other printed matter, pictures and photographs, surviving buildings and other features of the landscape and local memories which can and have been used, In some ways Eton Wick is fortunate, for its connections with Eton College and Windsor Castle have provided rich sources of information, particularly concerning its agricultural history and the story of its commons and laminas lands, Some of the records are to be found in the village, but most are scattered in record offices, libraries and in private hands in many parts of the country, and as far afield as San Francisco. These have been my Clues from which to try and reconstruct Eton Wick of the past. In this book I have tried to tell the story of the growing and ever-changing village and it is dedicated to the people of the present village. 

Carucage (land tax) of 1217 This earliest known record of Eton Wick records that, with Eton and Hedgerley, the village paid twenty-two shillings tax. 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I should like to thank most warmly the many people without whose help this book could not have been published, especially Patrick Strong, who made available the records held by Eton College and who freely gave so much useful advice, Frank Bond, who has been invaluable for his encouragement and local knowledge, and Mary Johnson, whose delightful drawings enhance so many pages. I am also indebted to a great number of other people who have allowed me to use their documents or other records, to look over their houses, or have given of their time to tell me their memories or to read my script in part or whole - Selina Ballance Michael Bayley, Joan Balhatchet, Winifred Brown, Joyce Chew, Bill Cooley, Cyril Doe, Ginny Dawson, Rev Christopher Johnson, Jim Kinross, Jean Kirkwood, Pamela Marson, Maud Rivers, Bill Sibley, Raymond South, Reg Stevenson, Reg Tarrant, Florence Wilson, and last but not least, my husband and many others too numerous to name individually. I would also like to thank Evelyn Greenwood and Irene Taylor, who did much of the typing in the early and later stages, and also the staff of the various record offices and libraries and other establishments whose records I have used,

 

Judith Hunter  July, 1977