World War 2 Eighty Years On - September 1941 - A Change of Head Teacher at Eton Wick School.

Tuesday. September 30th.

Christina Plumbridge, who had been Head Teacher at the Eton Wick School since 1935 relinquished the post and Ida M. Rooke became the new Head.  

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

This article is somewhat limited in its scope, but while preparing the repairs have been made to an article added in 2015 that had lost its images.

Eton Wick School - gallery of class photographs / pupils' recollections

If you know any more about the pictures on this page, please let us know. Or you might have some other class photographs from Eton Wick School which we could add?

A photograph of Eton Porny School taken around 1907. Barbara Spicer believes the boys were aged between 8 and 13. Her father, Edmond Robert Janes, is in the second row, third from the left. If you can help with the names of any of the other boys, please let us know. Kim Devonshire has commented: I have looked closely at the Eton Porny picture from around 1907 and would like to hazard a guess that the pupil in the second from back row, three in from the left [handkerchief in pocket] is my grandfather Bill Devonshire. I guess there is no way of knowing for sure, but strong family resemblances would indicate some likelihood.
A photograph of Eton Wick School taken between 1903 and 1906. At this time the older boys attended Eton Porny School. Very few in the photograph have been identified but the teacher is believed to be Miss Stern, the Head teacher. Barbara Spicer wondered if three of the children could be her 2 aunts and 1 uncle: Mary Ann Janes aged 11, Lily Janes aged 8 and Jack Janes aged 5. They lived in Gordon Place. Boveney New Town.
Miss Rooke's class, standards 3 & 4 (10 and 11 year olds), 1950. Thanks to Jean Tyler for the following: Back row -left to right: Barry Wilcox, Maxton Clark, Ken Wilkes, Keith Huse, Terry Harman, Conway Sutton, Alan Dowson. Third row (Standing)- left to right: Pat Mitchell, Pat Wilcox, Jean Ireland, Margaret Western, Judith Mayne, Margaret Drake, Dorothy Bright, Jacqueline Alder. Second row (sitting) - left to right: Pat Day, Fay Kirby, Gillian North, Miss Ida M. Rooke (Form Teacher and Headmistress), Sylvia Robertson, Kathleen Johnson, Daphne Johnson. Front Row - left to right: Tom Foster, Leslie Hood, Alec Benham, Daphne Cooley, Roger Wilcox, Tony Johnson.
Miss Rooke, with another class.
Stoney Stratford camp, 1955 Ken White sent in these two pictures with the following comment: Pupils of Eton Wick Junior School packing up after a week at the Stoney Stratford camp and play acting on the penultimate night. The cost of this experience was five pounds and for some children, this was the first time away from home.
School class - 1956? Hazel Rees (nee Pygall) has written about the date of this photograph: I do not think this can be 1956 as I passed the 11 plus with Bobby Moss in 1956 and went to Slough High School and I think I look younger than 11 in the photo.  I recognise Lenny Milton, Margaret Scarbrough, Joan Benham to name but a few perhaps they can clarify the year.
Monica Peck and Ken White both sent in this picture,  which shows the cast of the school play in 1956/57.
A group of teachers at the summer fair, Eton Wick School playing fields, in 1974. Left to right are: Mr and Mrs Nash (+ baby); Mr and Mrs Moss; Mr and Mrs Pearce; and Mrs Smith. The small girl is Stephanie Nash, and the taller girl is Mrs Smith's daughter, Nicky. The picture was taken by Derek Smith. Mrs Smith taught at Eton Wick school from 1960 - 1974. (Thanks go to Mrs Smith and Nicky for these details)
Mrs Moss with Class 7, 14th July 1969
Class 7 children on "The Climbatron", 1969 This picture was taken on the occasion of Mrs Miles's golden wedding  and shows (left to right):  Mrs Miles, a teacher at the school for many years;  Mr Moss, the then headmaster; and Miss Rooke, former headmistress. Miss Rooke, who became Head Teacher on 30th September 1941.

Photographic History - Eton Wick Youth Club

The photograph is of the Club's 1948 outing to Margate. In the back row left to right is the Windsorian driver (name unknown), then Harry Wakefield (secretary), Frank Bond and Harry Pearce (committee members), Des Russell, Mrs Pearce, 'Chub' Bennett, Mrs Wakefield, Dennis Phillips, Bill Ingram, Mrs Hall, Ann Bright, Ray Haverly, Sheila Robertson and Sheila Spiers, ?, and Cecil Thorn (committee member). In the front are Alan Smith, 'Cooie' Barton, Mike Thorn, Bob Snaichel, Peter Frost, Phil Harding, John Newport, Eileen Bolton, Vic Merkett and Ray Mumford. The two young girls on the left are unidentified, the two on the right are Monica Pearce and Julie Wakefield. 

Eton Wick Youth Club members cutting logs for the aged in 1956. Sawing logs: Geoff Pardoe, Mike Knight, and sitting on the timber is John Alder. The axeman is Bill Critchell. 

From 1955, club boys chopped logs and delivered them to the aged. In 1956 alone over 11,000 logs were delivered. Trees available for logging were notified to the club by the Council and Eton College. Club girls supplied the loggers with refreshments. For its services the club was awarded the Hospital Saturday Fund Cup, received a written commendation from the Buckinghamshire County Council Chief Education Officer and was featured in the National Boys Clubs press (see picture). The Club age range at the time was 14 to 21 years. By the end of the 20th century, the age range had reduced considerably, partly by the introduction of a junior club in the 1960s, and partly as a reflections of nationwide social changes. 

The campers are at the back, left to right: Des Russell, Frank Bond, Mick Phillips, Andy Lewis, Terry Harman, Les Hood, John Jeffries, Don Middleton, Cecil Thorn, and George Lund. In the centre row: Tony Clibbon, Ron Branwhite, `Mo' (Maurice) Nicholls, Jacquie Hodge, Val Bailey, Norah Sumner, Joyce Russell, Margaret Wilson, Tony Johnson and Conway Sutton. In the front: Geoff Pardoe, Richard Jordan, Tony Gallop, Terry O'Flaherty and Ian Lewis. 

Eton Wick Youth Club Camp, St Ives 1958. For many years the Youth Club held an annual two week summer camp in Cornwall. The club worked hard to raise funds to buy camping equipment. In these days the cost to the members varied according to age and was typically (rail and coach fares inclusive) from £8 for 15 year olds, rising to £16 for 18 year olds and adult helpers. 

Eton Wick Youth Club Camp 1962 In the back row from the left: Derek Harrison, Ray Emery, Ted Turner*, John Stacey, John Betterton, Richard Jordan, Les Emery, Arthur Gittens, John Newell, Ian Wilson*. John Lee, unidentified*. Centre row Peter Tarrant, unidentified, Colin Harrison, Barry Alder, John Alder, Fraser Hatch, John Durbin, Jim Alder, Frank Ormond, Willy Welford, unidentified*, unidentified*, John Gittens, Frank Bond, Mick Bell. Seated in the front: Nancy Sharp, Christine Drewett, Susan Miller, Carol Cullum, Caroline Miller, Susan Jordan, Jennifer Paintin, Margaret Wilson, Joyce and Des Russell with their son Ian. 

The photograph opposite was taken at the popular club camp site on John and Kitty Roger's 'Hellesveor' Farm, St Ives, Cornwall. Although only four years after the 1958 club camp photograph shown elsewhere, there is virtually a new 'generation' of members. Those marked with an asterisk * are members of Denham Youth Club, who joined in several annual camps as for a time, Frank Bond was also the Club Leader at Denham. A few years after this photo, Derek Harrison with his family ran a restaurant and fish and chip bar at the sea front in nearby Perranporth; elder brother Colin emigrated to South Africa. 

Eton Wickers may remember Ian Wilson and Ted Turner (Denham members), Ian worked in the Bond's greengrocery shop in Eton Wick, subsequently becoming manager of one of their other shops; Ted became owner of KBG Engineering in Alma Road. Richard Jordan and sister Susan emigrated to New Zealand, and John Gittens to Canada. 

Christine Drewett and Les Emery, John Betterton and Nancy Sharp, and Colin Harrison and Margaret Wilson (daughter of Councillor Ivy Wilson, no relation to Ian Wilson) subsequently became partners in marriage. 

It is noticeable how many Eton and Eton Wick family names of the 19th century are still represented in this 1962 photograph. (There are seven surnames that appear in the 19th century census records and three in the 1901 and 1911 census or the 1939 Register)

Many of the village's former teenagers from the 1950s onwards will have happy memories of their days as members of the Youth Club. The club also attracted members from surrounding towns and villages. Quite a number of members in fact went on to marry their fellow club members. In this picture, Frank Bond, club leader from 1950 to 1961 and chairman for many years after that, receives a presentation to mark his retirement as chairman from Chris Foreman and Val Chamberlain (to become future married partners). In the centre is Mike Newlands, former leader and new chairman. To the right of Frank is Patron and former chairman Jim Ireland and club member turned leader, Geoff Low. 

From left to right are Frank Bond, Richard and Carol, Mike Newland, John Lovell, Geoff Low and on the right, the then current leader, by this time paid and appointed by the County. 

There are six leaders or former leaders of Eton Wick Youth Club in this photograph, taken c1987 at a reunion when former club members, ex-leader and marriage partners Richard and Carol (née Chamberlain) Jordan returned from New Zealand for a holiday. After being a club member in the 1950s, Richard took on the leadership of the club and later became a full time youth worker at the Hook, Chessington Youth Club before emigrating to New Zealand in the 1970s where he initially continued with his full time youth work. 

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

You can find other articles on Eton Wick History that mention the Youth Club by clicking on this link.

If you were a member of the Eton Wick Youth Club please share your memories in the comment box below.

The Eton Wick Newsletter - August 2018 - `Our Village' Magazine

 

Village roads, tracks and vehicles

Increasingly it seems our public services are finding it difficult to meet their purpose. Almost daily our so-called news is not in any way news, but a demand for more money to be poured into Health Services, Schools, Police, rail and roads. In many respects I think we are fortunate in Eton Wick: we are still surrounded by countryside; have pleasant walks; and still within a convenient distance of towns, rail stations and airports. At times there is a traffic build-up along the road to Eton, which is probably more of a nuisance to Eton than to the village.

There had been rumoured talk, and maybe suggested plans, to divert some of this traffic away from Eton College, but probably nothing more than wishful thinking at present. If this did become a reality I personally think it could be detrimental to Eton Wick, as more 'through traffic' would consider today's present deterrent of congestion through Eton to be no longer relevant. Be that as it may, the future is not ours to see, and at my age not to get bothered about. A bit like the bungalow in Sheepcote Road named 'Byjia' meaning "B.... you Jack, I'm alright!' 

Let us then look back on early Eton Wick roads. I know of very little written about them, so using what we know, and a common sense of deductions, we can conclude that roads locally often originated as tracks, were often very muddy, and at best used by pedestrians, horse riders and horse traffic — most frequently farm carts. There were four of these routes East to West and West to East, and three others North to South and vice versa. Additionally, there were probably two others; the present named Moores Lane to Cippenham, and another from the Great Common to Chalvey. The through roads East to West were our present main road variously known as the Eton Wick Road, or the Dorney Road (now B3026).

Secondly, we have the track Dr. Judith Hunter described as the King's Highway. Undoubtedly old, this track is from the village hall, then south past Hayward Mead houses, past the Scout H.Q. and on past Cuckoo Weir; Eton's Meadow Lane; and terminates at Brocas Street for Windsor Bridge. Interestingly about 200 —300 metres from the village hall this track is diagonally met by another track that starts in Boveney Village, passing north of Boveney Lock and crossing the Boveney Ditch at Splash Bridge, then on to join with the aforementioned South Field track. Given the age of Boveney, this route to town may well be our oldest. In the 20th Century this was indeed a 'splash bridge': horses or horse vehicles would be led through the stream, and rider or carter could hold the bridle and keep control while walking across the plank himself. Many villages will remember floods sweeping away the plank crossing, and today's bridge replacing it in 1993. 

Our third west to east road was perhaps only ever much used by farmers, and like the South Field track just mentioned was never given a modern road surface;. destined for ever to be a relic of bygone times, being then seasonally dusty, muddy and very rural. Number three then is 'Inner Wards' and extends from Common Road, north of the Common stream, to Eton College's Common Lane. This route to town would have served Saddock and Manor Farms, and of course give access to the open land between Eton Wick and Chalvey. 

The fourth west to east road is quite different, as it is not a through road, but a village road along which most of the early village was developed for homes. This of course is Common Road, probably only 600 to 800 metres in total length and for much of its length immediately south of the Common stream, which undoubtedly accounted for the early near development. From the west of the Great Common (narrow strip) it extends along the Common for about 200 metres and then turns north, terminating at Little Common. (Little Common is next to the motor museum). Any other east west roads in the village are less than 130 years old and are estate or housing access roads. 

The oldest north/south roads were probably all access roads for the local farms. The Common Road (west), formerly Brown's Lane, gave access for Dairy Farm (formerly Wick Farm) to the B3026. Bell Lane gave access to Bell Farm, which incidentally also connected with the start of the old King's Highway track. Some maps show, at the junction of Bell Lane and the B3026, the road was gated. Presumably as a precaution preventing cattle straying. The third north/south road was Sheepcote Road. This was gated at the north/Common end. I remember Sheepcote Road as a straight and very muddy track with a single row of five or six terraced houses appropriately named Castle View Terrace. There were allotments opposite the houses, and below the school. No flats or bungalows. This was truly a farmer's track from `Saddocks', 'Manor' and 'Little Common.' The 'Walk' road was probably not developed until mid 1800's, from a foot track used to access the Greyhound pub. Other village roads were made when the area was developed for homes, and like so many places never built to cope with motor traffic on today's scale. 

How wrong we are when we say that nothing changes. As technical boffins are busily making workers redundant with their ever-advancing automation and robots, concern is at last being expressed for the countless truck and van drivers who may not be needed when driverless vehicles become the norm. Once invented, nothing takes long before it takes over.

In 1907, just 111 years ago, and 25 years after the first motor engine was developed by Benz, villager Ted Woolhouse bought a De Dion car; the first known motor car for Eton Wick. It was quite a year for Ted, believed one of at least four brothers, as in 1907 he opened the village's first cycle shop, using the front room of what is now 56 Eton Wick Road. This was the age of high upright bikes with straight handlebars and carbide lighting. Battery lamps were to come later. Ted assembled Royal Enfield cycles for sale, and with repairs and hiring at two pence an hour, he earned a living until after WW2, over forty years later. This was of course interrupted by at least two years army wartime service, following the Conscription Act of March1916. The first two years of the 1914 - 1918 war produced sufficient voluntary man power. 

Only twelve years after the first car for Eton Wick, the village was petitioning for motor vehicles going through the village to be restricted to 10 miles per hour, and at this same period a huge dump of ex-army war vehicles was created at Slough, on a site later developed as The Trading Estate, forever referred to as 'the dump'. This should not give the impression of considerable car ownership. Not until well into the second half of the 20th Century, and quite forty years later, was this the situation. As an early 1930's schoolboy walking to Eton Porny School we often whipped Meg or Tee Tops along the main road to the rail viaduct, or played 'flick on' with fag cards along the footpath kerbs, and considered the occasional car a nuisance to our games.

Pre WW2 the local 'big day' of the year was the College's 'Fourth of June'. This was the one day when many luxury limousines; often with liveried chauffeurs, parked along the college area roads. That show of splendour has never been equalled since. 

In 1934 my brothers were ball playing along the road close to the 'Three Horse Shoes' pub (now a residence: 'The Shoes' no. 44 Eton Wick Road), when King George V's car drove through the village. Of course it was obliged to stop, on account of my brothers. Before Windsor Bridge was closed to vehicular traffic, in the early 1970's, it was not uncommon for V.I.P's enroute to Windsor to drive through Eton Wick. On this occasion my Mother came in for local tongue wagging, for letting her boys hold up the King. 

It was about this time that families who were lucky enough to own a wireless set (not then known as radios) would tune in to hear Hitler addressing the German nation. None of us understood a word of his speeches, but undeniably there was something riveting about his ravings. At least I thought so, until on one occasion he declared that the day would come when all German families would own a car. At this I thought he must be mad, no working man would ever afford a car. Of course, this prophesy was probably the most accurate thing he did promise. 

A contemporary of Ted Woolhouse was Norman Lane. He too served as a young man in the Great War of 1914-1918. Norman served in the Royal Flying Corp which became the Royal Air Force on April 1st 1918. Wireless sets were not available, or did not exist when that war ended, and in 1923 Norman and Bill Brown (ex-army) assembled a 'cats eye' receiver and claimed it as the first wireless in Eton Wick. Again, in a few years most homes had a wireless; be it second-hand or new, all were big, temperamental, and had a large dry battery and an accumulator battery that was collected weekly for re-charging. If electric radios had been available they would have been useless in Eton Wick until 1949-1954, when the village first had electricity, which slowly became installed in homes.

It would appear that whatever is new soon spreads until everybody attracted to the novelty puts it on the 'must have' list, and in this respect, nothing changes. 

Frank Bond

A portrait of Frank Bond by Ben Gower

First published in Our Village in August 2018

Click here to read Our Village August 2018.

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.

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

Our Village First School of 1840 

Some months ago I attended St. John the Baptist Church for the funeral of a young villager, and was pleasantly surprised when a man approached me and asked if I was Mr Bond, and did I recognise him. My responses were 'yes' and 'no'. He then explained that he was Mr Hampshire, a name I readily recalled as a former Headmaster of our village school. He was apparently living in Wokingham. In truth I regretted not having recognised him, but could not remember having had much contact with him during his Eton Wick tenure. Even so I was much impressed that after thirty years he came back to attend the funeral of this forty one years old man, who I presumed had been a pupil of his so long ago. At this point I can well imagine Eton Wick's late author and historian, Dr Judith Hunter's oft quoted advice -"Frank, in history we must never presume!' - Sorry Judith -. 

This incident had me thinking about my own school years of 1927 - 36 which started in the village school until I was seven years old; and then on leaving the infants came the long tramps to Eton Porny School until I was fourteen. This was normal for all the Eton Wick boys, but girls had the option of doing all their schooling in Eton Wick. There were of course no school buses, no school canteen or school meals, which effectively necessitated returning to our village homes for the midday meal, and then a return to Eton and school. Classes were known as 'standards' and we had the same teacher for most subjects for the year. The exception was for woodwork, gardening, swimming and occasional sport. Gardening and singing were the subjects that Mr Frampton, the Porny Headmaster, took charge of. The school had its own site of allotments; situated on the 'Sleds' and just outside the Eton recreation ground west boundary. Even on really hot days the 'head' would not allow drinking at the water pump because in his opinion men never worked as well when they had taken a drink; after 3pm it was acceptable. Rudyard Kipling's famous 'IF' poem could well have added a two line sequel - "If you can't sing, or strive away in your allotment you are never going to be a man my Son". 

Other Eton Porny teachers of the early 1930s included Mr Hoare, a firm disciplinarian, which in those days meant use of a cane, either by necessity or perhaps mood. He often had the lads chanting - "Old Conn Hoare is a very good man, he tries to teach us all he can, Reading, Writing and Arithmetic, and never forgets to give us the stick". In todays' world talk of corporal punishment is an abhorrence, but it also did much to deter the big boy bully. Perhaps a price that some tormented youngsters of today would consider worth paying. 

Every age has its beliefs until technology makes them outdated. Mr Hoare told us that skyscraper buildings would never be a feature in England, because unlike New York we lacked the rocky ground on which to support them. I am sure there are Londoners who would now wish that was so. Also, that men were hoping to  land on the moon, but of course that would never be, due to lack of air. Again, man wanted to split the atom, but fortunately he could not, because if he did there would be such a chain reaction that the world would not survive. In little more than ten years Nagasaki and Hiroshima knew otherwise. 

Probably Mr Hoare was well regarded by pupils on account of his having served and been wounded in the Great War of 1914 - 18. Colin had a silver plate inside his forehead where he had suffered a shrapnel injury. I conclude - must not presume again - that he had volunteered to join the army in the early months of the war. With little more than perhaps heads above the trench parapets there were many such head wounds; until in late 1915 when the steel helmet came into general use. All those serving before this date were volunteers, as conscription was first introduced in the spring of 1916. As a teacher he had several unusual methods. This was a time of much unemployment and like many others he advocated the slogan of 'Buy British'. He would say "My shoes are British made of British leather" - "my pocket knife was Sheffield made", and so he went on. Occasionally he would say "That will do for lessons today boys, you may now ask any question you choose. This was always popular, although on one such session a lad said "Sir, when I go on the common I sometimes see a cow jump on the back of another, why is that?" The quick reply 1 do not want that sort of question." 

Other teachers in the early years of 1930 included a young Welshman; Mr Hughes, whose favourite subject was natural history. Beyond any doubt, an enthusiastic teacher quickly imparts his knowledge to willing pupils and we were soon observing the plants and birds around us. Regrettably ho only stayed at Eton a few years before moving on to South Africa. A very unusual move, and certainly at that time when working class just did not travel either for work or holiday. Another young teacher was Mr Birmingham. I think this could have been his first school as he certainly had much difficulty in controlling the boys. I do hope in time he acquired whatever it takes to apply discipline. He was kindness itself, even buying prizes for particular achievement. Most boys wore short trousers until they left school at fourteen years of age. There was no school uniform, although the 'Porny' football team played in chocolate brown and blue, the school colours. Eton always had a good football side, and Mr Frampton was known to say 'all the best footballers came from Eton Wick' - the long walks every day to and from school gave the village lads better leg muscles. He certainly had no cause to include me. 

These were turbulent years, as Europe was bubbling over yet again, despite there being only seventeen years since the Great War had ended. Mussolini had sent an Italian invading force into Abyssinia - now Ethiopia - and were reported to have used gas against the natives. Maybe they did, but news reporters have been known to exaggerate or distort facts. In Spain General Franco had opposed the establishment and the country was struck by civil war. 

To some extent this resulted in Spanish pupils evacuating to Britain, although I never knew of any living locally. On one occasion Mr Frampton, the 'Porny head, announced that a football match had been arranged between the Eton School and a Spanish boys team. He expressed sadness at their plight and asked for every consideration toward the Spanish visitors. I think he stopped short of asking 'Porny' to throw the match but I got the impression he would be pleased to think the opposition won. 

I had left school four years before changes really had an impact. After the third year the country was at war and then came tho change in school status, with newly opened Ragstone Road School drawing all the pupils over eleven years of age. Both Eton Wick and Eton were Church of England schools and of course still are: but I do wonder if present day respects of other creeds results in less imposed influence of our traditional faiths. Apart from a small Dame School in the early nineteenth century there was no school in Eton Wick until 1840 when thanks largely to the enthusiasm of a young Eton College tutor, Henry J Chitty Harper, who was also a Conduct (Priest) and of the Eton Provost (also Vicar of Eton Parish) a site was found, and money raised by donations and subscription for the villagers' first school. It was not large, having just one classroom 29 x 21 feel; brick built and situated at what we today know as the junction of the 'Walk' with the main road. In 1840 there was no 'Walk' road; at best just a track leading to the Greyhound public house, approximately 130 metres north. The pub had only been licenced about seven years earlier, and the village population was less than four hundred. 

The site was leased from William Goddard of Bell Farm for the generous sum of ten shillings a year rent; roughly equal to a labourers weekly wage at that time. The building cost £259. Education was not compulsory, but pupils were expected to pay a penny or two where possible. It may not seem much to pay, but with a family of several at school it would have been difficult. Although unwittingly at the time, William Goddard was responsible for the later development of Boveney New Town. In 1870 he sold Bell Farm to Eton Council for their town sewage. As we have seen previously, within a few years the Council sold nine acres of their acquisition as being surplus to their needs, and in only a short while Alma, Inkerrnan and Northfield Roads were created and duly lined with late nineteenth century homes, effectively doubling the population, which soon made the first school of 1840 inadequate, and in 1888 a second larger school was built in Sheepcote, adjacent to the church which was built twenty two years earlier. 

Rev. Harper later became the Bishop of Christchurch in New Zealand, superseding Bishop George Selwyn, who had in fact been the Bishop of all New Zealand. Previously both men had been Conducts at Eton together, and both had worked beyond their College remit. Selwyn preached from Boveney Church and in Windsor before going 'down under'. He also rowed for Cambridge in the first varsity boat race of 1829 before going to Eton as a tutor. Both men were larger than life. 

Submitted by Frank Bond 

Click here to read Our Village December 2015.

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.

Eton Wick Remembered - Events and Treats

After the First World War a five-a-side football competition became a regular Easter Monday attraction. Originally it was only for sons of discharged soldiers and sailors, but as the years went by it was opened to all boys aged eight to fifteen from Boveney and Eton Wick. A silver trophy was and still is presented to the winning side. May Day was also known as Garland Day and doubly celebrated by the girls of the village. The day before they collected bunches of wild flowers and put them in water to keep fresh overnight. They were then used to decorate their hoops and to fill posy baskets. If possible, each girl dressed in white and before school, carrying their hoops and baskets, they would tour the village, knocking on doors and singing:

'

First of May is Garland Day

Give me a penny and I'll run away

I won't come back no more today'

At school there was dancing round the maypole set up on the playground and the choosing of the May Queen. She and her attendants were dressed in all their finery with veil, long dresses and daisy chains. Each year the queen received a silver heart-shaped brooch as keepsake.

In summer both church and chapel had their Sunday School treats to Burnham  Beeches

- it seemed so far away to the children, and indeed the journey took quite a while, for it was made in coal carts scrubbed clean for the occasion. Trestle tables, a tea urn and plenty of food were carried in one of the carts; school forms were screwed to the floor of the cart to make seats. The older children preferred to walk   beside the carts exploring the countryside as they went. It was a grand day, with opportunity to play in the woods, organize races, a scrumptious tea and singing all the way home. There were hay teas and cherry parties, Whitsun teas at the chapel and concerts most years at the school.  Autumn often brought the pleasure of a shopping trip into Windsor when the Provident Club paid out through one of the clothing shops.

November brought Guy Fawkes and carol singing round the village at Christmas completed the year's enjoyment. The village was much smaller - everyone seemed to take part - lanterns made from swedes or simply candles in jam-jars helped make the evening more memorable. Christmas presents may have been simpler and fewer, but the excitements and pleasures of Christmas were not.

Many of the people living in the Wick were poor because of low wages, spells of unemployment large families.  Yet memories of this period are not full of bitterness and dire poverty, as are those of some parts of the country. The reasons are probably to be found in the abundance of allotments and the close links with Eton College. Almost every family had at least one member working at the College, and many a bowl of dripping or bag of left-over food found its way to the village. There were gifts too of unwanted treasures from the boys, some of these would be stored away to help fill out Christmas stockings; and where else was the boys' cricket team so well dressed, albeit with cast-off caps and bats and cut down trousers? Memories of the connections between the village and Eton abound, but others tell of the pride of the village in itself, and neighbourliness. Families helped each other and at times of illness or confinement it was taken for granted that one neighbour would do the washing, and others the cleaning, cooking and minding the children. It was not at all  unusual for a neighbour to sit up all night at times of crisis and it is still remembered how Scotty Hood was willing to take a half hundredweight of coal to a family on a Sunday so that they would not be without a fire. Such memories as these do not make Eton Wick a special village though its laundries, lammassing and proximity to Eton College gave it some distinctive characteristics.

This is an extract from The Story of a Village: Eton Wick 1217 to 1977 by Judith Hunter.

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.

This is an extract from The Story of a Village: Eton Wick 1217 to 1977 by Judith Hunter.