Photographic History of Eton Wick and Eton - Community Organisations and Social Life -Eton Wick Athletics 1952

 

The Eton Wick Minors F.C. changed its name to Eton Wick Athletic when it formed a senior team from former players in 1949/50. In 1952 the two village clubs Eton Wick United and Eton Wick Athletic amalgamated, becoming the Eton Wick F.C. Success was instant and the merged club won the much coveted Slough Town Senior Cup for the first time. They have won the cup again a number of times since. 

Captain Jack Ling is holding the cup aloft in this photograph. The team is, from left to right: 'Tich' Keen, John Batt, Mick Sibley, 'Roily' Woodley, John Grant, Jack Ling, Ron Carter, John Sheehan, Alf Vickers and Ron Pitcher. 

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

Photographic History of Eton Wick and Eton - Community Organisations and Social Life -Eton Wick Minors FC 1948

 

The Minors were formed in 1946 following the end of the War, when Harry Wakefield and Doug Cooper formed an Under 18's village football club. They played their home games in Eton Recreation Ground. Sports kit was still virtually unobtainable due to wartime clothing rationing, so the boys played in any light coloured/near to white shirt, and Mrs Bill Sibley (mother of two of the team) made black shorts for the team from off-coupon wartime blackout material. Village colours were traditionally amber and black, but here was born the origin of black and white for the boys team. 

In 1948 the team were able to have this photo taken in newly bought kit. They are, in the back row: Doug Cooper, Frank Bond (committee), Jim McDougall, Alan Herd, Ray Haverly, Tony Rodwell, Harry Wakefield and Cecil Thorn (committee). 

In the centre row: Ray Knight, John Grant, John Batt (captain), Dennis Phillips and John Knott. 

Bob Horton and John Newport are in the front row. 

John Grant went on to play in senior league football. In later life he opened bakers shops in Windsor and Eton Wick. 

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

Tough Assignment - Memorials

Over the hundred years there have been many, many gifts to the chapel of money and items. Each and everyone has been appreciated, but neither the minute books nor the memories of the members can supply a complete list, and thus those shown below, although all are in use today, are but a small proportion of the total.

Some have been given in memory of chapel members. These include:

Electric light installation                                                  1948 Archibald and Clifford Chew

Organ                                                                             1966 Annie Chew

Flower vases                                                                  1973 Phillis Hutchinson

Curtain behind the communion table                             1980 Sylvia Chew

Bibles                                                                             1983 Marjorie Morris

Other gifts were given simply because they were needed, such as:

Flower vase                                                                   1943 Muriel Badder

Piano                                                                           c1955 Mrs Rye of Woodlands Park

Lamp outside the chapel                                             c1960 Leslie Hogg

Flower stand                                                               c1965 Eva Sibley (nee Lane)

Bibles for the Sunday School                                       1982 Katherine Lewis 

The Eton Wick History Group is most grateful for the kind permission given by the Eton Wick Methodist Chapel to republish this history, Tough Assignment on this website.

Photographic History of Eton Wick and Eton - Businesses - Moores Lane Petrol Station

Sibley and Moores Lane petrol pumps.

 Bill opened the Moores Lane filling station 1958, converting the end house of Primrose Villas to a newsagent/confectionery The row of houses comprising Primrose Villas were built for James Moore in 1885. His house, with a distinctive bay window facing onto the Alma Road side, being the one converted to the shop. During the 1930/40 period before establishing the shop, Bill sold newspapers on College Corner, Eton, and delivered papers throughout the village, from his then family home in The Walk. The petrol pumps are now dry, and the shop is by John Prior. 

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

Note John and Pat Prior closed their business and retired in August 2005. The premises were converted into residential accommodation.

From the Parish Magazine - Eton Wick History Group Meeting - Village Shopkeepers - Past and Present

"As we live day by day we don't notice changes which are happening around us " 

So said Frank Bond as he introduced his talk on "Village Shopkeepers - Past and Present" on the 27th May 1998. He referred first to the hamlet which was Eton Wick in the year 1800, with just 100 residents; and the to the early 20th Century shops which sold hardware„ groceries etc., and his talk progressed through to illustrate not only the various changes which had occurred. in Eton Wick' s shops and services up to the present day, but also the considerable changes in the community itself There had been seven farms, now some had been adapted for riding schools and others given over to engineering. The countryside itself has undergone changes with areas previously used for crops now given over to leisure and recreation facilities. 165 years ago there were 300 people living in Eton Wick. There was no evidence of any shops here then, or any easy means of getting to shops elsewhere; for there was no transport, other than horse-drawn vehicle or 'Shank' s pony' . People grew their own vegetables, they would purchase milk, flour etc. from the farmers, and they would make home-make jams, pickles and other preserves for their larders; some would have kept poultry for their eggs and meat. There would have been work for the village' s blacksmith, a chimney-sweep, and also for cobblers and  boot makers. 

MUFFIN-MAN

By the 1920' s Eton Wick was being visited by the muffin-man, and a winkle-man and a man who sold fly-papers; did the fly-paper become a muffin-man or a cobbler in the Winter months? Gypsies came selling clothesline props and pegs - most people were a little afraid of Gypsies because of their apparent ability to successfully lay a curse on you if you upset them. Visits from the 'rag and bone man' with his horse and cart were more welcome, particularly by the children who might be given a balloon in ex-change for old rags. As the years progressed there were the annual visits from a `gentleman-of-a-darker-hue' who went from door to door selling ties, collar-studs, etc. from a suitcase. A Mr. Henry came out from Windsor every Thursday with a cart loaded with galvanised goods, ironmongery, soda, soap-flakes and the famous 'Reckitts Blue'. Another welcome visitor, perhaps in later years, was Tom Cox on his Walls Ice Cream Stop Me and Buy One' tricycle - the fact that he only had one leg gave him few problems. There were two other ice-cream vendors - Vettise's and Sacco's - they just came round on Sundays. Out of season these ice-cream sellers would use their carts to transport the rabbit skins and other goods they bought locally. Tom Cox also sold cakes and bread for Denney's bakery (14 cakes for 1s. 0d.). He was also pretty handy with his bicycle pump in that when some poor soul stepped out of hedge in front of him he hit him over the head with it. 

STABLE FIRE 

The Greyhound Pub with Mr & Mrs Newell

Eton Wick had its own coal merchants, delivering by horse and cart. Bill Parrot' s horse was stabled in what is now 'The Greyhound' skittle alley. Early in the 1930's Scottie Hood' s horse' s stable caught fire and Scottie had to be physically restrained from entering the inferno to rescue his horse. The horse perished but the village had a whip-round and raised enough for him to buy another horse. The coal carts, and others, would be cleaned up and would carry the children of the village on Sunday School outings. 

Chantler then took the shop over and added gas masks to the provisions on offer. Harry Chanter was a very helpful and kind man. He was a trustee of the Eton Poor's Estate for 60 years, he was held in great an affection. There were other tenants of the shop after Mr. Chantler, until it was converted into flats in 1987. 

ICE CREAM 

A Mr. Slade set up shops in St  Leonard' s Place (possibly named so because of its view across the Thames to St Leonard' Hill?), this was the first shop in Eton Wick to sell ice-cream. Mr Slade moved on to The Grapes'. In the mid 30' s Joan Taylor set up as a newsagents, early in the 50's it was taken over by the Cowells, then Paxton, Lock and in the 1960' s by Mr. Lunn. In recent years the shop has been converted into fiats and is now called Taylor Court. Yet another shop which no longer exists is the old aquarium shop in Wellmans Cottages. This shop was run from 1908 until 1923 by Bill Hearn - he stocked umbrellas, saddlery, etc. He sold the shop when his wife died and took premises in Victoria Road (From `General' Hill who made nuts in the War?) where he set up a workshop - he ran two taxis. Later this business was to become Ellis Motors, and engineering works was still in operation at the time of the talk. Mr Wiggins followed Mr. Hearn into the 'aquarium' shop (yet another place where Tom Cox used to work); it became Graham's grocers and Provision Merchant, then John Barron. Later it became The Aquarium Shop, and has now reverted to being a private dwelling. We mustn't forget the cycle shop run by Ted Woolhouse from Bonaccorde Cottages "Royal Enfield Made Like a Gun", now a private residence. 

There was a doctor' s surgery in Alma Road, and can you believe we once had a Co-op in Alma Road! There was also a small shop in Shakespere Place (1880). Charlie Ayres started selling groceries in there in 1898. Bill Bolton failed as a butcher there; he was followed by Lucie Binfield, then Mr. Wilshire and then the Chinneries who dealt with rationing. Harry Cook then used it as a workshop. This too, has since been convened into flats. Prior' s, the newsagents in Moore's Lane, was built by Annie Tough's father, James Moore. This shop was occupied by Mr Sibley and then by Mr Prior. 

31 & 31a Eton Wick Road

Another butcher's shop was George Mumford's at 31 Eton Wick Road (Bracken Flowers and a Betting Shop were there in 1998). Mr Mumford tended to get into trouble for letting people have meat in excess of the ration (it  even had a 'Flanagan and Allen' mention at the Victoria Palace). Mr Mumford altered the premises to accommodate his elder daughter and converted part (later to become the betting shop) into a Laundrette. The butcher's shop was later to become a Greengrocers, then a baker' s and is now Bracken the Florist. 

Bistro

In 1951 the Eton Urban District Council built the `Darvilles' parade of shops. In the shop 

nearest to the Village Hall was Mr Barnes (wet and fried fish), next came 'Arnolds' the Butcher's, (when Roy Arnold retired it became a hairdressers).The third shop was O'Flaherty (chemist); fourth was Clinch's Bakery and Darvilles the grocer next to them. Anderson (newsagent and gents' hairdresser) occupied the sixth unit and A. Bond & Son (greengrocer) the final shop opposite the Shepherds Hut. 

Terry Anderson (who acquired the land for the Catholic Church) sold to Gowers; Clinch sold to Darville - who doubled the size of the shop; O'Flaherty sold out to a Mrs. Baker, but there have been several tenants since. When Frank Bond sold his Greengrocers shop it had been in business for 90 years. 

In I973 the Bell Lane parade of shops was built; Joyce Howard (ladies clothing); another was for hi-fi and electrical goods and then homemade brewing equipment and vehicle sundries. Country Fair, the equestrian shop, is to close and be replaced by a bistro. The hairdresser' s has become `Pipedreams' for cake-baking accessories. 

The final photograph shown on this fascinating evening was of Mrs. Cooley and Pam with their milk-float - the last of our milk delivery people. A suggestion for a Millennium Memorial - commemorate site of the 1st school, the 1st official building for church services and the 1st Institute for Eton Wick. All in one building at the bottom of the garden of 'The Greyhound'

The following meeting was held on the 8th July 1998 when the topic was LOCAL FETES, FAIRS, CARNIVALS AND CONCERTS. 

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 June 1998 edition.

MEMORIES OF ETON WICK - Bill Welford

MEMORIES OF ETON WICK

I moved to 72, Eton Wick Road to live with Aunt Ella Pardoe and my memories start here. A pathway ran through the allotments opposite 72 and a bonfire was always burning just inside the fence. I walked through this pathway twice and down to the river where I fell in and was brought back safely. I spent many hours sitting on the doorstep of the sweet shop in Alma Road where I was often given sweets. I also fell in the brook by the style which was situated on the pathway between the Wheatbutts and what was then Morris's farm. I remember a small tree on the piece of Common between what was the farm and the cottages which were occupied by Mrs Newell, Jenny, and where Mrs Rivers now lives. I also remember a boy throwing a stone up into this tree, it fell down on to another boy's head, seriously hurting him. This tree is now quite large with a seat below it.

I remember a fair being held in the Wheatbutts, also being in my Mother's arms outside what was then Mr Bond's house on the corner of Common Lane and Eton Wick Road. We were watching a zeppelin overhead; another day an aeroplane landed on Dorney Common. We all rushed over there, I was in a pushchair pushed by my cousin, Vi Pardoe. I also remember the Italian ice cream cart that came up here. All this was up to the age of two.

One very foggy morning I remember my Mother wheeling me in the push chair to Windsor Railway Station, one of the Station staff gave me a thermos cup of hot tea as it was so cold (push chairs at this time were made of wood just like a small folding chair with wooden wheels).

I did not return to Eton Wick until August, 1929, where I will now try to give a few of my memories. I arrived at the G.W.R. Station at Windsor about 2.00 p.m. on a lovely Summer's afternoon. I had not seen my Mother since I was two, she was there to meet me. A very beautiful lady, along with her was my half-brother, John Cox, and Mrs Bell with Ceclia and Peter. Little did I know then that Celia was to become my wife. There was a fair on the Brocas that night so we had to get home to tea quickly. We got the Blue Bus at the South Western Station. This bus was a Ford and the entrance was up steps at the back, the passengers sat in benches running from the front to the rear, similar to an ambulance. I think the fare was 11/2d in old money for adults. The bus stopped at the Village Hall and turned round for the next trip to Windsor. The driver was, if I remember rightly, Mr Ted Jeffries. Home I went to Ivy Cottage, Alma Road, where I was informed that I had a sister, Frances, who was in the Fever Hospital at Cippenham. Had a good tea and was then taken to the fair on the Brocas. This was where I met my step-father, Mr Thomas Cox. He was then a Walls Ice Cream salesman and used to ride a tricycle with his ice cream, even though he had only one leg. After the fair , we walked across by what was the dust heap under the arches. The grass was damp and we gathered mushrooms. When we reached the Eton Wick Road, Bob Bond came along in a lorry and gave us a lift home. In those days there was little main drainage in Eton Wick, it was nearly all 'bucket-work'. I remember my step-father saying "get a hole dug up the garden, Bill, so I can bury the tinned fruit !" that being the lavatory bucket. Our milkman was then Mr Woodley, the paper man -Mr Sibley, coalman - Mr Hood, the dustman was horse and cart and I am not sure whether this was done by Mr Rollo Bond. Mr Bert Bond was the greengrocer.

As I have said before, much of the rubbish was taken down to the dust heap which lay just this side of the arches near to what was the Eton College Swimming Baths. There was also another heap over the back of the Little Common near to where the Riding Stables are. We built up many of our bikes from parts found on these dumps.

At Supper time my Mother would sometimes send me down to 'The Greyhound' to get saveloys from Mrs Newell. It was not like a pub in those days, just a small bench in the porch of the house. There were no cattle grids, cows roamed the village as there was very little traffic. White gates were situated at Common Lane and at the entrance to Dorney Common but they were seldom used, everywhere smelt 'farm-yardy' - quite a pleasant smell not often met up with today.

If we ran out of milk my Mother would send us with a jug to Morris's farm, opposite to Jenny Newell's. For our haircuts we went down to Mr Tuck's house in Brocas Street, I think it cost us 2d. in old money.

The Sewerage Works were manually operated in those days, pipes being shifted from one lagoon to another; we found some of the finest tomatoes there, they were yellow.

Real Steamers plied up and down the river, the Mapledurham, Windsor Castle, Empress of India were among the largest, their white funnels shimmering with the heat from their boilers.

Punts were used by the honeymoon couples, whose portable gramaphones were blaring out across the river. The river at this time was fairly clean and one was able to swim without worrying about any health hazard, weeds were the danger in those days. The young lads used to gather down by the small iron and concrete bridge, which crosses with sewerage stream, for bathing sessions. usually in the late afternoons and into the evenings.

The built-up area from Bell Lane to Dorney Gate was known as Boveney New Town and the area around Victoria Road behind the Shepherd's Hut was known as Klondyke, why I don't know. There was a large field between Alma Road and the Shepherd's Hut which we knew as Codd's field, possibly because it belonged to Codd's farm which was up to the top of Bell Lane.

The small cottage on the righthand side of Moore's Lane, at the entrance to the cycle path to Slough, was a Police house. If my memory serves me right, it was occupied by P.C. Martin and family in 1929 when I came home. There was a Police notice-board and I remember the notice regarding the Colorado Beetle and the one about obnoxious weeds which were put up every year. Next door to this cottage was a large house occupied by Ted Mortimer who was the baker's roundsman for Barksfield of Dorney, then came the big house of Mrs Chew. Opposite these houses were allotments stretching for about 200 yards or more and right up to the main Eton Wick Road.

In the early 1930's another bus service was started, named the 'Marguerite'. These buses were garaged at the junction of Alma Road and Moore's Lane. The proprietor was a Mr Cecil Kingham and they provided a service to Dorney and Taplow Station.

The Slipes as I recall were the fields from Moore's Lane stretching up to where the Gas Station is now situated. In the Summer it was a pleasant walk across there as it was never ploughed. There was a pathway (muddy - with a style halfway), used also as a cycle track to the Trading Estate, Slough and Cippenham. It got so muddy at times that it was better to walk than ride. Cart horses grazed in these fields and one had to look out for them when they loomed up towards you in the foggy weather. A short cut could also be taken across these fields to Chalvey, passing by Mr Jackaman's shed. Wood Lane was a very pleasant walk in those days with no motorway or Sewerage Works as they are today. One could walk up to Headington's Farm and across other fields to the Bath Road.

It was in 1936 when McAlpines started on the modern Sewerage Works - I remember the Irishmen coming, they lived very rough in huts but were quite amiable people, liked their 'wallop' though.

TRANSPORT - Unlike today, there were few cars in Eton Wick. As I have already said, we had two bus services - the Blue Bus and the 'Marguerite' and these services connected very well at Eton with the London Transport buses which gave excellent service to Slough, Windsor, Staines and connections to London. One could go out any night and be almost certain to get a bus back up until about 11 p.m.

In those days the road to Eton was gaslit and one was able to walk the road in comparative safety if the bus had gone. I never heard of anyone ever being molested, unfortunately the bus service was hit first with the advent of the family car, and furthermore by the closing of Windsor Bridge. Despite the promises of certain Councillors that a reasonable bus service would be maintained, the service is not up to the standard of other parts of the Royal Borough to which we belong and to which we contribute the Poll Tax (Community Charge). With the ageing population, I think that a through bus service to Windsor should be brought back, even if the fares (which are the highest I have ever come up against) had to be further subsidised. After all, we all contribute to the free park-and-ride in Windsor for those who could be from Timbuktu for all we know - still, I am moving away from the subject, more about Eton Wick.

The 1930's to me were foremost in my memory. Bob Nason was the wise man of the village. If you were in need of any information, he was the man to see. He knew the ropes and if he could not give you the information you required off hand, he would find out. Your bicycle needed repairing so Mr Woolhouse was the man to see. The battery on your wireless set went flat - Mr Tomlin from Windsor would call with his small van and would give you a replacement until he had recharged yours. Your baker would probably have been Barksfield from Dorney, the roundsman being Mr Stacey (Henry?). The butcher was Mr Mumford and the roundsman, Henry Barton. Mr Sibley did the newspapers from Alma Road and also sold them at College corner.

Alma Road was a very busy road in those days; the thing I remember most was old Mrs Woodley who used to go to Windsor nearly every morning. When she came back from the bus the windows of Alma Road used to go up while she would give out the latest news. Bill Olyotti? used to come along from the other end of the road about the same time and bring out his watch, (the largest I ever saw) and verify the time. The families I remember then were:- Mrs Binfield, Puseys, Banhams, Wilcox, Bell, Bryant, Jacobs. Higgins, Ling, Slaymaker, Paintin, Budd, Gardner, Flint, Morris, Chamberlain, Kelly, Kitchener, Kavanagh, Morrell, Mrs Cox (laundry),(Co-op shop), Harding (GasCompany), Prior and Milton and there were others I just cannot put a name to now.

Sunday was also a busy day, with the children all going to the Chapel for Sunday School in their one-and-only Sunday best. The afternoon was fairly quiet as quite a number of people used to retire for the afternoon - noise was taboo. I remember Harry Prior from Bell Lane gave me an old O.K. Supreme motor-cycle. My brother, John Cox, and I started it up and revved the engine, my Father said "that's enough - that bike goes or you go!" - so ended the lesson!

Eton Wick had a football team in those days, run by Mr Clark and son who lived near to Mr Woolhouse - one had a job to get into it. I remember we used to go to the notice board which was near to the Institute to see if we had been picked. The team consisted mostly of the following who I can remember :-Albert Prior, Len Emery, 'Nigger' Young, 'Cocker' Hood, Nobby Clark, Jack Ling, Les Chamberlain, Jim Stannett, John Cox, Bill Welford, Bill and Ted Pardoe, Kennedy, and there were others I cannot bring to mind.

The War was not too far away, Slough Trading Estate was getting busy and people were gradually being put on overtime. Bonds of Eton Wick had built up a fleet of lorries for contracting work. All the signs were that Slough and the surrounding districts were going to expand for the light industries which were moving in. Large numbers of people were moving in from the depressed areas of the North East and Wales. Things were looking good; money was available for people who were prepared to work and the shops began to be filled with goods (much of which was available on H.P.) with which the incoming immigrants could furnish their new homes. The hammers from High Duty Alloys could be heard stamping out what I was told was aeroplane propellers. The ground at Eton Wick was said to shake after each blow, I had heard them and they certainly did give a loud thud.

FLOODS up until 1947

The weather pattern, as everyone knows, has changed considerably over the last 40 years or so. Up until 1947 flooding was almost an annual event. Almost every year one could reckon on at least a foot of snow, followed by a thaw which would bring the water over the river bank and almost up to the old Recreation Ground. It was not unusual for the planks to be put up on the pathway on the Slads near to what was the 'Willow Tree' pub, as the water often came across the road at this point. Since 1947, it would appear that there has been better control of the flood waters. The flood boards have gone, so too have the iron supports for them.

NOISE  

The pattern of noise has also changed considerably, gone are the sounds of the high speedsteam trains which one got used to as they rushed through the night. Now it is the noise of the traffic along the M4, with the sound of the two tones ofambulances, Fire and Police, accompanied by the aircraft noise.

Fireworks are no longer confined to Guy Fawkes's night. It seems that everyone who has a party or fete uses them, more is the pity, can't they be fitted with silencers?

CHARACTERS  

For instance, the Reverend David Wingate, he was a real character. Also, there was a chap called Omar Browne*, who was about my own age and was in an Army School. He used to come on leave to somewhere in Bell Lane at the same time as I came home from the Naval School.

Finally, how about the fox being chased from Morris's farm across the stream by the beagles? It ran a cross the road in front of me and into Mrs Harris's cottage at the corner of Bell Lane and Alma Road. It jumped into the copper and Mrs Harris put the lid on it (end of fox). This story is in a book held by the M.F.H. at Eton College (I should say this was the Winter of 1936/7.)

FEBRUARY, 1993

(William H. Welford was born in Shedding Green, Iver, Bucks on  26.11.17. This is one of the memories of village life that the Eton Wick History Group collected soon after it was formed in 1992. The Talks Programme does not reveal if it was presented at one of their meetings.)

*Omar Browne was a casualty of the Second World War during the Sidi Rezegh battle on November 21st 1941. His name appears on the Village War Memorial.

The Eton Wick Newsletter - December 2016 - `Our Village' Magazine

Village shops before the superstores (Part 2) 

In the last article we reflected on the village's first shop; its various vendors, and subsequent shape of the pre WW2 era. By 1924 there were eight shops, most of which had originated as converted homes, and most had been established by villagers who after a few years had sold their businesses to non-locals. Almost certainly vendors had plied their wares long before the first recorded shop of John Kirby in the early 1840's. We can only by to imagine the long weary walk into town for goods that could neither be grown, nor reared or made, before Mr Kirby's arrival. 

Eton Wick's first bus service was started by Mr Bert Cole c.1922. (Photo shows the bus outside the Rising Sun in Datchet). At first it was with a very small vehicle, but this was the beginning of a long line of improved buses. By the 1950's there were three buses to and from Windsor's Castle Hill every hour. The Windsor Bridge was not closed to vehicular traffic until 1970; and four years after Bert Cole's Blue Bus Service had ceased. Most of these years preceded general car ownership and television, and the big cinemas of that time were packed. 

Consequently, so were the buses; as 'villagers flocked into town for the picture show. Frequently there were almost as many standing passengers as were seated. Throughout WW2 and for the early years after, Eton Wick was well served by most of its shopkeepers and vendors. In fact the only exceptions were due to military service, or material shortages. Tom Lovell's old shop at Ada Cottage was by now a millinery shop owned by two village ladies who were also the local Girl Guide officers. It was very probably wartime shortages of fabric that caused the closure of their business 'UNEEDUS'. For the remainder of the war the premises became home and shop to a London tailor, who was without doubt very well pleased to be away from the city air raids. Much of his village work would have been alterations and repairs, as few people could spare so many of their clothing coupons needed for a new suit or costume, which at best appeared skimpily made in order to comply with the 'Utility' regulations of that time. The fashionable three button double breast jackets and trouser turn-ups were not permitted, as it was considered an undue waste of material. Those old fashions never fully returned. 

Clothes rationing really began to take effect by the mid war when the coupon allowance for adults was gradually reduced from sixty-six to forty-one per year. Jackets required thirteen coupons, and shirts or trousers eight, while overcoats were sixteen. Even hankies required a coupon and this was the only item, apart from soap, for which servicemen received an allowance. The war ended, but shortages of most things did not, and it was against this background that the Eton Urban Council somehow excelled by almost doubling Eton Wick's population within a decade. with the building of Colenorton Crescent, Boveney New Road and Stockdales Road on land previously known as Tilston Fields and Allotments, before obtaining Brewers Field, situated between the Shepherds Hut pub and the Institute (which we now call the Village Hall) and there building a parade of seven shops that opened in 1951. The rest of Brewers Field was developed as Princes Close. 

Unwittingly this post war parade would slowly contribute to the demise of those scattered and converted shops that had served the village so well in peace, war and rationing. Six of the seven shops were allocated to traders new to Eton Wick although the grocer was from Windsor and the Baker from Eton. The shops were: 

(1) Wet Fish and Game - Mr Barnes (now fish and chip shop) 

(2) Butcher - E. W. Arnold (now hair stylist) 

(3) Pharmacy R.J. O'Flaherty 

(4) Bakers - A. E. Clinch (now part of grocers) 

(5) Grocery - Darvilles (now Nisa Store) 

(6) Newsagent and Barbers - A. E. Anderson (now Gowers) 

(7) Greengrocers - A. Bond (now Age Concern) 

For the first time it became possible to obtain daily needs from one part of the village. Almost as a last act before becoming a part of the Royal Borough authority the Eton Urban Council built a second parade of shops off Bell Lane in 1973. Cautious of the village becoming a ribbon roaded built up area, the new parade was built at a right angle to the main road - not perhaps the ideal from a shopkeeper's view. The need was not the same as in 1951 and for much of the past forty three years the shops have had many varied uses. Previously this had been the site of twelve post WW2 pre-fabricated homes. The final blow to many of those pre-war shops came around 1980 with the growth of Superstores in Slough, Windsor and later, out of town. The early grocery shops to close included the two in Alma Road, followed by the Thames View Stores in 1977, which for a while became an Aquatic Shop; then in 1986/1987 that early shop of 'Pratts' at Clifton House finally closed and was converted into flats, and the St. Leonard Place shop site was redeveloped as Taylor Court flats. The first shall be last, and this was so with Tom Lovell's Ada Cottage shop. It had many different uses from hardware, post office, fish and chips, bakery, shoe repairs, home decorating materials, fishing tackle, tailors, milliners, cycle spares, printers and surely some I have forgotten. 

For many years after its business uses, Ada Cottages, although becoming residential, still retained a shop front appearance: a just testimony to its long chequered place in the past village life. Long serving George Mumford the butcher was undoubtedly much affected by the competition after the Council Parade opened in 1951, but it was probably age and failing health that brought about his later retirement. Certainly the presence of another butcher would have diminished the value of his business when he retired and sold-up. This article is about the early shops and has no reference to the post-war businesses of 'Priors' and 'Mikes' in Moores Lane. This originated in c. 1957 when Mr Bill Sibley brought his long established news agency from the family home in The Walk to Primrose Cottages, at the Alma Road junction with Moores Lane. He then installed petrol pumps along the side in Moores Lane. Twenty Years later the house and pumps were transferred to John and Pat Prior who considerably enlarged the retail outlet and were highly regarded in the community. After retirement the shop became purely residential in 2005, and the pumps had closed. Nothing is for ever, and the dominant Superstores found the need to diversify by opening smaller shops to compete with the surviving small shopkeepers. Now they in turn have changes to accept in the rise of 'on line' shopping, and the smaller selection with lower prices offered by Continental chains of Lidl, Aldi and others. It seems the only thing not to change is the need to keep on changing. 

Submitted by Frank Bond.

Click here to read Our Village December 2016.

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 Story of a Village - A Changing Community

In past centuries the village expanded several times, but never quite so overwhelmingly as in the post war period. In 1931 the population was just over a thousand, it had risen to 1,640 by 1951, to 2,505 ten years later and now must be nearly three thousand.

With the influx of so many people into the village its inhabitants could no longer feel that each family was related to most others in the Wick. Probably this had never been strictly true; but by marriage and by recognising second cousins and the like, most families had indeed been related. The character of the village was changing in other ways. No longer was the College the most important source of income and employment for the majority of families, and less and less did College people take an interest and control of village affairs. The old gulf between gentry, epitomised in the Wick by College masters, and villagers gradually disappeared. Today new residents may be unaware of the old ties between Eton and Eton Wick. When Mr Vaughan died in 1940 his place as unofficial squire was taken by Bob Bond. Their backgrounds were very different, but both men were intensely interested in the village. It was Bob Bond who was reappointed bailiff at the 1948 Manor Court; he was instrumental in restarting the Boy Scouts after the war, he helped organise gymkhanas, dances and the annual Scout Fete ( which took the place of the old Horticultural Show). He also became the first president of the PTA.

The horse had virtually disappeared from the agricultural scene; though not entirely for George Pagett set up as a smallholder soon after the war and continued to use horses until the 1970s. The car and the lorry replaced the horse and cart, and garages became a necessity. Mr Sibley opened his filling station in 1958 and Ellis Motors were established in Victoria Road. People travelled more and taking holidays became the normal and not the exceptional way of life. Whereas in pre-war days people walked, cycled or used the bus to go to school, work or shopping, the use of the car became more and more the accepted practice. This transport revolution has brought in its wake other changes, such as the loss of the old road which ran from Haywards Mead to Meadow Lane in Eton and which is now only a bridle path. The Windsor Bridge has been closed to vehicle traffic and bus services have been cut, accentuating the hardship of those without a car. The roads are all macadamized and edged with pavements, and there is a profusion of street furniture road signs, electric streetlamps, bus shelters, pillar boxes, telephone kiosks and seats. Most of these have been provided by the statutory authorities, but the seat by Albert Place was the gift of the Women's Institute and the one in the churchyard in memory of Bob Bond.

Soon after the war, in line with national educational changes, Eton Wick School became a primary school, catering for both boys and girls from the ages of five to eleven; while older children were expected to attend secondary schools outside the village. However, it was still a church school, though the diocese was now responsible only for the fabric of the building and not the salaries of the teaching staff or the education of the children. To cater for the needs of the growing population the school was enlarged in 1953 and again in the sixties, but on that occasion the cost was such that a change of management became inevitable and the school was taken over by the County Council. In 1973 national policy brought about another change and the school became the combined infants and middle school with children being required to stay an extra year. But, though its title, appearance and teaching methods have changed over the years, because now almost all 'the children from Eton Wick are taught there, it has become even more the village school than in the years before the war when the older boys attended Porny School.

In spite of the addition of twelve new shops since the war there are now proportionately fewer shops per head than before the war. Several of the older shops have indeed closed and there is only one, Sibley's, in the area of New Town. The village has lost its priest-in-charge and Rev Christopher Johnson is now the only Church of England clergyman serving the parish of Eton, a sharp contrast to the situation a hundred years ago, when the parish was desperately trying to afford to employ two curates to assist the Vicar. Instead the village now has three churches, the Roman Catholic St Gilbert's having been built at the same time as Haywards Mead. The Village Hall stands close by and is still used for a baby clinic and library, but the role of the Hall has substantially diminished.  No longer is there a Village Hall Club; the Management Committee is concerned only with the maintenance of the building and the hiring of Its rooms. It has been overshadowed by its offshoot, the Football and Social Club, whose club rooms stand just behind the Hall. Some organizations still meet in the Hall, but others now use the rival establishment, and the whole of the ground floor is let to the County Council. Even the Village Fete, first organized by the Management Committee in 1962 and then the Youth Club, has now been taken over by the Football and Social Club, and since the mid-sixties it has been known as the Wicko Carnival.  The loss to the village of Wheatbutts Field when it was sold by the College brought about the end of the Scout Fete.

The list of changes seems inexhaustible, but it must suffice to mention only a few more and perhaps it is fitting that these should concentrate on the part of the parish first known as 'le Wyk'. The streams are now much shallower, the ponds filled in and the westernmost part of the common has recently been landscaped. Trees have  always been part of the village landscape, but unfortunately several beautiful elms had to be cut down in the 1950s. Hedges and trees have been grubbed up and in the last few years more elms have been lost through disease so that the area around Little Common has a rather open, desolated look.  It has been one more step in the succession of changes that has taken place since the first cluster of buildings established a wick in a clearing in the woods of Eton. Thankfully Eton Wick is still a village which will continue to evolve and, it is hoped, will remain surrounded and protected by commons and lammas lands.

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

This is the final part of the serialisation of The Story of a Village - Eton Wick - 1217 - 1977. The Eton Wick History Group is most grateful for the kind permission of Judith Hunter's husband to publish her book on its website.

The village and community has continued to change and evolve since Judith completed her history more than 40 years ago and some of this change is reflected in The Eton Wick Newsletter - Our Village and the Photographic History of Eton Wick and Eton.

World War 2 Eighty Years On - March 1940

March 1940

The construction of a new sewer system by Lemon and Blizzard started in 1938 had made good progress with Bell Lane complete and Tilstone Lane almost finished. The contractors confidently informed the Eton U.D.C. that after the testing of the system homes could be connected. Unfortunately for the contractors the arrival of summer thunder storms found serious leaks in the pipe work and the council had to apply pressure to the contractors to rectify the faults. Complaints were also received from village residents about the state of repair in which Bell Lane had been left. Replying to the criticism the contractor claimed difficulties with the weather and the shortage of supplies due to war priorities had delayed the re-instatement of the road.

Re-arrangement of the A.R.P. within the village made the wardens post at the Post Office redundant enabling the protection works to be removed much to the relief of Mr and Mrs Chantler. The wardens post at Burfoots remained until other arrangements were made. To test the efficiency of various ARP organizations based around Slough a large scale practice was held. As the ambulances, fire pumps, rescue units, police, St. Johns and the Red Cross personnel with other essential services gathered on Agars Plough, Eton four hundred Eton College boys prepared to act as casualties. Emergency incidents were staged with the college boys giving a realistic touch to a most successful exercise.

Thursday March 11th

Meat rationing began. The ration was assessed not by weight but price, with a weekly ration for adults of 1/10d per week and for children 11d. Later into the war the adult ration was reduced to six ounces per week for any cut of meat. Rationing encouraged a black market which gave rise to a little wheeling and dealing for various commodities.  Favouring customers with a little extra than the official ration allowed could lead to prosecution of the shop keeper. Through village gossip it became known to the Ministry of Food Inspectors that George Mumford, the village butcher, had occasionally let customers purchase more meat than their entitlement. With indications of prosecution and thoughts of imprisonment, George made arrangements for a manager to run his business. No prosecution followed, but George was not let off the butchers hook as the following relates. At the end of the war a coach party from the village, including George, went to the Victoria Palace, London, to see the show starring the Crazy Gang.  Before the opening of the show one wag from the village party went back stage and tipped off the two comedians, Bud Flanagan and Chesney Allen, about the affair.  Later during the performance Bud Flanagan said to Chesney Allen "Ches, Do you know where I can get a little extra meat under the counter?" "Yes Bud, a little village near Windsor called Eton Wick. "The Butcher there will see you alright". Poor George had to take the ribbing as the story got round. 

(Meat rationing together with some other food commodities continued until July 1954.)

Easter Sunday 24th March

Apprehension of what may lie ahead and the desire to pray for peace brought increased attendance at Sunday church services during the war years. To mark certain wartime events special church services were held attended by the military and council dignitaries. A large congregation at the traditional Easter service taken by the Reverent David Wingate in St. John's church, Eton Wick, heard the Eton church choir, conducted by the organist Kenneth Weller, give a recital of ‘Passion music for Easter’.  He was assisted by ladies from Eton Wick and Boveney in a reverent rendering of the Messiah and exerts from John Stanier's "Crucifixion". Duets were also sung by the brothers, Albert and Harry Prior.

The Easter Monday five - a - side annual football competition open to boys under fifteen years, is for the Juvenile Challenge Cup presented by Boveney, Eton Wick and Dorney Discharged Soldiers and Sailors in 1921. Two competitions only (1940 & 41) took place during the war years which were played on the recreation ground. The entry for 1940 being fifty five boys. Eight eliminating games were played in the morning followed by the semi-final and final in the afternoon. The final, between the team of R. Wilson (Capt);    J. Butt; G. Budd; P. Mitchener and H.A. Prior who pitted their skills against R. Lunnun (Capt); E. Steptoe; K. Sibley; F. Wells and H. Lawrence brought a win to R. Wilsons team with a final result of 3- 2 goals. All the games were refereed by Mr W. F. Pardoe. Mrs Pardoe had the honour of presenting the cups and medals to the Winners and Runners Up. The competitors ended the exciting day on a high note as 432 cakes, 45 lb. of toffee and a box of oranges was shared out amongst them'.  

With no blackout arrangements available and used by the L.C.C. School during the day the village hall was not available for recreational purposes. Obtaining material from Bruce and Lumb of Slough the village hall working party made the requisite curtains, but these when finished were inadequate for the purpose due to the poor quality of the material, therefore no dances or other evening activities took place during the winter months. This curtailment on the use of the hall, also the decline in club registers as members volunteered or were conscripted to the forces or other war work reduced the hall finances. The flower show committee had every confidence and they continued making arrangements for the 58th Horticultural Show on August Bank Holiday held at the Wheatbutts. The possibility of air activity over the area was to be no deterrent to Major Dabson, committee chairman with committee members Mr Kemp and Mr Laverty,    

       

The first six months of hostilities, labelled the "Phoney War", had brought no air attacks on London thus encouraging a number of evacuees to return home. Great efforts were made by the civil authorities to deter their return to London but many parents thought it safe to have their children home. A small number returned home from Eton and Eton Wick.

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

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.