ALFRED BROWN - GRENADIER GUARDS

Alfred Brown (Private No. 11811) - 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards

4th (Later 1st) Guards Brigade - Guards Division

Alfred was a regular serving soldier whose family home had been in Aylesbury. It was probably as a married man he came to live at Violet Villas, Alma Road, Boveney Newtown, and this decision was undoubtedly influenced by his Grenadier Guard service at Windsor.

At the outbreak of the Great War the 2nd Battalion was stationed at Chelsea as part of the 4th (Guards) Brigade. Eleven days later, August 15th 1914, they landed at Havre and were soon marching toward Mons to stem the German advance through Belgium. French forces, on their right flank, were obliged to withdraw and this in turn caused the British I and Il Corps to also fall back. It was during this exhausting retreat from Mons, in September, when Eton Wick suffered its first war fatality, with Sergeant Caesar, also of the 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards, being killed at the Forest of Villers Cotteréts. Despite very different ranks, both men had much in common. Both came to the village as married men, they both lived in Alma Road, both served in the same unit and when eventually the war ended, each had left a widow with a young family. Happily both widows married again.

The 2nd Battalion Grenadiers went on to take part in the Battle of Loos in 1915 and the Battle of the Somme in 1916. In August 1915 they had left the 4th Brigade and joined the 1st Brigade Guards Division. The Somme offensive of 1916 was five weeks old when the Battalion first became involved. In September they cleared enemy trenches near Ginchy at the point of the bayonet. Casualties were heavy and amounted to 378. Ten days later during another assault, they suffered a further 351 casualties.

The following year, in 1917, the Battalion saw more fierce action in the Third Ypres battles, culminating at Passchendaele. We know Alf came home on leave in 1915 before taking part in the Battle of Loos, and that this was probably his last trip home. Following an intense artillery bombardment of two weeks, the Ypres battle started along a 15 mile front on July 31st 1917. The front extended northward from the Lys river opposite Deûlémont to beyond Steenstraat. Alf was with the Guards Division as part of the 5th Army, which held half of the 15 mile front and was situated on the left of the line with the French Army on their left flank.

Unfortunately torrential rain had accompanied the shelling, causing sticky quagmire conditions for the advancing troops. Initially the Guards were able to occupy German trenches with relative ease, because the enemy thought mines were about to be detonated in the area. The general allied attack was launched at 0350 hours on the 31st but because of the Guards' advanced positions their attack took place 33 minutes later. On this day Alfred Brown was killed. It could have happened during the initial attack at 0423 hours or later in the day, there is no way of telling. Under appalling conditions the Passchendaele battle raged on until, nearly four months later, the ridge was taken and the fighting stopped.

Artillery Wood Cemetery

All Battalions suffered heavy casualties throughout the war. Accurate figures for the losses suffered by the Grenadiers are not easily available, but it may be instructive to look at a similar unit, the 2nd Battalion Coldstream Guards. They served alongside the 2nd Grenadier s, marched away from Windsor barracks on August 15th 1914 at full strength of approximately 1000 men. When they returned in 1919 only 15 soldiers remained of the original Battalion.

Alf was buried in Artillery Wood Cemetery at Boesinghe north of Ypres, Belgium. The cemetery was first used by the Guards after the Pilkem Ridge battle on July 31st 1917. It continued to be used until March 1918. There are 1295 recorded burials in the cemetery, 1243 of them being from the U.K., 40 Canadian and Newfoundlanders and the others from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

Alf left a widow, an infant daughter, Hetty, and a baby son, Omar, who was himself destined to be killed in the 1939-1945 war. Mrs Brown married again, and as Mrs Wicks had another daughter, Gladys. The family moved to 6 Northfield Road, Boveney Newtown.

Alf's grave in Artillery Wood Cemetery is No. 19: Row C. Plot 13. He was aged 34 years. He is commemorated on the Eton Wick Memorial and on the Eton Church Memorial Gates. The spelling of his surname on these memorials is at variance. The grave headstone in Belgium and the Eton Wick Memorial give the name as A. Brown, but at Eton it is spelt as Browne. His son Omar, killed in 1941, is given as O.A. Browne and the cemetery register reads "L. Cpl. Omar Alfred Brown, son of Alfred Browne and Ester Ada Browne of Eton Wick, Buckinghamshire".

This is an extract from Their Names Shall Be Carved in Stone  

and published here with grateful thanks to the author Frank Bond.

Alfred Brown: The Commonwealth War Graves Commission page.

Alfred Brown: The For King & Country page.

Alfred Brown: Lives of the First World War.

The Eton Wick War Memorial page on Buckinghamshire Remembers website  

Graves Registration Report - CWGC

Burial Returns - CWGC

 

Comprehensive Report of

Headstone Inscription

CWGC

Eton Wick Census 1861

The United Kingdom Census of 1861 was taken on April 8th, 1861 and was the third of the UK censuses to include details of household members. The total population of England and Wales and the Islands in the British Seas, amounting to 20,223,746. This included those serving in the Army, Navy and Merchant Seamen.

Details collected include: 

Place: street name, house number or house name.

Houses: inhabited, uninhabited or a building.

Names of each person who were resident in the house on the night preceding the census.

Age and sex of each person: The actual age in years or months for babies under one year are recorded in the 1861 census.

Rank, Profession or Occupation.

Birth place, county and country.

Whether Blind, Deaf or Dumb.

The Superintend Registrar's District was Eton, Bucks and the Registrar's district was Eton. Enumeration District No. 6.

The area classed as Eton Wick for the 1861 census was the remainder of the Parish of Eton west of the Great Western Railway including Eton Wick, Lillywhites Farm, Saddocks Farm and Aldridges Farm.

The 1861 Census reveals that there were 78 households and 276 people resident in the village on the 8th April. The oldest person, Thomas Pusey age of 86, he was born in 1763. There were three other residents in their 80’s. William Miles was youngest at three months old was the second child of Henry and Sarah Miles. William was the only baby born in the first three months of 1861.

Click on this link to see our transcription of the 1861 census records for Eton Wick. We will be looking deeper into what the census reveals about Eton Wick and publish our findings in future articles. 

C. MILES - H.M.S. VANGUARD

Charles Miles (Stoker 1st Class K25314) - H.M.S. Vanguard Royal Navy

Charles was a local lad, born on December 22nd 1896 to Alfred and Emily. He had at least two brothers and was probably the eldest. The family was well known in Eton Wick where his father had a small building business and for many years was also the village undertaker. Later on, during the 1930s, undertakers were increasingly expected to have proper premises, limousines instead of hand pushed biers and later still, even a chapel of rest. Alf's income increasingly depended on the building work. Charles early years were spent living at Bonacord Cottages, on the Eton Wick Road: these are the four houses situated between Clyde Place and Ada Cottage. The family later moved to 24 The Walk and lived in the first terraced house on the right.

Charles attended the village infant school until the age of seven when he went to Eton Porny. In 1910, when he was 14 years old, he left school; the reason given in the register stated: "to be a milk boy". This we can presume meant working for one of the village farmers: there were at least six, and all delivered their milk to the Eton College and village homes. It was, of course, all ladled from churns at that time.

He probably did not stay a milk boy for long because at the time of joining the Royal Navy on 13th April 1915 he gave his occupation as a fitter's mate. He was then 18 years old and at five feet one inch was probably the shortest village serviceman. Charles's service career started at H.M.S. Pembroke - the shore base of Chatham. His service number prefix "K" denotes he was a stoker. Upon completion of training, he joined the crew of H.M.S. Vanguard. From the local paper dated 31.6.17 we read:

Charles Miles of 24 The Walk, Eton Wick, 1st Class Stoker on H.M.S. Vanguard lost at sea on July 9th 1917, age 20 years.

Throughout the early summer months of 1917 British shipping losses had been quite severe. On May 27th the hospital ship, Windsor Castle, had been sunk, with 600 wounded troops on board. Fortunately, they were rescued. Then six weeks later on July 9th the Royal Navy suffered a terrible calamity when the Dreadnought Class battleship H.M.S. Vanguard was lost. The great ship was lying at anchor with the fleet at Scapa Flow when without any warning, she blew up. Her entire crew of 804 officers and men were drowned when the ship sank. The mysterious internal explosion which sank the Vanguard was very similar to the loss of another battleship, H.M.S. Bulwark, and also of the cruiser Natal.

The Chatham Naval Memorial

(Photo: C.W.G.C.)

The Vanguard, on which Charles served, displaced 19,250 tons and carried ten twelve inch guns in her armament. Several young men of Eton Wick chose to serve in the Royal Navy, and Charles was one of the village's two naval fatalities. Most sailors have unmarked graves and of the 20,000 who died in the Great War no less than 18,600 are without marked burial places. After the war, memorials were erected to commemorate these men.

Charles Miles is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial in Kent. The names of 8,515 sailors are cast on bronze panels placed on the buttresses of the memorial. Buttresses support the four corners of the tall stone tower, each with a lion couchant. Toward the top the tower branches out into the form of four ships' prows. The memorial overlooks the town of Chatham and can be approached by a path from the town hall gardens.

Charles was single and 20 years of age. Many years later his brothers built fine houses in many parts of the village, including Cornwall Close and the west end of Queens Road. We can but speculate whether Charles, had he survived the war, would have worked in the family business. He is commemorated on the Eton Wick Memorial and on the Eton Church Memorial Gates.

This is an extract from Their Names Shall Be Carved in Stone  

and published here with grateful thanks to the author Frank Bond.

Charles Miles: The Commonwealth War Graves Commission page.

Charles Miles: The For King & Country page.

Charles Miles Lives of the First World War website at this time.

The Eton Wick War Memorial page on Buckinghamshire Remembers website  

Grave Registration Documents

Further information now available about the Miles family. The 1911 census reveals that Alfred and Emily Miles had six children of which Charles was the eldest. The family are recorded as living at 24, Clifton Cottages.

A. BUNCE - WORCESTERSHIRE REGIMENT

Arthur Bunce (Private No. 39794) - 3rd Battalion Worcestershire 

Regiment - 7th Brigade - 25th Division

Arthur lived with his parents at No. 3 Gordon Place, Alma Road, Boveney Newtown and was their eldest son. There was no apparent relationship to Harry Bunce, the local farmer and councillor, who lived on the Eton Wick Road. One Bunce family did move from Boveney Newtown to Somerville Road, Eton, in the 1920s, and perhaps these were related to Arthur. He was born in Slough around 1896, moved to Eton Wick and when the war came he enlisted at Reading.

At the time he joined the army he was No. 3029 in the Berkshire Yeomanry, but sometime later he transferred to the 3rd Battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment. The reason for this is not clear, but it was by no means uncommon, particularly when troops left their unit to recover from wounds or sickness. Another reason for his move might be the change of roles for the Berkshire Yeomanry Battalions. The 1st Battalion after service in Gallipoli in 1915 the 2nd Mounted Division, saw the Division broken up into independent Brigades and some became the C Battalion of the Machine Gun Corps, while the 2nd/1st Berkshire Yeomanry became a cyclist unit.

But by 1917 3rd Worcesters as a Battalion with the 25th Division, were in the Ypres war zone. It was June and for months British tunnellers had been toiling underground to place one million pounds of explosive at 21 separate points under the German held positions. The enemy was in a commanding position on high ground between Messines and Wytschaete, above St. Eloi, a village south of Ypres. At 03.10 in the morning of June 7th 1917, nineteen of the 21 huge mines were detonated. Two failed to explode. The earth shook as the awe-inspiring spectacle occurred and nine Divisions rushed the enemy positions while the Germans were still in a state of shock. From left to right of the British line were three Divisions of the X Corps, then three from the IX Corps, and finally on the right, the Anzac corps comprising of the Australian 32nd Division together with the New Zealanders. The 25th Division, which included the 3rd Battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment, were in the attack with the Anzac troops against the Messines Ridge, and it was here, following those great earth rendering explosions, that Arthur Bunce gave his life. The taking of the Messines Ridge was considered very necessary for the forthcoming Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele) that was to be launched on July 31st.

The Windsor & Eton Express of June 30th 1917 reported:-

Bunce A. Eldest son of Mr & Mrs C. Bunce of 3, Gordon Place, Boveney Newtown, Eton Wick, Private in the Worcestershire Regiment Killed in Action June 7th 1917 age 21 years.

Messines Ridge British Cemetery (CWGC)

Arthur was buried in the Messines Ridge British Cemetery, Messines, Belgium Plot 2, Row F. Grave 19. The cemetery is six miles south of Ypres. It was created after the war from isolated graves and small burial sites, and at that time recorded 990 UK graves, 338 Australian, 125 New Zealand, 60 South African and 13 other memorials. A memorial to New Zealanders, missing with no known graves, is also in the cemetery.

Arthur Bunce was single and 21 years old. He is commemorated on the Eton Wick Memorial, and on the Parish Memorial tablets at the Eton Church gates.

This is an extract from Their Names Shall Be Carved in Stone  

and published here with grateful thanks to the author Frank Bond.

Arthur Bunce: The Commonwealth War Graves Commission page.
Arthur Bunce: The For King & Country page.

Arthur Bunce; Lives of the First World War website at this time.

The Eton Wick War Memorial page on Buckinghamshire Remembers website  

CWGC Grave registration reports

CWGC Headstone schedules

CWGC Burial returns

Joseph Newell - Oxfordshire and Bucks Light Infantry

Joseph Newell (Private No. 9534) - 1st Battalion Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry - 17th Brigade - 6th (Poona) Division

Joseph Newell was an Eton Wick man; having been born in the village on October 12th 1892, he attended the Infant School in Sheepcote Road until at the age of seven years he went to Eton Porny.

He left school three months before his 14th birthday to go to work. The family home was No. 1, Hope Cottages, Common Road, and his grandparents lived in the next house, No. 3, Hope Cottages. These were undoubtedly some of the oldest houses in the village, with No. 1 having been built in around 1725 and others added a few years later. The house was continually occupied by members of the family for another 60 years.

Joseph was the third son in this Common Road family of Newells, a family with no apparent relationship to other village families of that name.

The brother, Jack, after returning from the Great War, set up his home in Hope Cottages, married a widow with two children, and established himself in Eton Wick as the last of the village's blacksmiths. Jack's own daughter married in W.W.II. and as Mrs Dowson lived on at the same house until her own death approximately 40 years later.

Joseph joined the regular service battalion the 1st Oxford & Bucks L.I. when he enlisted in Slough. He may not have been a peacetime soldier, but certainly he was serving early in the war.

Overseas war service came quickly, and on November 27th 1914 they arrived in Mesopotamia (Iraq). As Turkish forces were thought to be threatening the oil supply through Basra in 1915 plans were prepared to pre-empt the threat by sending troops north to attack Baghdad. The long advance was troubled by mosquitoes, flies, sickness, and always the Turkish army. The marshes and river were well fortified and the enemy was difficult to dislodge.

En route to Baghdad was the town of Kut el Amara, and on September 27th 1915 General Houghton dispatched troops, including the 1st Oxford & Bucks L.I., to capture the town. A three and a half hour battle ensued against the encircled enemy. The attack was completely successful despite the utter exhaustion of the British and Kut el Amara was captured on September 30th. The troops pushed on toward Baghdad, but the force was not strong enough and in the shallow draught waters, adequate supplies were not forthcoming. For the next few weeks further success was very limited. Eventually, they withdrew to Kut where they became besieged and hopelessly underfed. After 147 days siege Kut el Amara surrendered to the Turks on April 29th 1916. The Turks also defeated the relieving force three times.

The Turkish command accepted the surrender in April with great courtesy and admiration for the stubborn defenders. Unfortunately their administration and care of the prisoners in their charge was not equal to their outward expressions of courtesy. Of the 10,000 Indian and British P.O.Ws over 6,000 died in captivity.

Joseph Newell was first reported as "wounded in action" while serving in Persia, December 19th 1915. This would have been during the second week of the siege of Kut by the Turks. Nothing more is heard about Joseph until The Windsor & Eton Express report nearly two years later, on September 23rd 1917:

Newell, Joseph the 3rd son of Mr & Mrs G. Newell of 1, Hope Cottages, Eton Wick was first reported taken prisoner of war at "Kut" now reported dead.

In June the following year the same paper reported:

Newell, Joseph of 1, Hope Cottages, Eton Wick, last reported dead, is now officially reported as having died in Turkey as a P.O.W. between April 19th 1916 and May 24th 1917 The cause of death unknown.

Basra War Memorial Plan - CWGC

This could not have been very satisfactory for Joe's family. He is commemorated on the Basra Memorial in Iraq on wall panel number 23 to 63. The Memorial commemorates all the soldiers lost in the Mesopotamia campaign of 1914-18 who are without known graves. It records 7,000 U.K. and 33,000 Indian troops.

Joseph is also commemorated on the Eton Wick Memorial and on the tablets attached to the Eton Church Memorial Gates. He is believed to have been unmarried and 24 years old.

This is an extract from Their Names Shall Be Carved in Stone  

and published here with grateful thanks to the author Frank Bond.

Joseph Newell: The Commonwealth War Graves Commission page.

Joseph Newell: The For King & Country page.

Private Newell is not recorded on the Lives of the First World War website at this time.

The Eton Wick War Memorial page on Buckinghamshire Remembers website  

J. CLARK - ROYAL FIELD ARTILLERY

John Carfrae Clark (Gunner No. 630936) - C Battery 255th Brigade Royal Field Artillery

John was not a local lad; he had been born in Aberdeen around 1898, spent much of his life in Montgomery Street, Edinburgh and returned to Aberdeen to enlist. We know very little of his life before he joined the army, except that The Windsor and Eton Express dated 22.5.17 stated he was the second son of Mr & Mrs W.G. Clark of 2, Ada Cottages, Eton Wick, and after two years service in France he was killed in action on the 23rd April 1917 at the age of 19 years. Allowing a period of training, and two years in France, he was probably 16 years old when he falsified his age for acceptance into the army.

Until 1913 Ada Cottages were occupied by T. Lovell, where he ran a successful bakery, general stores and the village Post Office. It was about this time, perhaps one or two years later, that the premises may have been let to Mr Clark. There were several families named Clark in Eton Wick at the time, but no apparent relationship between them. It seems very likely Mr & Mrs W.G. Clark moved to Eton Wick and Ada Cottages during the first year of the war.

A former Eton Wick resident, whos e maiden name was Clark, has declared no knowledge whatsoever of John Carfrae Clark, though her own father's name was Albert Shiel Clark. He lived in London, but because of Zeppelin raids on the capital, he moved to Eton Wick around 1916, to live at Ada Cottages. Their address in Eton Wick and the fact that both men had, for second names, Scottish place names (Shiel and Carfrae) points to a family relationship. Nevertheless, in later years, Albert Shiel never made mention to his daughter of his own dead brother, or cousin.

A few years later there were plans to use part of Ada Cottages as a shop again. Mr & Mrs W.G. Clark moved to 28, The Walk, Eton Wick, and A.S. Clark moved to 5, Albert Place, Eton Wick.

John was in the Royal Field Artillery, 255th Brigade as part of the 51st (Highland) Division, originally the 1st Highland Field Brigade from Aberdeen. An artillery Brigade was numerically very different to a Brigade of infantry but was not dissimilar to an infantry Battalion.

By 1917 the R.F.A. batteries of guns on the Western Front, were either of 6 field guns or 6 x 45 Howitzers. There were 4 batteries to each Brigade and 2 Brigades to each Division. On the 23/24th April 1917 the 255th Brigade R.F.A. (John's) were in support of the 51st Highland Division (Artillery), taking part in the Battle of the Scarpe. Specifically their attack was aimed on the village of Roeux, with its chemical works. The official history (1917) states:

"a great deal had already been asked of the 51st Division"

 and in Roeux they undoubtedly met with fierce opposition.

It was on April 23rd John Carfrae Clark was killed. He is buried in the nearby cemetery of Anzin-St-Aubin. The cemetery was first used in July, 1917 by John's Division, the 51st. It records a total of 358 graves: 291 being from the United Kingdom, 63 from Canada and four others. The cemetery is situated three miles north west of Arras. The local paper of May 22nd 1917 reported:

Clark, John Carfrae, second son of Mr and Mrs W.G. Clark of 2 Ada Cottages, Eton Wick and formerly of Montgomery Street, Edinburgh, and of Aberdeen. Gunner Killed in Action 23.4.1917 after 2 years service in France.

John was a single man.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission have his records showing "No Next Of Kin". This is not an uncommon entry and several village men are likewise recorded. After the war, letters were sent to the homes of the fallen. This would state place of burial etc., and invite the next of kin to submit a text to be included on the headstone. To many, the form filling and the pain, was more than they wanted, so they declined to answer.

When no reply was sent, the records were marked as "N.N.K." Sometimes men may have declared no next of kin at the time of enlisting, in the same way that others chose to serve under an assumed name.

John C. Clark is commemorated on the Eton Wick Memorial and on the Eton Church Memorial Gates and he was possibly Eton Wick's youngest fatality.

This is an extract from Their Names Shall Be Carved in Stone  
and published here with grateful thanks to the author Frank Bond.

John Clark: Commonwealth War Graves Commission page 

John Clark: For King & Country page 

Gunner Clark is not recorded on the Lives of the First World War website at this time.

The Eton Wick War Memorial page on Buckinghamshire Remembers website  

Registration Records CWGC

Headstone Records CWGC

War Diary page

Further information found about John C. Clark. 

We have discovered very limited further details about John Clark by way of online search. The family tree records by Nicholas Ferrar indicate that John was born on 27th January 1898 in Edinburgh to William Glen and Charlotte Clark. Why the family was living in Eton Wick when he joined the Army has not yet been discovered, but his father, William is recorded as a pupil at Eton College in the 1881 Census living in a House in Keats Lane. 

Farmhouses and Cottages part 2

How much the village had grown has not been possible to find out, but probably, in spite of the rebuilding, not a great deal. As yet there was no real heart to the village. The ten houses and   cottages already described lay dispersed along the edges of the commons and not far way from the brook or one of its tributaries. In the eighteenth century this changed and the area now thought of as the old village became the centre of the community for the first time. A parish map of 1797 (itself a copy of an older one of 1742) shows about ten cottages in the short stretch of common from Wheatbutts to Sheepcote, while in the rest of Eton Wick, to the east, north and west there were only about another dozen, and most of these were the older timber-framed houses.

Two of these houses can be dated with reasonable certainty as having been built within the first quarter of the eighteenth century - Wheatbutts and Hope Cottage (now part of nos. 37 and 39 Common Road). Wheatbutts was built for William Lyford, a butcher from Eton, between 1704, when the land was described as 'all that close of arable land called Wheatbutts', and 1716; by which time the house had been built in the corner of the close and the rest converted into an orchard. Whether William Lyford ever lived there is not clear, but by 1716 he was living at Old Windsor and the property sold to the Eton Poor Estate. Hope Cottage was built a few years later in about 1725. At that date a small close of just over an acre was bought from William Lyford by Anthony Warwick, a yeoman of Eton. It seems unlikely that he ever lived there, for he owned several cottages including five in Dorney, and when he sold his cottage in Eton Wick in 1732 to Elizabeth Griffin, a widow, she was already living there. She and her married son, William, converted it to an alehouse known as the Bull's Head. Probably about this time the cottage was divided into two. William bought the property from his mother in 1745 and continued to be the victualler there for the next eleven years. It takes little imagination to conjure up the convivial and perhaps drunken scenes spreading out on to the common.   Three years, however, before the sign of the Bull's Head was finally removed for ever, William sold the property to a husbandman of the Wick, John Fennel.

John's widow, Elizabeth, continued to live there until her death in 1785, and from her will we learn a little more about the property.  She left one of the cottages to her niece, Anne Hope, from whom it seems the cottages  took  the  name  by  which they were known until recently. At the time of Elizabeth's death this cottage was the home of Robert Tarrant. The other cottage, in which Elizabeth herself had been living, she left to her kinsman, Robert Wilkins, and his wife and son, for their lives. To Anne Hope she also left a green iron bedstead and her furniture: to Anne Hope and Mary Wilkins together she left the rest of her goods and chattels.

Even before the Bull's Head had closed its doors another alehouse had opened in the village. This was the Three Horseshoes.  Exactly when it received its first licence is unknown but, like the Bull's Head, it is recorded in the Victuallers' Recognizances of 1753. The house itself was built sometime   before 1705 when it was purchased by Joseph Johnson, yeoman of Eton Wick, from John and Mary Bell. It is intriguing to speculate which of these two inns was the first in the village, though it is possible that neither was as is suggested by an isolated reference in the parish registers to 'The Small Fox' at Eton Wick. Perhaps the village simply could not support two inns.

Entries from the Vituallers’ Recognizances, 1753

In spite of being built within a short time of each other, these three houses were very different. The Three Horseshoes still retains its original L-shape though much alteration has taken place and only a very small area of the pleasant red and blue brickwork that was so popular in this part of the country can still be seen. Its first-floor windows are probably original. Wheatbutts was built as a substantial small cottage with two rooms on each floor and the dormer windows made it possible for the roof space to be used as an attic.  The front of the house is of brick with a symmetrical arrangement of door and windows which was then fashionable, but the back displayed a timber-frame. The closely spaced, vertical studs until recently could still be seen within the house though countless layers of whitewash and plaster had disguised their thickness. Hope Cottage was rather larger with four rooms on each floor but with no attic. It had a central chimney, and during alterations the huge beam above the fireplace in no. 37 and a bread oven to one side were revealed.  Originally there was also probably a symmetrical arrangement of door and windows and a centrally placed staircase, but when the cottage was divided the window which had lighted the stairs was blocked and new doorways must have been made. Sadly none of the eighteenth century brickwork can now be seen on the exterior of these cottages, for they and the adjoining nineteenth century ones have been encased in a twentieth century brick shell. Inside much of the original construction still remains   including a low doorway in one of the bedrooms of no. 37 which is thought to have once led from William Griffith's own cottage to the room above the alehouse.

Various deeds show clearly that both Wheatbutts and Hope Cottages were built on land that had once been part of Wick Farm. This farm can almost certainly be identified with Dairy Farm in Common Road. How old the present farmhouse is, or whether it is the first on this site, has not been established but since it is entirely brick-built it is likely to b6 after 1650. The oldest deed known is dated 1704, but refers back to previous owners so that the house is likely to be seventeenth century.   In 1704 the farm consisted of five closes of arable and pasture land and sixteen strips dispersed in North Field, the Hyde and Waterslades, making forty acres in all. Within a few decades, however, it had been reduced to a mere seventeen acres.  The greater part of the land had been lost to other farms. In 1776 the remaining acres were bought by Mary Woolhouse and added to Bell Farm.  The Woolhouse family in fact acquired several properties including Long Close house, other cottages by Little Common and the house built on part of Nut Close, now demolished, but replaced by Eton Cottage. 

Of the other houses shown on the 1797 map nothing is known at all about those that stood  between Harding's Cottage and Sheepcote.  On the other hand Ye Olde Cottage, which stood next to Hope Cottage, was not demolished until 1951 and the description and photograph of it suggest it was also built in the eighteenth century. Like Wheatbutts it had a large projecting chimney and stood with its back to the common. This is curious, for the gardens all stretched as far as the Eton Wick Road, though at this date it was still within the South Field and perhaps not yet the main road of the village.  The only other house built at this date was Manor Farmhouse.

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