7:30 pm
13th December 2023
Village Hall
Monday, 4 December 2023
World War 2 Eighty Years On - 'Spit and Polish' and two crashed Flying Fortresses
The proximity of Windsor Castle with the Royal family and others of military rank brought a certain amount of ‘Spit and Polish’ to the local Ack-Ack camps, including Dorney camp due to the possible visits by "Red Tab " Officers from the War Office King George VI once visited the Dorney Ack-Ack camp having passed through the village un-noticed. By 1943 the camps had acquired a look of permanence with the inclusion of a fairly large NAAFI hut where Troop entertainment, such as Bingo, Film Shows and Dances were held. As this was a mixed battery, there was never a shortage of partners for camp dances where two musicians from the village, Andy Skeels on piano and George White on drums, often supplied the music. Both had been evacuated to Eton Wick to escape the bombing of London.
It was not all war and no play for the gunners, for in June 1943 the first sports meeting was held by the local H.A.A. Regiment at the old Polo Ground Datchet. A Bathing Belles competition, in which a number of the locally stationed A.T.S. girls took part, was judged by a committee of R.A. Officers. Various field events were also arranged in which both Gunners and A.T.S. took part. After the prizes had been distributed by the Brigade Commander, an enjoyable day was rounded off with a dance and cabaret.
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‘B Troop’ 564 Heavy (M) AA Battery R.A. 183 Regiment R.A. 38 Division. SM7 Camp Dorney Common. 1944
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Officer Commanding. Major Haines (seated centre). Reverend Wingate, Vicar of St John the Baptist, Eton Wick. |
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| A second Boeing B17 of 91st Bomber Group crashed at Old Windsor on December 30th, 1943. |
Strict fuel rationing curtailed the service provided by the Blue Bus from Dorney - Eton Wick - Windsor, also it limited the availability of Taxis. An order, issued by the Ministry of Fuel and Power, stated that from the end of May 1942 no petrol would be available to Hackney Carriages licensed after April of that year. The only taxi in the village at this time was owned by Mr. Phillips who had got his taxi license in the December of 1942 before the report came out.
Mr. Chew taking up the plea for a petrol ration, made the point to the Surveyor, that Mr. Phillips was fulfilling a very necessary need in the village as Eton Wick had already lost one taxi. A decision was taken to apply for a supply of petrol which resulted in a successful application. Motor fuel was available for private cars for essential war service, generally in the community. One case of misuse of fuel which resulted in a summons was the result of the watchful eye of P.C. Rainer the village constable. On four occasions within the month, he had noticed that the organist to Eton Wick chapel was collected after service by car. On questioning the lady driver, he established that the petrol was for church work, but he did not consider fetching the organist after the service lawful church work. Three and a half gallons of motor fuel was the ration that had been allowed for three and half months. On coming to court the Magistrate thought the case too trifling and dismissed the charge with cost.
Travel difficulties experienced by the village were not helped by the influx of wartime inhabitants. The inadequate bus service made it difficult to get to work or to other activities. Often the bus coming from Dorney to Windsor was full on reaching Eton Wick which brought forth angry complaints from the village residents Eventually letters were sent to the Traffic Commissioners about the inadequacy of service by the Eton U.D.C. but no improvements resulted from these complaints and stronger action would follow by the village community in 1944.
Is your journey really necessary?
This reminder appeared on posters at many railway stations. Non-essential travel was discouraged because of military requirements. In 1943 some seaside beaches that had been closed as an anti-invasion measure were again opened to the public, there was no rush as travel on overcrowded trains and very limited seaside accommodation made holidays difficult. The innovation of "Holidays at Home", an organized week of activities by the local councils and voluntary organizations, helped munitions and other workers to enjoy their annual weeks’ summer holiday. Military displays, sport meetings, fun fairs, concerts and displays showing some of the local war production were held on Agars Plough during the week. Large gatherings were attracted to these entertainments.
Army Gymnastic team giving a display during a ‘Holiday at Home Week’.
Displays of all types by the armed services were put on to recruit Men and women
for wartime services and also supporting special National savings weeks
On the declaration of war, the Government had commandeered the railways and some motor transport for the movement of military personnel and other essential war supplies. Whereas the proportion of passenger traffic to goods pre-war had been in the ratio of 80% to 20%, the ratio was now became reversed. A poster campaign constantly reminded civilian passengers that munitions and troop movement together with food and fuel had priority. The reduced number of passenger trains gave rise to longer journey times than normal. Blackout regulations, air raids, and the huge number of passengers traveling, often with as many standing as sitting. Service personnel often travelled with their full military kit which took up as much room as a normal passenger which made for uncomfortable travelling. During air raids, trains stopped at the first station they arrived at, allowing passengers to alight if they wished. Servicemen and women returning to their units from leave had to make an early start back in case they arrived at their camps late and were charged with being absent.
This is an extract from Round and About Eton Wick: 1939 - 1945. The book was researched, written and published in 2001 by John Denham.
Monday, 27 November 2023
Photographic History of Eton Wick and Eton - The Eton Wick Methodist Sisterhood
This photograph was taken c1960. Back row (heads only visible): Mrs Slaymaker, Mrs Gardner, Miss Majorie Morris, Mrs Lily Jacobs (probably) Third row: Mrs Sophie Chamberlain, Mrs Jacobs, Miss Mary Ayres, Mrs Brown, unidentified Second row: Mrs Harris, Mrs Woodley, Mrs Paice, unidentified. The child is believed to be A. Higgins, grandson of Mrs Woodley. Front row: Mrs G Kelly, Mrs Dobson.
This article was first published in A Pictorial History of Eton Wick & Eton.
Monday, 20 November 2023
Development of Eton Wick
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| Map of 1797 copied from The Story of a Village: Eton Wick 1217 - 1977 |
From its origins as a farming area of the Manor of Eton the
earliest dwellings were built on the highest land north of the Great Eton
Common. From the 14th century to the 18th century the six
farmhouses continued that development. The 1797 map indicates houses on the
southern side of Common Lane including the Three Horseshoes.
The first half of the 19th century brought further house building including the Parsonage, Bell Farm Cottages, Harding Cottages and Prospect Place. Most of these were rented to working class tenants. As the century progressed more houses were built some on the gardens of the cottages facing the Great Common. These included Hope Cottages, Palmers Place and others.
The largest development began in 1880’s on some of the land
of Bell Farm where Boveney Newtown grew with Alma, Inkerman and Northfield roads,
and Moores Lane. The development was beyond the western edge of the Parish of
Eton which at that time was Bell Lane. As recorded in the 1881 census when
there were there household it grew and grew. By 1911 there were 125 households,
two more than Eton Wick.
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| Ordnance Survey Map 1899 courtesy of National Library of Scotland |
By 1899 there were two distinct communities with the land south of Alma Road and west of the Eton Parish mostly undeveloped. A few houses were on the south side of the Eton Wick Road including the Shepherds Hut and Victoria Road was outlined. The 1925 map shows further development south of Alma Road.
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| Ordnance Survey Map 1925 courtesy of National Library of Scotland |
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| Ordnance Survey Map 1932 courtesy of National Library of Scotland |
The inter war years saw some development south of Alma Road including a few houses in Tilstone Avenue and Close.
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| Map showing rights under the Commons Registration Act of 1965 copied from The Story of a Village: Eton Wick 1217 - 1977 |
This map indicates that there were six registered Commoners under the 1965 Act. These included Crown Farm, Dairy Farm, Little Common Farm, Manor Farm and Saddocks Farm.
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| Ordnance Survey Map 1968 courtesy of National Library of Scotland |
The 1968 map reveal the limits of the village development
with Haywards Mead, Princes Close, Queens Road and Cornwall Close filling the
remaining available land on the south side of the Eton Wick Road. The final major development in the village was on the wheatbutts in the 1970's.
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| Ordnance Survey Map 2023 courtesy of National Library of Scotland |
The latest OS map of 2023 show how the village development has been restrained by the Lammas Land and Commons. The number of households was also limited by the single road that restricts potential for evacuation in the case of flooding. The experience of the Thames floods of 2014 showed that the Jubilee River did protect the village. There has been more house building allowed including particularly in Princes Close, Queens Road and Victoria Road.
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| Enclosure Map courtesy of the Berkshire Records Office. |
Both Slough to the north and Windsor to the south have both grown as enclosure acts were passed for the Manor of Upton cum Chalvey, 1819 and the Manor of Windsor Forest, 1817. If the 1826 Bill to enclose the Manor of Eton cum Stockdale and Colenorton had not been rejected Eton Wick would probably have become part of Slough.
Sunday, 12 November 2023
Eton Wick Remembers the Fallen
East Face
Henry Ashman 1993 21/08/1915 Gallipoli
Cyril Ashman 746 26/10/1917 Passchendaele
George Baldwin 16671 24/04/1918 Amiens
George Bolton 7993 24/09/1915 Loos
Alfred Brown 11811 31/07/1917 Ypres
Ernest Brown T/202287 24/10/1917 Passchendaele
Angus Bruce 19160 27/03/1918 Arras
Thomas Bryant 9813 11/11/1914 Ypres
Fredrick Buckland G/3615 17/12/1914 illness
Arthur Bunce 39794 17/07/1917 Ypres
Albert Caesar 12472 01/09/1914 Villers
Omar Brown 6912447 21/11/1941 Libya
Clifford Chew 116439 24/3/1945 Luxembourg
William Farmer 1603478 10/4/1944 United Kingdom
North Face
Frank Church 3760 19/07/1916 Somme
John Clark 630936 23/04/1917 Roeux
Fred Colbourn 185017 31/10/1918 illness
Horace Dobson 32908 15/07/1918 illness
Charles Godwin 2556 08/06/1918 Arras
Charles Hammerton 5335 09/10/1916 Somme
Henry Hill K/18991 03/09/1917 Chatham air raid
Robert Hobrough 40782 30/09/1917 Passchendaele
Arthur Iremonger 7937 25/12/1915 Loos
Ernest Jordan 33180 20/08/1916 Iraq
Charles Miles K/25314 09/07/1917 HMS Vanguard
Harry Quarterman 7570 30/10/1918 Asfold POW camp
Harry Quarterman 7570 30/10/1918 Asfold POW camp
John Flint T/I27600 19/5/1943 Italy
William George 1529768 14/11/1942 Egypt
Richard Hood 5385945 13/5/1944 Italy
Thomas A McMurray 105151 17/6/1940 France
West Face
Henry Moss M2/097873 21/10/1918 Roisel
James Newell 1232 11/04/1917 Arras
Joseph Newell 9534 24/05/1917 Turkey POW Camp
Walter Payne 12050 12/03/1916 Ploegsteert Woods
George Percy 34891 15/04/1918 Outtersteene Ridge
Herbert Pithers 24307 28/02/1917 Ancre
Arthur Richardson 10060 02/05/1915 Gallipoli
Joseph Springford 94017 15/02/1918 Passchendaele
Isaac Springford 197731 02/07/1918 Orpington
Albert Stallwood 4176 24/10/1918 Wassigny
Peter Knight 30958 26/10/1915 Aegean Sea
William Prior 5434 22/8/1947 England
William Pates 1152080 15/1/1943 France
Albert Prior 7689948 12/11/1943 Burma
George Prior 14603226 13/12/1947 England
This is an extract from Their Names Shall Be Carved in Stone
and published here with grateful thanks to the author Frank Bond.
A. E. PRIOR - Corps of Military Police
Albert Edward Prior (Lance Corporal No. 7689948) Corps of
Military Police
Albert was born on Boxing Day 1912. He had a younger brother
Thomas, and two sisters named Annie and Joan. The family home was at 7, Bell
Cottages, Alma Road, Boveney Newtown. As with the majority of Eton Wick lads,
he attended the village infants school until he was seven years old, and on
April 13th 1920 he registered at Eton Porny School where he continued his
elementary education until he was 14. On leaving school he was apprenticed to
Goddards of Eton as a carpenter and cabinet maker. Upon completion of his
apprenticeship he was employed by Eton College as a qualified tradesman.
Albert liked football and competed in the boys' Easter
Monday five-a-side competition for sons of Discharged Sailors and Soldiers of
the Great War living in Eton Wick, Boveney or Dorney. There were two other
Prior families living in Boveney Newtown and in South View. All were related
and all had a strong affiliation with St. John the Baptist Church of Eton Wick.
Albert, his brother Tom and their cousins all sang in the church choir, and his
uncle served as the church verger for many years. Albert acquired his first
motorcycle, an old A.J.S. machine which caused him constant and frustrating
trouble with its kick-start. Later he changed the model for a more up to date
Sunbeam and his troubles were over.
With the threat of war during the late 1930s he became an
A.R.P. (Air Raid Precaution) warden, and was invited to take employment in an
aircraft factory at Langley. Had he chosen to accept this change of employment
his skills would certainly have ensured exemption from military service. As a
result of working in Eton he met and married Dorothy in 1938. They settled into
their smart new semi-detached house in Moores Lane and being close to Albert's
family home in Alma Road they aptly name the house "Nearome".
The following summer saw the start of W.W.II. and Albert,
now 27, was soon to be in uniform. His sister said he was loathe to take up
arms with intent to kill, and if in fact this was so, it may explain his
decision to join the Corps of Military Police. Previously his motor cycling had
been very local, but now came a period when as a military policeman he was
required to escort military convoys throughout the British Isles.
In January 1941 Dorothy gave Albert a baby son to think about,
and the early days were anxious ones. Fortunately a supportive family was close
by. Perhaps now Albert was wishing he had taken the job offered him at Langley.
Twice he made very brief visits to his wife and baby son, Christopher, before
making the last farewell for overseas service. It has not been satisfactorily
established whether he went direct to the Far East, to India as his sister Joan
has stated, or to the Middle East as his son thinks probable. The following
year he sent a telegram postmarked from Sansorigine and dated January 14th
1942, briefly saying:
"STILL OK LOTS OF LOVE BABYS BIRTHDAY AND MUMS ALBERT
PRIOR"
This was probably from a transit place in the Far East, for
three weeks later Dorothy received another telegram, this time post marked from
Singapore and dated February 9th 1942 saying:
"SAFE WELL LOVE ADDRESS CMP MALAYA ALBERT PRIOR"
There could not have been a worse time to arrive in
Singapore, for just six days later General Percival surrendered the island
garrison of 85,000 men to the advancing Japanese Army. They had infamously
attacked the Americans at Pearl Harbour on December 7th 1941, entered Burma on
the 11th December, taken Hong Kong on Christmas Day and Kuala Lumpur on January
10th. In theory at least, the swift Japanese advance had left them with an
attacking force inadequate to conquer Singapore and the early surrender was
never expected. The 85,000 prisoners of war were terribly misused and ill fed,
with many thousands dying of disease, sickness and malnutrition. It was 15
months later that Dorothy received the first official information in a brief
letter from the C.M.P. Record Office dated May 26th 1943, reporting Albert to
be a P.O.W. in Japanese hands at Malai Camp. More than two years elapsed before
she received a further notification dated October 25th 1945, reporting that he
had died of colitis on November 12th 1943.
Albert Prior is buried in Thanbyuzayak Military Cemetery in
Burma, 116 miles south east of Rangoon. The cemetery contains nearly 4,000
graves, which include 1,700 British, 1,350 Australian, 15 Indian, 80 Malayan
and over 600 Dutch. Unlike most C.W.G.C. cemeteries the graves are marked by
bronze plaques. Albert's grave is No. 4, Row D, Plot B.6.
His widow Dorothy did
not marry again. She continued to live in the home they had established
together for the next 40 years before moving to the West Country to be near her
son, Christopher. For many years she was a Sunday School teacher in Eton Wick.
Albert is commemorated on the village memorial situated in front of the church,
where he had sung as a choir boy and later as a man. His name is also on the
memorial plaque attached to the Village Hall.
This is an extract from Their Names Shall Be Carved in Stone
and published here with grateful thanks to the author Frank Bond.
Thursday, 2 November 2023
The 18th Century Village of Eton Wick – Part Two - Life for Cottager's in the Wick
18th Century Cottager in the Wick
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| 1797 Village map courtesy of Dr Judith Hunter's Story of a Village |
The early years of the Century were hard for families getting their subsidence from the land and for those few families living in the Wick the daily toil brought its woes and ill health. Prey to diseases as smallpox, diphtheria, influenza, and tuberculosis to say nothing of accidents. There was also a high risk to women dying in childbirth. Cottages built in Eton Wick were timbered framed with infilling of brick and cob. The floors of stone slab or compacted earth covered with rush mats with an open wood burning fireplace and lighting by candle or perhaps an oil lamp provided warmth and lighting in the small dim rooms.
Clothing was mainly home made by wives and daughters of the family and a variety of footwear such as leather boots, canvas shoes, wooden sandals and clog type shoes dependant on the family financial status was worn by those working on the land.
The more successful farmer or small holder no doubt could afford to buy foot-ware but often for the poorer it would be hand me downs or go barefoot.
With a water supply from well, pond or river health and cleanliness were two factors that suffered. Fleas and head lice were prevalent. The passing years brought slow improvement.
During the century to those living in Eton and Eton Wick, trade increased in Eton with new premises opening with tailors and dress makers, boot and shoemakers, together with other trades. These were family businesses where young people from Eton Wick found employment, and with the change in their financial fortune left the land to the more successful farmer.
By the year 1830 there were approximately seventy professional business services and shops in the Eton High Street supplying local needs and hand made goods to the London shops.
The increasing local trade and wealth gave rise to house building in Eton Wick as the century drew to its close continuing during the 19th and 20th centuries until all available land free of lammas rights or common land within the Wick had been taken for building.
This was part of the script for a talk given by John Denham at a meet of the Windsor & District University of the Third Age in 2003.
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