St Gilberts Church

St. Gilbert's Church, Eton Wick (In the Parish of "Our Lady of Peace" Burnham): A short history

It was in 1954 that a Father Dunstan (formerly a Torpedo Boat Coxwain!!) encouraged Eton Wick's Catholics to strive to finance the construction of their own church in the village. At that time, Sunday morning mass was being celebrated in the Village Hall (for which the hire charge was 4 shillings per week and the clearing of Saturday night's debris); and, prior to that, villagers had made their way to 'Our Lady of Sorrows' at Eton. 

A committee was elected, a raffle held and the £3 raised was the first contribution to the fundraising. A few years (and a lot of jumble sales, bazaars and dances) later, construction commence, with the foundations being dug by the parishioners themselves. 

Ten years after Father Dunstan's challenge, on the day before Palm Sunday in 1964, the Roman Catholic Church of St. Gilbert was blessed by Bishop Leo Parker, assisted by the Prior and Chapter from the community of Canons Regular at Datchet. St. Gilbert's was built at a cost of £16,000 on land which was purchased for £1,500. 

by Teresa Stanton

Under the shadow of Eton

The fifteenth century brought a new force into the parish - Eton College, which was founded in 1440. It is one of the earliest brick buildings in England and well over two million bricks were used in its construction between 1442 and 1452, most of which were baked at ' ie Slowe '. Without a doubt a few villagers would have joined the labour force, if only as labourers and one of the elms needed in the construction of the bell tower came from Eton Wick and another from Boveney.

Whether the presence of the College was welcomed or not by the villagers and townsfolk it is not possible to guess, but once established with the Provost and Fellows, its almsmen, chaplains and clerks and seventy scholars, the villagers could not but be very conscious of it for several reasons.  For a short span of years soon after its foundation, the Provost was Lord of the Manor of the Royal Manor with all the associated responsibilities and privileges. In the year 1448 alone the tenants and freemen of the manor were called to the Manor Court at least ten times. The College was also granted the right to hold a weekly market, a six day fair following the Feast of Assumption and a pig fair each Ash Wednesday. No doubt villagers visited them all to buy and sell and just to enjoy the occasions.  The College was also given the right of granting indulgences (the remission of punishment for sins in repayment for penances) to all those who visited the new College Chapel.  Inevitably for a few years at least, Eton was thronged with visitors who brought as many difficulties as blessings - overcrowding, shortage of food and even leprosy.

 

Most of the land which was granted to the College was bought from freeholders of Eton or from part of the Manor of Eton owned by the Huntercombe family, or else had been glebe land, that is land which had belonged to the church. However, even added together these did not amount to a great acreage; but in the coming centuries the College did become an important landlord within the parish, though more by virtue of being a leaseholder than an owner. A survey of the Royal Manor in 1548 shows that the Provost and Fellows of the College were the principal tenants. This land was mostly sublet and much of it lay within Eton Wick.

 

In numerous other ways the College must have influenced the lives of the town and village folk as employer of labour and user of produce, and even for the education of a few of their children; for not until the nineteenth century did it become an almost exclusive school. But perhaps the most important change brought about by the foundation of the College was the demolition of the old parish church and the building of the College Chapel to replace it. The right of advowson (the presentation of a clergyman to a living) was also granted to the Provost and Fellows. Not until the second half of the eighteenth century was there to be another church in the parish; townsfolk, villagers and scholars were all entitled to worship in the Collegiate church. The Provost became the Rector and he and his chaplains, or conducts as they were known, were responsible for the spiritual welfare of the parish as well as the school. From 1769 there was a small chapel of ease in the town of Eton though this early building compared very poorly with the College Chapel which was still the parish church. In 1852 a new church was built in Eton to replace the eighteenth century building and in 1867 a chapel of ease was built in Eton Wick and dedicated to St John the Baptist. Not until 1875 did the Provost cease to be the incumbent when the Rev John Shepherd became the first Vicar of Eton since the Middle Ages.

Because the Provost was the Rector, he was also the tithe owner. He and the College had a right to a tenth of all the produce of the parish with the exception of the tithe-free land owned by the College itself. In the early centuries this was certainly paid in kind, a tenth of the harvest, the hay, lambs and all the rest, but by the nineteenth century at the discretion of the Provost as Rector and tithe owner it was usually paid in money. An old account book of John Atkins of Bell Farm shows that he paid £27 12s 0d for the year 1832. Even cottage gardens were not exempt and when tithes were commuted to money under the Commutation Act of 1836 the tithe payments were set out for all the land in the village.

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

Eton Wick: The Mortuary.

This picture of the Eton Wick mortuary was taken around 1960 just before it was demolished. It was built in 1913 on the north side of the brook running along Common Road approximately opposite Albert Place, sharing the entrance to the Blacksmith's forge. The occurrence of drownings in the river at that time warranted such a facility; before it was provided the accepted practice was to lay the bodies out in the rear quarters or cellars of public houses, where the subsequent inquest was held. 

An extract from A Photographic History of Eton Wick & Eton

Manor of Eton cum Stockdales at the end of the 18th Century – farm animals and practice

The total numbers to be allowed for Eton and the Wick were 610 sheep, 41 (cows), 48 oxen and 18 horses; in addition, any inhabitant of the town with no land to farm might keep one cow in the common pasture. There were set fines for putting too many beasts to graze from two pence per sheep to eight pence per horse; and any foreigner or traveler who had the nerve to try to feed his own beast on Eton pasture might find himself fined up to 3s.4d.

It was decreed a crime to put animals onto the Great Common between the feast of the Annunciation (March 25) and the Invention (discovery) of the Holy Cross (May 3) as this is the time when the grass begins to grow and thicken up and to graze the common meadows or fields after February 2, (the Feast of the Purification of Our Blessed Lady) until 29 September ( the feast of "Saint Michael the Archangel or Michaelmas).

It was unfortunate for those that kept a pig as this useful animal was banned from the common because their sharp hoofs cut up the ground and any tenant caught doing so would have to forfeit the pig. So the pig was condemned to life in the sty to be fed on the kitchen scraps and fodder gathered from the hedgerow until its day of slaughter when its bacon, hams, sausages and lard would help see the family through the winter, together with eggs from the few chickens and maybe the goose at Christmas. The keeping of rabbits was also another source of meat.

Animals were also a source of revenue by the sale of the dung (manure). The 1798 diary of farmer John Edgson owner of Upper Britwell Farm, Burnham records the purchase of 133 bushels of rabbit dung from Steven's of Eton and a later entry records taking 32 bushells from Mr John Atkins. This John Atkins could have been the tenant at Saddocks farm, a member of the family who were shoe makers in Boveney and Eton or a John Atkins who was a baker in Eton at that time. The only known Stevens in Eton at that time were William who was a grocer and James who was a shoe maker; John Edgson seems to have had a requirement for a good quantity of dung as his diaries refer often to fetching dung from Windsor, it could have been from the stables of the coaching trade, for by the 18th century good farming practice realized that the ground became hungry and needed nutrients and humus to re-establish its productivity.

This is an extract from research undertaken by John Denham for at lecture to the WEA at Windsor entitled "18th Century Eton Wick within the environs of Eton."

Eton Wick in the 14th Century

By the fourteenth century there were at least nine families in the village, for they are readily identifiable from deeds: Adam in the Lane, John Doget, William the Blakesmith, William Chapman, Thomas and William atte Wick, Robert the Shepherd and others. Where their homes are mentioned they would appear to lie north of the brook, between the field called the Hyde and the common pasture called the Mersh (or marsh) or near another called the Dene (or valley). These two areas or common still exist, though now perhaps a little smaller and known as the Great and Little Common respectively. Bradmere or Broadmoor was another area of pasture, but today this is arable and part of North Field. 

The meadows were to be found near the river and brooks, the Innings (today known as the Inner Ward Mead) lying parallel to the Great Common but north of the brook, the Wards, by Cuckoo Weir, and South Meadow.  The thirteenth century and the first half of the fourteenth century was a period of land hunger and there is clear evidence of land being won from the areas previously considered too marshy to use, such as the Water Slades mentioned In a deed as land 'newly cultivated'. This land lies on either side of the Eton Wick Road near the Willow Tree public house where the land still dips perceptibly.  The word slad(e)s can mean a hollow. In the eighteenth century there used to be a row of posts marked to show the depth of water lying on the road in the almost annual floods, giving warning to the carriages and waggons using the road. Even today there are still metal posts standing which were used during the 1947 floods.

There were four open fields, the Hyde, North Field, South Field and West Field, the latter so named apparently because It lay west of Eton rather than on the west side of the parish; in later centuries It appears to have been renamed Stonebridge Field.  Each field was divided into many strips and these grouped Into shots, furlongs or pieces with distinctive names such as Longfurlong, Middle Furlong, Stone hul (hill), Long Wythebedde, Broken Furlong and Rossey Piece. There was also land known simply as 'village land'. No hedges divided these strips and furlongs but, although each open field was planted with the same crops, the different alignment of the furlongs gave the fields a patchwork appearance.  The holdings of each man or woman, either owned or rented, were scattered throughout the fields and meadows. It is thought that originally each strip could be ploughed in one day and that the strips of land had been shared between the fields and its furlongs. By medieval times land had changed hands too often for any such pattern to be apparent, but certain families, such as the Brocases of Clewer, the Jourdelays of Eton and Eton Wick and many others were building up estates and farms. Small and large holdings were still dispersed among the fields as the dower settlement of Margaret Huntercombe of 1336 shows only too clearly. The Eton Manor was in 35 separate plots and she received a third of each of these, so that many were less than an acre and the narrowest no more than one pole

It is too much to expect to recognise any particular strip as surviving today. There has always been a certain amount of exchange and amalgamation as individuals found it more convenient to have their land in more compact blocks, yet right into this century strips are shown on the maps which accompany deeds and are separately itemized. The long narrow field just east of the College Sanatorium is the last strip of Broken Furlong in cultivation. The piece of land west of Haywards Mead, too, is part of an old strip that only became fenced in this century. In 1808 a Surveyor of the Royal Manor could write that 'there is hardly a hedge to be seen on the whole farm (Saddocks)*, and even today South Field is almost free of hedges with no permanent boundaries marking the boundary of the allotments or the land farmed by Mr. Paget, making these, perhaps, the last vestiges of the old landscape.

Strip farming in the open fields was also practised in Boveney Parish.  The part of Eton Wick that came under that parish was once part of the Tilstone Field and the Shepherd's Hut was built at the end of one strip in about 1830 when the rest of the field was still being tilled.  The name 'Tilstone' is intriguing; the earliest record of it occurs in a sixteenth century document when it was spelt 'Tyila's dene' suggesting that the name is derived from the dene or dip in the land owned by Tylla.  No records have been found to tell us who he was.

Rutted and dusty or muddy and full of puddles, the roads of the Middle Ages little resembled the macadam highway of today, yet already by the fourteenth century there was a pattern that is recognizable today. The Eton Wick Road was a public track though lying entirely within South Field.  Bell Lane and Common Road were both being used, their route following the edge of the Great Common and the Manor boundary. Haywards Mead, crossing the South Field to Meadow Lane, Eton, was one of the "King's highways', as was another road running through South Field and roughly parallel with the Thames, leading from New .Windsor to Boveney.  None as yet possessed their modern names; Common Road was BIakes (possibly Blacksmiths) Lane and one of those passing through the South Field by Cuckoo Weir was appropriately known as Mill Lane. Joiebalteslane is perhaps to be identified as the road running towards Little Common. The track which still runs north of the Great Common, alongside the Inner Ward Meads, was called Innings Lane. Connecting this track to Broadmoor and possibly continuing to Chalvey was Droflane. Though the position of this lane is not known, old maps of the parish show several footpaths crossing the North Field, and until the motor car changed the pattern of family life, these footpaths were regularly used by the people of Chalvey and Eton Wick.

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

Pubs and Brewhouses in Eton Wick from the 1881 census

Eton Wick	1881 Census
The Greyhound	Brew house
Alfred Deverett	Married age 40	Brewhouse keeper and labourer
Mary Ann	Wife	born Windsor
Emma Jane	daughter age 9 scholar	born Eton Wick
George Alfred	Son age 2	born Eton Wick
Emma Childs	age 12 Servant	born Beaconsfield
Three Horse Shoes.	Licenced Inn
Eliza Crockford	Widow age 35	licenced victualler
Charlotte	Daughter age 5 Scholar	born Eton Wick
Alice	Daughter age 2	born Eton Wick
Joseph Underwood	Brother age 25 Widower (Domestic Servant)	born Eton
The Grapes	Brewhouse
John Simmonds	Married age 24 Carpenter	born Eton
Elizabeth	Sister age 27	b. Upper Beadon
Sarah Ann	Sister age 22
Obil	Sister age 15
Monague	Brother age 13 Scholar
The Shepherds Hut	Brewhouse, 89 Eton Wick Road.
Edward Ellward	age 43 Beerhouse Keeper
Anne	Wife age 43 Laundress
Gertrude	Daughter age 18
Anne	Daughter age 16
Fanny White	Lodger age 11

Tuesday May 8th 1945 VE Day

With the declaration of a two day holiday the nation commenced its celebration with church services which many attended to give thanks for victory and deliverance from tyranny. Flags and bunting appeared on the Tuesday morning in Windsor and Slough giving the streets a look of carnival. Celebrations had started quietly in the early part of the day, the crowds gathering during the early afternoon after the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, had broadcast to the nation that all hostilities in Europe were at an end. Nightfall brought more people onto the streets to cheer and dance. Bonfires were lit at many places, with the Mayor of Windsor lighting a huge bonfire on Bachelors Acre, Windsor, the signal for the start of celebrations that went on into the early hours on Wednesday. Other hastily gathered bonfires appeared onto which went effigies of Hitler and his cronies. Eton College boys had commenced their celebration of victory on Monday evening when the first news of the surrender was heard.     

The use of buckets of water and stirrup pumps by the Boys did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of revelers who had to run the gauntlet along the long wall and Keate’s lane. The next day they were given a holiday and immediately set about building a huge bonfire on Fellows Eyot which was lit in the evening. The scene was one of merriment with people dancing around the fire enthused with the excitement of the occasion.  As the fire died away many boys linked arms to make a triumphant march up Eton high street to Windsor where they met another joyous crowd coming from Windsor making their way to Slough.  Many of the boys carried on their celebrations with a triumphant march over Windsor Bridge to Castle Hill.   

The local Windsor and Slough papers reporting on the Victory Revels said that a two day holiday was declared and the joyous population danced, sung, cheered and wept celebrating the news. Church Bells rang out from Saint Georges Chapel and from all the parish churches around. It was a beautiful warm day with the temperature much higher than the average for the time of year.

At nightfall the celebrations took off with a bang as rockets exploded in the sky. Men, women and children thronged the streets of Windsor, Eton and Slough in a night of sheer happiness that the war in Europe had ended. No more would there be anxious days when bomb or rocket would bring death and destruction. By late evening many of the pubs had run dry but the festivities continued to the early hours of Wednesday morning. No-one wanted to go home.

The only floodlit building in Eton was the College Chapel but elsewhere floodlighting and fairy lights appeared. Among buildings lit were High Duty Alloys on the Trading Estate, Slough Town Hall and the Windsor riverside with colourful fairy lights. Army searchlights added to the illuminations. Villages around the district were also celebrating with bonfires and parties and impromptu dancing on the village greens and in the streets. The sky reflected the glow from the multitude of fires which in some villages were huge.  The very large bonfire on the village green at Datchet commenced a night of celebration which continued through until Wednesday night when there was the added attraction of dancing to the music of the Royal Artillery band from the local Ack - Ack batteries.

For many children this was the first time to see lights in shop windows and such an outburst of gaiety.  Informal street parties and celebration teas for the children took place with tables and chairs and often a piano being brought from the houses. Street parties at Brocas street and Tangier Lane were arranged for the children who in addition to the tea were given an orange and one shilling.    

Mr. Addaway, driver of the Blue Bus, had a very excited passenger on V.E. Day. Streaming two strong wartime toilet rolls, Mrs. Downs, showing the joyfulness of the day, rode on the bonnet of the bus. Celebration parties at Eton Wick were quickly organized at Northfield Road, the Village Hall and on the common adjacent to the Greyhound public house. Precious tin food that had been purchased on points and stored for this day came from the cupboard. The Victory street party in Northfield Road, organized by Mrs. Harman and friends, entertained about twenty children and the same number of adults to a celebration tea with fruit salad from the Azores and a special iced cake in the shape of a victory "V". Private Mills, who was home on leave after three years overseas service, was guest of honour. After tea the children had dancing, races and games ending the day with three cheers for the boys still overseas and wishing them a speedy return.

 

More articles on how Eton Wick celebrated Victory In Europe Day can be read here.

This is an extract from Round and About Eton Wick 1939 - 1945 written by John Denham.

While Eton Wick was celebrating the Victory in Europe May 1945 Signalman John Denham had become a front line solider in Burma following the reoccupation of Rangoon.