Tough Assignment - The Eton Wick Chapel in the Maidenhead Circuit.

The two services held each Sunday in the Eton Wick Chapel rarely figure in the records except when the change of time for the evening service was confirmed each spring and autumn. Circuit plans would have told us who was to preach there each Sunday and at the mid-week evening service (first mentioned in 1904), but unfortunately no early plans survive. We can be sure though  that most of the preachers came from outside the village, and mainly from Maidenhead where the Superintendent Minister resided.

Unlike incumbents of the Church of England, Primitive Methodist ministers rarely stay at any one place more than three years and share the conducting of services with other ministers and lay preachers. In spite of this there was no lack of fellowship nor contact between preachers and congregation. After all the preachers who came from outside the village had to make the journey on foot and often spent the whole day in the village being fed and looked after by chapel members. The five mile or more walk could seem a very long way to new preachers as Mr Lodge wrote with wry humour remembering his early days. Still feeling rather tired after walking from Maidenhead to Winkfield Row he was told by a lady there, 'You will never make a Methodist preacher; why William Evans comes six miles further than you and does not complain; a young man like you tired before you begin!'

Eton Wick did have one preacher of its own - John Lane. He was already accepted as a lay preacher by 1893 when the earliest of the surviving minute books begins. Another member of the Eton Wick Chapel had also become a preacher by this date, Frank Tarrant of Dorney. In 1893 he was away from the area working for the Evangelical Society. He came back for two weeks in the autumn of 1894 to take services at Cox Green and Eton Wick, but this was probably the last time for within a few years Frank Tarrant was to leave the Methodist Church for the Congregational. Soon afterwards he was ordained pastor of that church.

His conversion to Christianity had been one of Annie Tough's early successes and to the end of her life she was to remain proud of her protégée; she was delighted when he eventually became minister at Windsor. William Folley was also brought to Christ through the efforts of Mrs Tough though he belonged to the Maidenhead Church and not the Eton Wick Chapel; he was ordained in 1917 and soon after this he enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps.

Although she was busy in many roles, Mrs Tough was not yet a preacher, but in March 1901 she took the first step on the ladder by becoming an exhorter, a position that no longer exists, but which might be described as an apprentice preacher. She was on trial as an exhorter until the end of 1902 as were several others, all men, who came 'on the plan' at the same time. Annie Tough wasn't the first woman lay preacher in the Maidenhead Circuit, indeed the Maidenhead Chapel had been one of the first in the district to welcome them, but there were still very few. Francis (Frank) Paintin and S Baker from Eton Wick were also examined and accepted as exhorters in the early years of the century. Frank Paintin became a full local preacher in 1907 and, like Annie Tough, took services at Eton Wick as well as other chapels in the Circuit.

1924 Circuit Plan
Mrs tough was planned to preach at Eton Wick
in October at the Mothers Meeting.

Unlike incumbents of the Church of England, Primitive Methodist ministers rarely stay at any one place more than three years and share the conducting of services with other ministers and lay preachers. In spite of this there was no lack of fellowship nor contact between preachers and congregation. After all the preachers who came from outside the village had to make the journey on foot and often spent the whole day in the village being fed and looked after by chapel members. The five mile or more walk could seem a very long way to new preachers as Mr Lodge wrote with wry humour remembering his early days. Still feeling rather tired after walking from Maidenhead to Winkfield Row he was told by a lady there, 'You will never make a Methodist preacher; why William Evans comes six miles further than you and does not complain; a young man like you tired before you begin!'

Eton Wick did have one preacher of its own - John Lane. He was already accepted as a lay preacher by 1893 when the earliest of the surviving minute books begins. Another member of the Eton Wick Chapel had also become a preacher by this date, Frank Tarrant of Dorney. In 1893 he was away from the area working for the Evangelical Society. He came back for two weeks in the autumn of 1894 to take services at Cox Green and Eton Wick, but this was probably the last time for within a few years Frank Tarrant was to leave the Methodist Church for the Congregational. Soon afterwards he was ordained pastor of that church.

His conversion to Christianity had been one of Annie Tough's early successes and to the end of her life she was to remain proud of her prodigy; she was delighted when he eventually became minister at Windsor. William Folley was also brought to Christ through the efforts of Mrs Tough though he belonged to the Maidenhead Church and not the Eton Wick Chapel; he was ordained in 1917 and soon after this he enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps.

Although she was busy in many roles, Mrs Tough was not yet a preacher, but in March 1901 she took the first step on the ladder by becoming an exhorter, a position that no longer exists, but which might be described as an apprentice preacher. She was on trial as an exhorter until the end of 1902 as were several others, all men, who came 'on the plan' at the same time. Annie Tough wasn't the first woman lay preacher in the Maidenhead Circuit, indeed the Maidenhead Chapel had been one of the first in the district to welcome them, but there were still very few. Francis (Frank) Paintin and S Baker from Eton Wick were also examined and accepted as exhorters in the early years of the century. Frank Paintin became a full local preacher in 1907 and, like Annie Tough, took services at Eton Wick as well as other chapels in the Circuit.

Windsor and Eton Branch of the Women's Total Abstinence Union
tea party at Bell Farm 1904.

Mrs Tough also had her own way of conducting the campaign against the evils of drunkenness, a real problem in England before the First World War. She personally sought out those who found solace - and too much pleasure - in drink, and 'set herself prayerfully and earnestly to rescue them. In this she achieved remarkable success. She won many trophies, and was thrilled with joy at the transformation wrought in the homes and lives of her coverts'. Her biography in 'Christian Messenger' tells the story of one convert.

'There came to reside in the village an elderly man, named William Broad, of fine presence. He was addicted to intemperance, and the soul of many a convivial party on account of his sparkling repartee and mirth-provoking disposition. Our sister invited him, by note, to the chapel. He came a few times. To him it was a novelty to hear a woman pray, and it was afterwards known that he gave a boy a penny to tell him when our sister engaged in prayer, that he might listen outside to her supplications. Despite his bad habits, the Spirit of God laid hand on his heart. At his request Mrs Tough visited him and showed him the way to salvation and led him into the rest of faith. He was then sixty years of age. He at once became a total abstainer and non smoker, and opened his house for a weekly prayer meeting.

His boon companions soon understood the change was not only wonderful but real. True, his Christian life was uphill work owing to his deeply rooted habits and former associations, but he held on his way. Severe affliction attended his later days, and then the call came quite suddenly, and this brand plucked from the burning was safe at last'.

For the three years before his death, however, he allowed class meetings to be held in his house, and the cheerful room, blazing fire in winter and his own blunt and often witty speech helped to draw others to these prayer meetings who might not ever have set foot in the chapel.

In 1911 John Moore, Mrs Tough's father, died. He had been a tremendous support to her, moving to Eton Wick soon after her marriage. He was one of the chapel trustees and a benefactor in many ways, small and large. He was undoubtedly one of those men who liked to get involved and help run things - maybe it was from him that Annie took some of her inspiration - and he had time and sufficient money to do both. It was he that obtained the licence in 1895 so that marriages could take place at the chapel; his youngest daughter, Lilian, was the first bride ever to be married there. Two years later in 1913 John Lane also died. We know little of his strengths and influence, but he like Mrs Tough was a Primitive Methodist of long standing, an active member within the circuit as well as the chapel. He also was a trustee. The loss of the two men inevitably brought changes, which were no doubt increased by the advent of the First World War.

In June 1914 the circuit minutes report that a chapel committee is to be appointed to work with Mrs Tough, consisting of Mrs Lane, Mr Robinson and Frank Paintin.

How long the committee lasted isn't made clear, but it does seem that more and more the chapel revolved round Mrs Tough and more and more of her life was devoted to the chapel. As well as being trustee, society steward and organist, she now became the Sunday School Superintendent in place of John Lane. She had long been concerned with the Womens Meetings or Sisterhood as they were later known, and it is quite likely that she began these even before the chapel was built. She was the leader for many decades. The ladies met on a mid-week afternoon in the tiny schoolroom, bringing with them their sewing or knitting. The meeting opened with a hymn and then, while the ten or so members got on with their individual work, Mrs Tough read the week's instalment from a chosen Christian book. There were no speakers as today, but there was time before the end of the meeting for a cup of tea and a prayer.

There was much more to these meetings, however, than is implied in the above description, for it was through them and Annie's ability to understand other women's problems and to extend to them 'sympathy, tact, kindness and unbounded charity' that - in the words of the Rev Tolfree Parr - she 'won the hearts of the women and led many to Christ.' Was it this work that brought about the 'many recent conversions and the outpourings of grace' at Eton Wick which were reported in the circuit minutes of 1912. At no other time and for no other chapel in the circuit was there occasion to record such success. 

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.

Tough Assignment - Annie Moore - Arrives in Eton Wick

Mrs Frances Annie Tough

When Annie Tough came to the village in 1877 almost every family had some contact with the Church, be it Congregational or Church of England. Yet according to her biography published in the 'Christian Messenger' of 1903, 'she was impressed by the godlessness of the young people in the village' and spent part of her first Sunday in the village distributing tracts. Her memoirs confirm the truth of this but bring to light more detail of the mood and circumstances in which the events occurred. Disappointed to find there was no non-conformist service which she could attend that first Sunday morning, she did indeed 'set forth, armed with a bundle of tracts' to distribute throughout the village. Much to her surprise on the following day, she found herself the topic of conversation but, as she confessed in her memoirs, she did not regret the morning's work for it gave the people in the village an 'insight into what kind of person had come to live amongst them' and herself 'a footing in the place'.

Even so she keenly felt the loss of fellowship with her own Church and people. As soon as she could she joined the Primitive Methodist Society at Windsor but found the two mile journey too great to allow her to attend more than once each Sunday. She was made welcome by the Church of England but, of course, as she explained politely to the clergyman, her own Methodist faith meant she strongly opposed the doctrine of his church.

Instead she attended the services in the Iron Room, though she found them dull and uninspiring. The congregation was small and none of those who went to the services were actually members of the Congregational Church. As she wrote in her memoirs 'Conversions were an unheard of thing'.

To suggest, as the author of her biography does, that Annie Tough filled a Christian vacuum in the village is nonsense and belittles her achievements, but there is no doubt that her faith made an impact on the village, and in her own words 'got her into a little difficulty'. Seeing 'about 20 big lads and girls romping on the Common', one Sabbath afternoon she 'seated herself on a fallen tree', and 'got into conversation with several of them'. Before 'long, the others had gathered round, and she began to talk to them of Jesus, some listened attentively, others jeered, and ridiculed. She sang several hymns to them and left'. A report of this small incident reached the ears of the Congregational Church at Slough, which now had oversight on the Eton Wick Iron Room chapel. The church elders were told that she was trying to start a Primitive Methodist Society in the village, and in their indignation at her supposed effrontery actually asked her to a meeting to answer for her behaviour. Knowing nothing of the purpose of the meeting until she arrived, Annie could only quietly explain what had occurred - and then receive their sincere apologies. Annie herself was more than a little indignant at having been called into question in this manner, and now, if not before, she was firmly resolved that 'by the help of God.. she would not rest until a Primitive Methodist Cause was gained' in Eton Wick, where she could labour according to the dictates of her own conscience'.

She set about trying to rent a place to use for worship, but met with no success, and instead turned her attention to improving the Congregational meetings. Conditions there had begun to improve. Services were by now being held in the morning as well as afternoon, and she eventually had the courage to suggest that children's services should also be held each Sunday for she felt that little was being done for the children of the village. Her suggestion was favourably considered and a 'good brother, who was not a member anywhere, but attended both Church and Chapel, offered to conduct the services "if Mrs Tough would assist". The little Sunday School was an instant success, drawing a great number of children to it, even though many of them must have already attended the Church of England services and Sunday School. Indeed it was so successful that it incurred the displeasure of the village schoolmistress and the curate.

The children were questioned at day school on Monday morning and given detentions, and eventually the curate wrote to Mrs Tough:

'Dear Mrs Tough,

I have heard that you have been holding a Sunday School in your chapel for sometime past, and that our children are in the habit of attending it. I shall be most obliged to you if you will not encourage them to do so, as I have forbidden them to attend, as I wish them to attend our Church Sunday School only, as both they and their parents are members of our Church, and as such ought not to attend Chapel Sunday School which is entirely different in its teachings. I address my letter to you as the children tell me you are, as it were the Superintendent of the Sunday School. Hoping you Will understand my meaning and take it in good part.

I remain, Yours faithfully, W.W. Keating'

It is not too difficult to understand why the Rev Keating should take this stand. The Church of England in Eton had only just become established on an independent footing and he was the first of the curates to have a special oversight on the village. He was also quite young, and perhaps as fervent a Christian as Mrs Tough. She, however, was equally determined in her vocation and as tough by nature as by name. The ensuing correspondence, which was taken up by local and national newspapers, did little good for the Eton church, but no doubt a lot for Annie and the Christian cause of Methodism.

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

From the Parish Magazine - Eton Wick History Group Meeting - History of the Churches of Eton Wick.

The Eton Wick Village History Group was treated to a trio of presenters at their last meeting on 26th June 1996, each of the trio representing one of Eton Wick's places of worship.

1930's Chapel Plan

Neville Thorman spoke first, about the newly extended and refurbished Methodist Chapel, which was built in 1886 entirely as the result of the vision of Frances Annie Tough, a young woman who had come to Eton Wick in 1877 from Rotherhithe, on her marriage to Charles Tough who had been appointed manager of Bell Farm. Annie Tough, with her sister, had become very much involved with the Methodist Church in Rotherhithe and when she came here she soon saw the need to encourage a religious approach locally, and she spent part of her first Sunday in the village delivering tracts. She found travelling to the Primitive Methodist Church in Windsor inconvenient and was rebuffed when she asked them for money to help build a chapel here; she tried Maidenhead and they decided to support her by sending a Mission Band to Eton Wick; she went to the Windsor Congregationalists' services in 'The iron Room' on the Common but, initially at least, found them uninspiring. Annie Tough's mission was to build a chapel and eventually the present site was obtained, through a certain amount of bargaining with a developer, James Ayres, who gave her the land as a reward for her perseverance. The small, congregation of Primitive Methodists set to and found the £300 that it cost to construct the Chapel, some by paying one shilling per week as a pew rent, and it opened. in October 1886. Frances Annie Tough died in 1930 aged 76. The first extension to the Chapel cost £519; and this most recent refurbishment (the 2904 Project) has cost £130,000. Many of the people who have done a lot for the Chapel are commemorated with plaques on the walls of the Chapel Mr. Thorman concluded his most interesting talk with slides showing the refurbishment in progress and also how the Chapel serves the community.

St Gilbert's 

The Roman Catholic Church of St. Gilbert was built in 1964 and Chris Stevens was able to tell the Group where the clergy for this Church came from and how it is only in the last five years that St. Gilbert's has had a secular clergy_ There is no recorded Catholic Church between Windsor and Boveney until 'Our Lady of Sorrows' was built in Eton in 1915 (Lord Bray - an Old Etonian thought that the Catholic boys at the College were lacking in instruction and so had the church built), although there may have been a 'Chapel of Ease' or Chantry for the groups who would go on pilgrimage, tracking along the river. For some years prior to the building of St. Gilbert's, Mass was celebrated on Sunday mornings in the Village Hall - hired for the princely sum of four shillings per week. Chris Stevens told the Group how an original and attractive design for the church was rejected by the Diocese but was later used for the church at Wargrave. St Gilbert's was built, at a cost of £16,000, to a different design on land which was purchased for £1,500. The church was blessed but not consecrated - perhaps it could be consecrated on a appropriate anniversary? St Gilbert, the son of a rich man, wanted to be a priest but initially was turned down because he was a cripple, but. he persisted and became one of the great teachers of religion_ St. Gilbert's is in the Parish of Burnham.

St John the Baptist

Finally, Peter Kreamer told the Group how the Church of St John the Baptist was built in 1866 and so is the oldest church- in Eton Wick. Peter regards himself as the Church's odd-job man. The Church of England became interested in Eton Wick in the 1830's when one of Eton College's chaplains, Henry Harper, encouraged the building of a school room on the corner of Eton Wick Road and The Walk, which doubled as a church. However, by the 1806's the local worshippers needed a larger building, this was recognised by the Provost of Eton College who still then had responsibility for Eton Wick, and by 1867 St John the Baptist, had been built and consecrated, with a lot of the financing contributed not only by Eton College, but by the people of Eton and Eton Wick - the site itself was given by Queen Victoria and she also gave £100 towards the construction costs. The architect was Sir Arthur Blomfield, whose son went on to do many designs for the War Graves Commission. The cost of the construction of the church was E1,573, and the church remained under the auspices of Eton College until 1875 when the Church of St. John the Evangelist was built in Eton. In 1891 the 'Children's Window' was installed - paid for by offerings collected at the children's services In 1892 the first licensed burial took place in the new ecumenical churchyard -that of a six week old child of the Langridge family, who were at Manor Farm at that time. In 1897 the church was licensed to conduct marriages. Mr. Kreamer then went on to speak of when the church was flooded in both 1894 and 1947, of the installation of gas lighting (1935) and subsequently electricity (1951); and of the many local activities prompted by the Church, often in competition with other local organisations.

But it is good to note that there are times when all three Churches work together; just to give two examples: all are represented at the Remembrance Day Service at St. John the Baptist; and the ladies all get together in one of the churches for the Women's World Day of Prayer.

Mr. Frank Bond thanked the speakers. He mentioned that The Pound was to be officially locked with ceremony on 12th July. The next meeting of the group will be on Wednesday, 4th September, when Mr. R.J. Clibbon will speak on 'The History of the Local Council'.

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 September edition of 1996.

Tough Assignment - Mrs Annie Tough

Mrs Tough, founder of the Eton Wick Chapel, was born Frances Annie Moore at Rotherhithe in Kent in 1853. So much of her life was bound up with Methodism and the Eton Wick chapel, and the story of this has been retold in the earlier chapters of this book, that a summary of the main events and activities must now suffice.

In 1863, aged 10, she joined the Rotherhithe Primitive Methodist Church Sunday School. At the age of 13 she was truly converted and began to learn to play the organ for the church. At the age of 17 she became a Sunday School teacher. At the age of 20 she became a member of the church and about the same time a class leader.

In 1877 she married Charles Tough and began her married life at Eton Wick. She joined the Primitive Methodist Church at Windsor and started a Sunday School at Eton Wick.

About 1882, or soon after, she began seriously to try and get a chapel in Eton Wick, and when Windsor could not help, she joined the Primitive Methodist Church at Maidenhead and started a Womens Meeting in Eton Wick.

In 1886 the chapel was built, and she became one of its first trustees. She may also have been the first society steward. About 1890 she became the assistant super-intendent of the Sunday School. In 1901 she began her work as a local preacher. Some-time before 1904 she became President of the Windsor Branch of the Women's Total Abstinence Union. In 1907 she was elected for the first time as circuit delegate to the District Meeting, and in 1916 as a delegate to the Presidential Conference.

In 1930 Frances Annie Tough died suddenly at her home at Bryanston, Moores Lane, on the 9th June. As the Rev. J Tolfree Parr said at her funeral she was remarkable woman; she was tough by name as well as by nature and has left an enduring gift to the village she came to love.

Mrs Tough

59 years as Sunday School Teacher                                                                  1873 - 1930

57 years as Church Member                                                                              1866 - 1917

51 years as Organist                                                                                          1880 - 1930

50 years as Leader of the Women's Meeting                                                     1886 - 1930

43 years as Trustee                                                                                            1886 - 1930

43 years as Society Steward                                                                              1886 - 1930

40 years as Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent of Sunday School  1890 - 1930 

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.

Tough Assignment - Annie Moore - her early life

2021 will see the the 135th anniversary of the opening of the Primitive Methodist Chapel in Alma Road in what was then Boveney Newtown. In 1986, the Chapel's centenary year local historian, Dr Judith Hunter publish A History of the Eton Wick Methodist Chapel, it was sold for £1.95 per copy.

Annie Moore - her early life

Annie and Emma Moore 

One Sunday afternoon in 1863 two small girls in Rotherhithe became so curious to know what there was to interest the many children attending the Sunday School in Union Street that they followed them into the chapel. A small event, perhaps, but one which was eventually to have far reaching results in Eton Wick. The elder of the two girls was Frances Annie Moore then only ten years old, the daughter of John Moore, a mast and oar maker. Her parents were not Methodists, but they allowed their daughters to be enrolled in the Union Street Sunday School. Annie, as she was usually called, blossomed under the teachers there, finding real joy and vocation in belonging to the church. As she grew older she became one of its most devoted workers, first as organist, then Sunday School teacher and finally class leader (a position of considerable responsibility in the Methodist Church). By this time Annie Moore was a young woman, and a wholehearted Christian who already believed it was her mission in life to win others for Christ. 

In 1877 Annie married Charles Tough, a sturdy Scotsman, who had recently been appointed manager of Bell Farm, Eton Wick. It was here that Annie was to begin her married life and a new chapter in her religious experience.

At this time Eton Wick was a very small country village, its houses - less than a hundred in number - mainly concentrated between Bell Lane and Sheepcote Road, and between the common and Eton Wick Road. Beyond this area there were several farms and farm cottages, and across the parish boundary into Boveney there was just one cottage. This was the Shepherds Hut. North and south of the public house were the Tilstone Fields, then mainly arable, but now only a nostalgic memory in a modern housing estate.

Bell Farm House illustration by Bob Jeffs

The village, though very small to the modern eye, had grown rapidly during the preceding decades; indeed it had almost doubled its population since 1840. Many of the houses facing the main road had been built only a few years before. They were good working class houses, their bright yellow bricks and purple slates contrasting strongly with the warm reds of the older houses to be seen on the common side of the village. The villagers were mostly working class folk - labourers, tradesmen and artisans, many of them finding their employment outside the village. The elite were the farmers, such as George Lillywhite of Manor Farm and John Cross, tenant at Saddocks; only they could afford servants. For several years Bell Farm had been uninhabited, but it had recently been bought by the Eton Sanitary Authority for use as a sewage farm for Eton. Charles Tough was thus more than just a farmer, and although the use of the land was such a revolutionary one locally, the farm and the house itself were amongst the oldest in the parish.

For centuries Eton Wick had been part of the parish of Eton and since the 15th century the parish church had been Eton College Chapel, with the Provost as rector. Until the 19th century the villagers had looked to Eton (or beyond) for their spiritual needs. The great religious revival and spiritual awakening that spread across the country as a result of John Wesley's preaching in the 18th century reached Eton Wick in the early 19th. There was a Methodist Society in Windsor as early as 1800 which grew and flourished, and a small Wesleyan society in Eton Wick itself for a few years in the 1830s, but it was not they, but the Windsor Congregationalists that first brought church services into the village. These services and a Sunday School were held for many years in cottages until, sometime before 1840, a barn was acquired for use as a church. It probably belonged to George Lilywhite of Manor Farm. Some years before the arrival of Mrs Tough to the village the barn was replaced by an 'iron room'. It was somewhere on the common, badly situated according to Annie Tough's own memories so that it was often difficult to reach without going ankle deep in mud. Services were held only on Sunday afternoons, and in Annie's opinion these were 'dead and lifeless' and greatly disturbed by the noises of chickens, ducks and cattle which came right to the chapel door.

OS Map of Eton Wick courtesy of National Library of Scotland

The Church of England had begun to take a far greater interest in the spiritual needs of Eton Wick after the arrival of Henry Harper at Eton College in the 1830s. He was one of the college chaplains and within a short time he had taken special responsibility for Eton Wick. Through his endeavours a small school room was built at the corner of The Walk and Eton Wick Road. It was used as a church day school and a Sunday School as well as being licenced for services. On 'Census Sunday' in 1851 eighty people attended the afternoon service and twenty eight children the Sunday School. Twenty five villagers went to the Congregational Church.

For several years the schoolroom served the village adequately as a church, but by the 1860s the increase in the population made it far too small. By 1865 the first moves had been made to build a daughter church (or chapel of ease) in the village; two years later St John the Baptist's Church was consecrated.

Not long after this, in 1875, Eton College Chapel ceased to be the parish church, the church in Eton High Street taking over this role with the Rev John Shepherd as the first vicar. Pastoral activities, which had begun in the 1830s, had greatly increased, and people in Eton Wick were now feeling the benefits of a shared curate, a district visitor and cheap nourishing food from the Eton Kitchen. Help also came from various new church charities such as the Provident Fund and the Lying-in Charity. The Eton Wick School was still a church school and in 1877 received recognition from the Government as a certified efficient school.

There were 106 children on the register and the average attendance at the Sunday School was reported as 41 boys and 51 girls. Under the auspices of the Rev John Shepherd and his workers there is no doubt that both the spiritual and pastoral responsibilities of the Eton Church towards its parishioners had increased manyfold. 

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

The Acknowledgements, Sources of information and Foreword by Ray Rowland can be found by clicking this link.

The My Primitive Methodists website has an article about Annie Tough.

The Eton Wick Newsletter - December 2014 - `Our Village' Magazine

THE MAKING OF OUR VILLAGE 

There are so many changes in a lifetime and it would not be easy to say which change has been the biggest influence of our life. It is so easy to think of advances in technology, travel and medicine, but socially perhaps education is the strong contender. Like most of my village contempories I left school when fourteen years old, and having been given the basics; proceeded to teach ourselves with experience and pursuit of personal interests. Today the extended years of schooling; often followed by university, has resulted in so much of the communities' youth leaving the village to establish their own way of life. Does that matter? It does in as much that no local young folk take over, or help to build on our established organisations.

Against this it must be admitted that many of the village's keenest workers were not local by birth or youth. This is not just a recent phenomenon. In an earlier issue I wrote of that great village benefactor, Edward Littleton Vaughan. In the early 20" Century years before WW2 he gave so generously of himself, and his money to Eton Wick. He bought two houses here, but probably never lived in either. The only dwellings built by the Council in the 1930s were the bungalows and houses we know as Vaughan Gardens; almost certainly an acknowledgement of all this Eton College classics master had meant to our village. Yet 'Toddy' as he was generally referred to, had never been a local boy. Apart from Bunce's Close, that was accorded its name; having been built on Harry Bunce's farm land of earlier years; and Bell Lane and farm that probably took its name from the Bell family who farmed the area during the 1681 and 17" Century, I can think of only two other places in Eton Wick, one a road and the other a hall, that were named after people who served the community well, yet neither had been villagers before they were adults, and almost certainly neither knew Eton Wick even existed before they were married. One was Annie Tough (nee Moore) and the other was her father John Moore; and it is from these that we get the Tough Memorial Hall and the name of Moores Lane. Who were these two people, who came to mean so much to our village and to that part of the village not even developed at that time?

We have previously read about the needs of Eton Town and College; by the mid-19" century, to improve their sewage disposal which had resulted in their purchase of the vacant Bell Farm in Eton Wick, to which they could pump the sewage. By 1870 this was in place, leaving the Authority with much farming land surplus to the sanitary requirement. The farmland had been part in old Eton Wick village and part in the Parish of Old Boveney. For the service of Eton, the sower plant was established in part of the Eton farmland boundary at Eton Wick. Previously Bell Farm had enjoyed the grazing of lammas designated ground, but now having used lammas land they owned, for the sewage plant, they were obliged to forfeit the lammas right to graze a like acreage elsewhere in the Eton Parish. 

There was still a substantial farm area, and Charles Tough of Rotherhithe, Kent was appointed manager. At about that time; 1870; several acres of the farmland across the boundary and in the Boveney Parish, was sold. Within a year or two this agricultural holding was acquired by Mr James Ayres, who seeing the shortage of building sites in Eton Wick village, parcelled-up the land, plot by plot, with provision for new roads of Alma, lnkerman and Northfield.

It was 1877 when Charles Tough arrived at Bell Farm and with him his young bride age 24 years, Annie (nee Moore). In their wake came Annie's father. John Moore, with four of his twelve offspring. Presumably all from Rotherhithe. Mrs Tough was an ardent follower of the Methodist Church, but found no such building in Eton Wick. In fact the village had only had its C of E Church, St. John the Baptist, for about 10 years (1866/7). Non-conformist services were held in a farm building by the Wesleyan Society, and later by Congregationalists c.1840s; and the C of E had held non sacramental services in the old school before their church was built. Anne probably saw this as more a challenge than a help. She became accustomed to walking to Windsor town's Methodist services on Sundays and of course walking home. A long walk in many weathers, but it was forty years before a bus service, and what we consider a shorter walk along the river banks would not perhaps have been so inviting when the towpath was just that; a muddy or dusty well-trod path for teams of large barge horses. We may think Mrs Tough would have accepted the status quo of one Sunday service in Windsor, and if more were needed, to use the C of E church. She was young, a newly wed, with a lovely old farm house to establish home for herself and Charles, but it would appear not all that Annie wanted. By the mid-1880s plots along Alma Road were being built on; some single houses; some semi-detached and others terraced.

Annie really wanted her chapel here, and without the necessary purchase money apparently appealed to Mr Ayres' generosity. Eventually Ayres reputedly said 'I'm hoping to sell two plots, and if this goes ahead he would give her a plot's. Could he have been negotiating with Annie's father. John Moore? About this time John did buy at least two substantial plots on which he had the terraced row of six dwellings known as Primrose Villas, and opposite, a shorter row of houses - Snowdrop Villas built. When the promised plot was given to Mrs Tough it was with the alleged remark For your perseverance. There was a four bedroom house built several plots east along Alma Road for a Mr Howell. He named the house 'Perseverance Place. Perhaps only coincidental, but I may be missing something here, and the obvious has escaped me.

A word here about Perseverance Place. Forty plus years later it was the home of Mr Harding and his family (1929) and the Uxbridge Gas Company Depot of which he was branch manager. In 1936 Mr Harding was asked if he could accommodate the village's district nurse whose home at the thatched bungalow in Wheatbutts orchard was no longer suitable, being without a bathroom or 'phone line. Perseverance Place was one of very few in the village which had both.

Twenty years on, and after WW2, Dr Harcourt of the Windsor surgery held three clinics a week in that house. It was demolished c1970 for part of the Bellsfield Estate. 

Annie had got her plot, but then of course needed to raise the three hundred pounds to build the chapel. The chapel site that was given to Mrs Tough had a narrow frontage and would forever give the appearance of having been squeezed between Primrose Villas and houses east.

Thanks to Annie's determination and drive, Alma Road got its Primitive Methodist Chapel in 1886. This same purpose saw her cajoling a congregation, and leading a determined drive with the village Temperance Guild. Many may well have said she epitomised all that was the chapel. She died in 1930, and within a few years an extension was added to the building and named 'The Tough Memorial Hall'. In 1932 the prefix 'Primitive' was removed, when the various Chapels became nationally united. We have seen that her father John Moore was responsible for the building of the two terraced rows in Alma Road, and for the end house of Primrose Villas abutting to the lane. (to later take his name) he had a slightly more distinctive front. This was to be his home. He had obviously been a determined and successful man in Kent, and was not hesitant to proclaim it. He wrote to the Rotherhithe press proclaiming his achievements in his new home at Boveney New Town. He was the first Highway Surveyor, School Governor and Chairman of the Boveney Council (as with Eton Wick, both had their own six person councils 1894 - 1934) the first Councillor; Guardian of the Poor and promoter of local allotments, and so it went on. He even claimed to be the first person to use a Post Office Collection Box in Boveney New Town.

By today's' thinking perhaps a little 'over the top', but it all happened over one hundred years ago - four generations - and attitudes and standards are very different. Certainly John Moore did achieve all he wanted recognition for. He was very generous within the New Boveney community and very supportive of Annie's endeavours for the chapel. At one time even purchasing a harmonium for the services. This was a very now area, and his organisational ability was undoubtedly a great asset and Inspiration to others. John Moore died in 1911; about fourteen years before his son-in-law, Charles Tough. There is no evidence of Charles ever becoming involved with his wife's abiding interest in the Methodist cause or services, but he was very supportive of all Annie did.

Most things in life have a downside if you look for it, and as a lad in the 1920s and 30s I did think the Chapel polarised the two communities to a great extent. Most of my 'contempories' living beyond Bell Lane were Chapel goers and those in Eton Wick were C of E. Each had a strong Sunday school and in consequent, Sunday school outings. I must say though that the Chapel youngsters saw the seaside for at least two summers while we at St. Johns' still had to be content with Burnham Beeches. Alright in the 20s when horse and cart was the transport, but come the coach era we yearned the longer ride. With daily bus rides to and from school, I guess today's youngsters would be attracted to nothing less than a flight or cruise. Thankfully Annie's endeavours for a Chapel are still much in evidence in today's' much changed village.

Submitted by Frank Bond 

Click here to read Our Village December 2014.

This article was originally published in the Eton Wick Newsletter - Our Village as is republished with the kind permission of the Eton Wick Village Hall Committee. Click here to go to the Collection page.

The Thames Highway volume 1 by Fred Thacker
The Thames Highway - Locks and Weirs by Fred Thacker

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Tough Assignment - The Chew Family

When Mrs Tough died in 1930, the chapel lost that driving force which had largely been responsible for it being built. The work she had started then became the responsibility of those whose lives she had influenced. One family particularly would be prominent in that work spanning the next fifty years. In human and spiritual work, the Chew family were remarkable. Their example and influence on others over many years has been considerable and far-reaching.

The Chews were largely responsible for keeping the chapel active during difficult years, and but for their dedication to the Christian work, and great love for people, along with a few others in the Eton Wick community, the chapel might not have survived. Anyone who has known them cannot help but admire those qualities that have communicated something special.

On the 14th March 1986, Joyce Chew, now Mrs Stevenson, related some of her memories of her parents and brother and sisters.

Her father, Archibald Barrows Chew, came from BryanstonSquare in West London. His parents came to live in Eton Wick in 1908. He was educated at the Regent Street Polytechnic and was a good friend of its founder and headmaster. Quintin Hogg, the grandfather of the late Lord Chancellor - Lord Hailsham. On Sunday afternoons Quintin Hogg would give talks to 'his boys' on Christianity, and in 1900 he published a book, 'The Story of Peter, the Disciple'. A copy of that book was given to Archie Chew, and inside the cover was written, "To my dear Archie with love from Q.H. Nov. 1900". Such seeds sown in those early years were to affect Archie Chew's life and be mirrored in the lives of his family and many others in the years ahead.

In 1984 when the present Lord Chancellor was speaking at St. Georges Chapel Windsor on 'Morality and the Law', he was shown this book inscribed by his grandfather, and placed an entry beneath it - eighty-four years later.

Archie Chew's parents lived at Busane, on the site where Bryanston now stands. Busane was owned by Mrs Tough. It was while visiting his parents at Eton Wick that Archie met Miss Annie Frances Moore, known as Dolly. She was a strikingly attractive young lady. When Archie Chew finished his schooling, he went into business and spent his whole working life as a wholesale woollen merchant in London's Golden Square. Annie Frances Moore was born in August 1886 and was the fourth of six children, and the first daughter of Alfred Moore. She lived at Bell Farm until she married, having been fostered by Annie and Charles Tough. In the same way that Archie Chew's life had been influenced and directed along Christian paths, so Annie Moore was influenced by the Toughs, and it was to be this unique combination of Christian principle and example that would help sustain the chapel continuously for a period of time spanning more than seventy years.

In 1910 Archie Chew and Annie Moore were married in the chapel, and moved to Hanwell, where their first two children - Mabel and Sylvia were born. They then moved to Chalvey Park at Slough, where Joyce was born in 1916. While at Slough, Archie and Annie attended and assisted at the Methodist Church in William Street. They finally moved to Eton Wick in 1918 where their last two children were born, Clifford in 1917 at Bell Farm, and Miriam at Brookside in 1919.

Miss Winifred Jewel moved in with the Chews when Miriam was a baby, and this help enabled Mrs Chew to devote more time to the chapel. Annie had been Sunday School Superintendent while Mrs Tough was alive and when Mrs Tough died, Annie Chew took over the chapel reins and became the new driving force for Christianity.

Archie Chew's faith was much simpler than that of his wife. If the children were found doing something wrong, their father would get them to pray about it, as he would pray for finding something like a lost key. Archie found his strength through prayer. In the later years when the regular Chapel Prayer Meetings began at 6 pm, anyone hearing the prayers of Sylvia, Joyce, and Harry Cook, found themselves in the engine room of our Christian experience and faith. It was this simple faith and belief in praying about all things that was the foundation and strength of Archie Chew, and his example reflected onto his children, and from them onto many others. In contrast Annie Chew's faith was much more questioning and theological, complementing her husband's.

Archie Chew did not have a strong physical constitution, and always had diet difficulties. This weak constitution prevented him from doing much physical work, and he encouraged his children to help with gardening etc. He worked long hours in London arriving back home late most evenings. Sometimes he was away for several days on business - an absence he disliked. The children always enjoyed Bank Holidays with their father home, for he was a happy man when with his family and could quickly throw off business worries. He continuously emphasised good morals and principles.

Businessman, family man and chapel leader, Archibald Chew still found time to work for the wider community. He served on the Board of Governors of Dorney School, and as a Councillor on the Eton Urban District Council. With John Smith, the surveyor, he was largely responsible for the inclusion of the excellent open space in Moores Lane. People in Eton Wick village are indebted to such vision. He was also the first chairman of the Eton Wick Allotment Association.

In 1938 Archie Chew retired from business, but when war broke out in 1939, he soon became involved in war work. He was responsible for the collection of such materials as old iron and paper, which were stored in the cottages which then stood at the corner of Bell Lane and Alma Road. Mr and Mrs Chew became the Evacuation Officers for the village, a difficult and time-consuming job, particularly if the children were not happy in their allotted homes.

Archie Chew died in 1943 after a long illness and several operations. His family knew that he was unlikely to recover, and all believed that he did not know himself how seriously ill he was. But even unknown to them he would discuss his health problems with his young friend Harry Cook long before he died. During his last days in Edward VII Hospital at Windsor, Archie asked for all his family to join him in prayer, and openly prayed that he would not be long for this world - the first indication to them that he knew he was dying. Despite this tragic loss to the family and the Eton Wick Community, Annie Chew carried on positively, and was elected as a Councillor, taking over from her husband.

Meanwhile their eldest daughter, Mabel, had become a civil servant, and in 1936 married Dr William Templeman, a brilliant scientist with ICI, who pioneered research into chemicals for weed control and increased crop productions. He was also a Methodist local preacher and circuit steward in the Windsor and Maidenhead Circuit. For his researches he received the OBE.

The second daughter Sylvia, worked for the Prudential Assurance Company as a sick visitor making reports on claimants. She was engaged to be married for a time, but this was broken off, and she continued her work and to help in the task of running the home and assisting her mother. Her lob with the Prudential was eventually taken over by the Civil Service.

The third and fourth children, Joyce and Clifford, both joined ICI, and during this time Clifford became best man at the wedding of his friend Bernard Stevenson. Many years later after becoming a widower, Bernard was to remarry in 1984, his former best man's sister, Joyce Chew.

When war broke out in 1939, Clifford joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve as a pilot, and completed a tour of operational duty with Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain. He was commissioned in 1942 and was entitled to wear the ribbon of the 1939/43 star. In June 1944 Clifford was awarded the Air Force Cross for a deed of remarkable bravery in bringing an aircraft which was on fire safely to the ground. By so doing the whole crew was able to jump clear without injury.

Clifford Chew

Joyce joined the Wrens in 1942 as a transport driver. Miriam the youngest, went nursing at Reading's Royal Berkshire Hospital.

In March 1945 Mrs Chew received the devastating news that her son was missing. He was 27 years of age. Flight Lieutenant Chew was shot down while flying paratroops across the Rhine. The other members of his crew managed to get clear of the aircraft, but he was unable to bale out in time and his body was afterwards recovered by British troops and given fitting last honours.

Annie almost lost her faith. She had been so positive that God would take care of her son and felt let down that He had failed her. During this critical and very stressful time, Annie was well supported by Sylvia, and without the great support and strength of character of her fine daughter, she may not have regained her faith. Clifford's death was later confirmed, and the returning of his wallet and New Testament sealed his passing. He is now buried in a war grave in Luxembourg.

After the war Joyce left the Wrens and in 1946 returned to ICI and again took up work with the chapel. On the death of her father Sylvia had taken over the jobs of Trust secretary and treasurer, and now on being demobbed Joyce took them over from Sylvia. Miriam returned to nursing after working for a short period for ICI and the Great Western Railway. She later married John Harrison and moved to Taunton in Somerset.

In the 1950s Mrs Chew moved to London to help look after relatives - Uncle Russell (Mr Russell Smith) and his wife. Sylvia moved to Oxford to work for the Civil Service. Only Joyce remained at Bryanston. Later in the 1950s Mrs Chew, Uncle Russell, Sylvia, and Miriam, all returned to Bryanston to re-unite the family.

In 1964 Mabel died after suffering a stroke and two years later Mrs Chew died after much worrying about her eldest daughter. Dr Bill Templeman died in 1968.

The work of the chapel however, had to continue, and Sylvia, Joyce and Harry Cook, undoubtedly kept the chapel going by their personal commitment and Christian leadership from the 1960s onwards. Sylvia and Joyce were-both treasurer and secretary of the chapel over a period of at least forty years. For more than twenty of these Joyce was also organist, having had only two years tuition. Both daughters were involved with the Sunday School from a very young age. Mrs Tough encouraged Joyce into Sunday School teaching when she was only twelve. Today Joyce is President of the Chapel Sisterhood and President of the Circuit Womens Fellowship. Sylvia was the Chapel Overseas Mission's Secretary for many years, and it was largely her inspiration and leadership that earned such good support for this work. Between 1966 and 1980 Sylvia was also a superb President of the Chapel Sisterhood (Womens Meeting), started by Mrs Tough some eighty years earlier. She was a supreme organiser and visitor, totally caring, and the most unselfish person you could ever meet. She was very like her father.

When Sylvia died suddenly in her little cottage next to the chapel, it was felt by the whole community, and the number that attended her funeral was a testimony of the affection and respect in which she was held. She was a very rare lady.

The 1960s and 1970s were the years of the garden parties at Bryanston for Missions, summer mystery drives ended at Burnham Beeches with 'Bangers and Mash', and community singing among the trees on beautiful Summer evenings. The sound of hymn 414 still rings in the mind - "We thank thee Lord for this fair earth'.

When one looks at the early years of the Chew family it is not surprising that the Christian influence of the parents made deep and lasting impressions on the children as they lived out their discipleship within their own family. Thus, was sustained a Christian influence in this village that has lasted more than a hundred years - from the coming of Mrs Tough in 1877, the birth of the chapel and Annie Moore in 1886, until today and beyond for Joyce is still with us. She still plays the organ - a prayer in sound - and is a much-loved church steward. In mother and daughter, we have a unique hundred-year link in the life of this chapel.

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.

Mabel, Sylvia, Clifford, Miriam, Joyce, 

Archibald and Annie Chew.

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.

Tough Assignment - 1914 to 1930

The First World War took men from Eton Wick as it did from every other village and town in the country, and amongst the first four men from the Maidenhead Circuit who lost their lives was George Boulton of Eton Wick. His name was sent with others to be remembered at the Conference Memorial Service in March 1916. No doubt members of the chapel took part in the war effort, but such things do not figure in the minutes. In 1917, however, society stewards were asked to supply the names of all who had volunteered for active service so that these could be placed on a roll of honour to be hung in the vestibule of each chapel. In June 1919 the minister wrote to the men who returned welcoming them into the fellowship of the church.

Temperance was still a live issue in the Primitive Methodist Church and special temperance services were regular events. In December 1919 it was resolved that once again the circuit would do all it could to further the temperance cause. In the years 1921 and 1922 there was a national Primitive Methodist Campaign, part of a much larger national effort involving other churches and organisations and the Government. One of the important issues was the sale of alcohol to young people and from the successful Act of 1923, spearheaded by Lady Astor of Cliveden, stems our present licencing law which makes it illegal to sell alcoholic drinks to people under the age of 18.

Two years later a new Band of Hope was started in Eton Wick by Mrs Annie Chew. 

This is one of the earliest references to Mrs Chew in the surviving records of the circuit and chapel. She was born in 1886, the same year as the chapel was built, and from the age of two she lived with her aunt, Annie Tough, at Bell Farm. She left Eton Wick in 1910 soon after her marriage to Archibald Chew, but returned in the early 1920s, and both she and her husband soon began to take an active part in chapel affairs. She was a Sunday School teacher, one of several in the 1920s, for the Sunday School had grown so large that it had spread into the chapel, with the various classes for boys and girls being held in the different corners. Mrs Lane's was by the organ. Morning and afternoon Sunday School, anniversary services, examinations and the Christmas party were all part of the Sunday School calendar, but perhaps the highlight of the year was the outing to Burnham Beeches. Mr Dear's horse-drawn coal cart was scrubbed clean and forms from the chapel made seats for the youngest children. The older ones walked, helped on the way no doubt by the sweets given by Mrs Tough and the singing:

'We're going to Burnham Beeches.'

In this jet age the Beeches seem nothing very special, but then they 'seemed so far away' and the day with its picnic and races, and a chance to explore the woods a magical time. Ferns and wild flowers were gathered and the cart decorated for the homeward journey.

Although the names of the children who attended Sunday School at this period are not known, the class book for 1927 to 1933, survives. There are 18 names on the first page, all but one of them women. The chapel had its own choir with Mr Barnes a very able choir-master. Socials, concerts and many other money raising events still took place and in the words of one elderly member 'it seems we had something going every week.' For many people the chapel was their social centre.

The chapel was now some forty years old and inevitably there had been many losses of valued members over the years through change of residence or death. In 1924 Frank Paintin died, his loss to the circuit and chapel is recorded in the pastoral letter of the Rev Daniel Dunn in the circuit plan for the winter months of that year. Emma Lane, John Lane's widow, died in 1926; she had been a devoted worker for nigh on fifty years and assistant society steward since the death of her husband some thirteen years before. Kate Bryant, much remembered as a Sunday School teacher, died in 1928 and for many years after this the chapel benefitted by the gas lamps on the pulpit, given in her memory.

Charles Tough

Charles Tough was neither a member of the chapel or even an occasional worshipper there but in 1925 his loss was keenly felt in the chapel and circuit. The Rev Daniel Dunn wrote of him, 'He made little outward profession of religion, but he inspired a rare respect and affection in hundreds of people  he welcomed our Ministers and Local Preachers to the hospitality of his home. 

What will it feel like to go to Eton Wick to many of us, and not go to Bell Farm and share a homely and happy meal and chat with him, and a prayer before leaving the home'. His funeral was conducted by two men he knew for many years, the Rev Frank Tarrant, by now a Congregational Minister in Windsor, and the Rev William Folley, then a Primitive Methodist Minister in London.

Letters of sympathy were sent by the minister whenever the death of a member of one of the chapels, or their families, occasioned the need, but only once in the forty years for which the circuit minutes survive was a special resolution passed to record such a loss. This rare honour was reserved for Frances Annie Tough.

'Resolution on Mrs Tough

That we record with deep regret the passing of Mrs F A Tough of Eton Wick. We rejoice in her long association with Primitive Methodism, first in Rotherhithe, and for the last 50 years at Eton Wick, which cause owes its existence to her initiative and enterprise, and the history of which is intertwined with her own life. She served in many capacities with great acceptance - as organist, Sunday School Teacher and Superintendent, Temperance worker, President of Women's Own, Trustee - and the larger interests of the Circuit and Connexion as an acceptable and warming Preacher of the Gospel. She was a woman of strong personality, abounding vitality, radiant faith. We rejoice she was enabled to do so long a day's work for Christ and Church and Kingdom, and that she was permitted to be active to the last. She had entered into a well earned rest, and her memory will be present amongst us for many days to come. To the relatives of Mrs Tough in their great loss we would extend our heartfelt sympathy'.

The funeral service was conducted by the Rev J Tolfree Parr, ex-President of the Primitive Methodist Conference and an old friend of Mrs Tough. His tribute to her filled several column inches in the Windsor and Eton Express under the title, 'Story of a Remarkable Lady'. The chapel was filled to overflowing and when the funeral cortege made its way to the churchyard the Eton Wick Road rang with the sound of the congregation singing hymns.

Her death, at the age of 67 came suddenly on 9th June 1930, and the whole village, whether Methodist or not, soon missed her presence. There was no one in Eton Wick who did not know of her and many still remember her robust figure, always clothed in black or very dark colours, and her high hat and long swirling skirts. Ardent Christian and with a great love, not only for Christ, but for those around her, she was a very forceful character, more than a little imperious at times, and not all will have loved her or even liked working with her - but few could ignore her. With her death a chapter in the history of the chapel ends.

I pray Thee, Saviour, keep

Me in Thy love,

Until death's holy sleep

Shall me remove

To that fair realm where, sin and sorrow o'er,

Thou and mine own are one far

evermore. Amen.

Charles Edward Mudie, 1818-90.

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.