The Eton Wick Newsletter - December 2013 - `Our Village' Magazine

Have you given thought to our village magazine; to what prompted its publication, to the work involved and to the support needed to keep it going? 

The first issue was in April 2008 and has been distributed to every household in the village, from the railway viaduct to the Dorney Common Gate free of charge, three times annually since. It was the brainchild of the Village Hall Committee and prompted by an original idea in 1949. At that time the Village Hall was known as the 'Stute', being of course an abbreviation for The Eton Wick and Boveney Institute. It was just a brief few years since some state of normality had returned to the communities following an almost 6 years of war upheaval. In 1949 and again in 1951 the 'Stute' committee under its chairman, local builder Jim Ireland, produced a magazine titled 'Our Village' at 6 pence an issue.

They were produced on a duplicator and hand stapled together. The two issues, although quite 'tatty' in today's comparison, are surely now very collectable. The second issue has adverts for most of the then new council built shops to open in 1951, along the top of 'Meux the Brewers' Field, adjoining The Shepherds Hut public house. That issue also contained an article on Bell Farm, submitted by Mrs Smith, the wife of John, who was the Eton Urban Surveyor and responsible for the layout and design of the early post war council housing in the village. Mr & Mrs Smith lived in Bell Farm for several years. Here is the article: 

Bell Farm — Modern discoveries in our village — Do you know that in your own village of Eton Wick you have one of the oldest buildings in Buckinghamshire?

Built around 1360 Bell Farm still retains most of its original structure inside a comparatively modem front. The original beams and arches are still in a wonderful state of preservation. According to its history two rooms were added on the North side in 1580. Although covered by several coats of paint, gentle scraping reveals fine old oak panels mellowed by time. It is in the lower of these rooms, known as the parlour, that our most interesting 'find' has been revealed. For the past two years there have been falls of what resembled builder's rubble down the chimney, and when strong smells of something burning had been haunting the house for a month or so we decided to investigate. So one evening, having removed the furniture and rolled up the carpet we removed the broken Victorian fireplace. Result — clouds of dust, loads of bricks, birds' nests and soot. When the dust finally subsided there was a lovely Tudor arch, the original, in a miraculous state of preservation. 

So yet another example of the wonderful craftsmanship of the past has come to light and the arch forms part of our repaired fireplace. When the room is entered the light falls on the bricks which have retained their delicate colouring for the past 370 years, and are still a joy to look at in 1951. 

Article submitted by Frank Bond 

Frank Bond recalls discussing Bell Farm and the 'Parlour' room with Mrs Smith some 50 or 60 years ago, and suggests she may have been careful in her article respecting her Mother's views. Apparently Mrs Smith often felt the presence of 'another' when in the room alone. She never spoke of this to her Mother who was living at Bell Farm. 

Come one occasion when Mr and Mrs Smith were going out one evening and Mrs Smith said to her Mother "I hope you do not mind being left alone." Back came the reply "I am never alone in that room, and the presence of another who is always kind and friendly." This helped prompt the chimney disturbance, ever mindful of what they might find. 

Beverley Campion, the now resident of Bell Farm House, writes 

"I can confirm that neither of my late parents nor I have ever seen or been aware of any ghostly presence, but that the house has always had a warm friendly atmosphere, so if the spirits of previous residents are still here they have never seemed to mind sharing the house with us. There were however some nasty "spells" in the inglenook fireplace when we moved in, indicating some kind of witchcraft perhaps - which we simply burned, but as each of us suffered misfortunes in the years immediately succeeding, I would not discount the power of witchcraft.......  

Beverley also advised that according to Berkshire County Council's Head of Conservation in the early seventies, when boundary changes put Eton and Eton Wick into Berkshire, Bell Farm House is the oldest house in Berkshire. (Apparently it was the sixth oldest when in Buckinghamshire). Also. that when they bought the house in 1959, they were told that the two back rooms were added during the reign of Henry VIII (1509 - 1547), not in 1580 as Mrs Smith thought. 

The Smiths had told about the 'Parlour' fireplace and it is still possible to see the Tudor arch brickwork made up of tiny bricks, now supported by a modern brick fireplace. There is an equally interesting story about the Inglenook fireplace in what is now the sitting room. Apparently this had had a Victorian fireplace, but whilst it was being redecorated, the Smiths were banging about and realised there was a hollow sound, indicating there must be a space behind it, so they took the Victorian fireplace down and revealed the inglenook fireplace and what was left of the bread ovens. Beverley doesn't think this inglenook was originally in the house but believes she read somewhere that this was added when the house was over 100 years old, so would presume it was originally a mediaeval 'Hall House' with a smoky fire in the middle of the floor of what is now their front hall. 

Squirrels recently got into the roof of the Tudor bedroom and chewed holes in the fibre board ceiling. Contractors removing these chewed panels revealed magnificent beams, which also showed that the roof has been heightened at some time. The lower beams had small nail holes in them, indicating that laths had been nailed to these, so there must always have been a lath and plaster ceiling in that bedroom, whereas all the other bedrooms have exposed beams which go right up into the roof as there is no loft. This must mean that the beams in this room have never been exposed. Now that she has seen them Beverley wishes she could afford to have the fibre board removed and expose these magnificent beams. 

Our thanks to Beverley Campion for these added anecdotes.

Click here to read Our Village December 2013.

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 Impact of the Eton Union Sanitary Authority

Bell Farm at the edge of the Parish of Eton

Nineteenth-century reform took another turn locally in 1849 with the formation of the Eton Urban Sanitary Authority, or Local Health Board as it was also known. Eton Wick was not included and thus the village was not subject to the Authority's new by-laws or supervision by its new officials and committees the Inspector of Nuisances, the Medical Officer, Street Committee and others. Perhaps the villagers were relieved that they were outside this control, but of course they did not benefit from the steady improvements in sanitary conditions which were the aim of the Board - an increase in privies for cottages, the removal of manure heaps and pigsties from close proximity to houses and laying of new drains.  For another sixty years or more the village had to manage with bucket toilets and cesspits while the Eton Sewage Farm lay at their backdoor.

Bell Farm was bought from William Goddard in 1870 for the sewage farm, and the land freed from lammas rights in the early months of the following year. Compensation for this loss of rights was negotiated by a committee appointed at a meeting of persons entitled to commonable rights and included George Lillywhite of Manor Farm. However, it was to be six years before Mr Tough took up his appointment as manager.  Perhaps this was the remaining length of the lease of Mr Aldridge, farmer of Cippenham Court and tenant of Bell Farm. Not all the land was needed for the disposal of sewage, and year after year in the Minute Books of the Authority an inventory of produce, livestock and implements is given.

In earlier years after the initial purchase, some of the land was sold, but under the management of Mr Tough the farm prospered and more land was leased. The farm continued to give employment to workers from the village and indeed treated them well, as judged by a decision of 1881 to pay a man who broke his ankle at work the then princely sum of 8s 6d a week while he was off sick.

Perhaps the achievement of the Board which must have given rise to the most bitter feelings in the village was the building of the Cottage  Hospital. The story began with a young man of Meadow Lane who had the misfortune to catch smallpox, but who was determined to not be considered a pauper and so be sent to the Workhouse Infirmary at Slough. There was nowhere in the parish where he could be isolated and treated. Medical help could be obtained from the Windsor Dispensary, thus putting at risk other patients. The disease did spread, not in Windsor, but in Eton itself.  It was not yet possible to prevent such outbreaks, but it was now understood how they could be contained by isolating the patients. The need for an Infectious Diseases Hospital was now obvious to members of the Board.

Plans were drawn up, sites inspected and central authorities consulted; so much is clear from the Minute Books, but underneath the meagre statements is the hint of conflict between the Board and the village. Plans for converting the Bell Farm Cottages into a room for the nurses and living quarters for a caretaker were well ahead and negotiations were progressing towards the purchase of the adjoining land, when suddenly there was a change of mind and suggestions of the inadvisability of building a hospital so near the village.  An alternative site was found on the Board's own land between Bell Farm and Saddocks, quite isolated from other houses.  By 1883 the building was completed and its first matron, a Mrs Sarah Hopkins, was engaged at £40 per annum. A brougham was bought to do duty as ambulance and the latest disinfecting    apparatus in-stalled. By May, 1884 the first patients were accepted, a mother and her three children, all suffering from smallpox.- Did they recover ? We do not know.  

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

Bell Farm, Eton Wick

Bell Farm, it was enlarged by the Bell family in the 16th and 17th centuries.

This photograph of Bell Farm House, taken at the turn of the 19th century, shows farm manager Charles Tough with a shot gun on his lap and a black gun dog sitting at his feet. Presumably the shot gun is pointing somewhere between his wife Annie seated opposite, and the unidentified man seated in the doorway. Charles and Annie came to Eton Wick from Kent. Charles had been appointed by the Council to manage their recently acquired farm, the fields of which were primarily to be used as the Eton Sewage Farm. Annie was the major driving force behind the building of the Methodist Chapel in nearby Alma Road in 1886. Bell Farm House was the home of several generations of the Bell family, who were major property owners and farmers in and around the district during the 16th and 17th centuries. The house is circa 1360 in origin and is timber framed with brick infilling. There have been many alterations over the centuries. In the mid-1850s, the south elevation was tile hung and a Victorian porch replaced the gabled mediaeval bell tower. It is a Grade II* Listed Building. 

Location of Bell Farm

Eton Wick Newsletter - Our Village December 2008

Eton Wick and its development: Going West  

Boveney Newtown 1870 —1945

We have previously seen how Eton Wick grew — at first with the farms taking the less floodable land to the north and later in the 18th and 19th centuries homes being established along the south side of Common Road where tenants had the advantage of the stream for water and ponds for their ducks. They could only build between Sheepcote and Bell Lane — approximately 250 metres — because Crown. Common and Lammas lands stretched to the east and south, while west of Bell Lane was in the different parish of Burnham.

In the mid 19th Century the long gardens of the Common Road homes were sold for the development of houses along Eton Wick Roads' northside. The Walk was developed in early 20th Century, as was The Institute (now The Village Hall). Known as the 'Stute' it was the only building south of Eton Wick Road until after 1950, when Haywards Mead and St. Gilberts R. C Church were built on former allotments. West of Bell Lane the main road was known as Tilston Lane and until the 1880's there were only two tracks off Tilston Lane, being Bell Lane and what later became Moores Lane. The few buildings consisted of The Shepherd's Hut public house and a couple of Bell Farm labourer's cottages off Bell Lane.

In 1870 Eton, faced with a sewage problem, purchased Bell Farm from William Goddard and established a sewage farm as part of the farm land within the Eton Wick boundary. Many acres of Bell Farm were in fact outside the boundary and in the parish of Burnham, and was excess of their needs for the sewage and a dairy farm. The excess was most of the land between Bell Lane and present day Moores Lane. Retaining one full length field along Tilston Lane (main road) and opposite The Shepherd's Hut, the Council then sold the remainder to Arthur Bott of Common Road. Unfortunately Bott was now overstretched financially so he sold the land to James Ayres in 1880. James Ayres was listed as a market Gardener and not quite perhaps the image of the shrewd business man he proved to be. Meanwhile the Council engaged Charles Tough as farm manager. His young bride (Annie) nee Moore, together with her newly domiciled father, John Moore, were to play a lasting role in the future village affairs. Pardon the pun, but more about the Moores' at a future time.

James Ayres acquisition resulted in the laying out of Alma and Inkerman roads, followed by that of Northfield. Plot by plot he sold off the land, some for terraced homes, others for semi and detached houses, until within two decades a new community had sprung up covering his purchased enterprise. Not Eton Wick, this community, built in Burnham Parish. was named Boveney Newtown, for obvious reasons. In 1894 it had its own council as in fact did Eton Wick, both independent of each other and of Eton. This lasted for 40 years.

Just as Bell Lane had for so long been Eton Wick's barrier to building, now Moores Lane proved to be Boveney Newtown's barrier until after World War 2. This haste to build from 1880 triggered off other developments along the south side of the main road to Roundmoor ditch (Dorney Common Gate) and also the beginning of Victoria Road, at that time a Cul de sac, with its long. new terraced row. This area was known as `Klondyke: and was part of the Tilston Fields, largely owned by the Palmer family of Dorney. In fact the terraced row and some of those main road houses were built for the land owner who duly sold them. By the early 20th Century the land south of Victoria Road became holdings for two or three families. The holdings reached down to the Boveney Ditch and were quite extensive. In the centre was Mr Hill, who established a small engineering and repair works which by 1920's was sold to William Hearn for his motor taxi business which operated in Eton. Hence the present day engineering works, which came before most of the houses around it.

To the west of Victoria Road came the Nuth family. George was a well known village character with his animals, large mobile home, swing boats and coconut shy hire. These sites were to be used for Queens Road and Cornwall Close respectively, about 60 years later.

Leeson Gardens were built in the early 1930's: the west side of Tilston Avenue in the later 1930's. Vaughan Gardens were built in the late 1930's in the centre of that long field opposite The Shepherd's Hut that Bell Farm had retained in 1880 when they sold the large site. Although Eton Wick and Newtown, with Klondyke, were united in 1934 the old rights of Lammas and Commons still excluded those living along or west of Bell Lane.

The only WW2 development was the building of twelve prefabricated bungalows c.1944-5 east of Vaughan Gardens — now the site of Bell Lane shops.

Post WW2 developments both by Council or private were largely north and west of the main road and Moores Lane. We will cover those and other post war developments in a later issue.

This article by Frank Bond was published in the December 2008 issue of Our Village.

Note – The engineering works mentioned was replaced by houses in 2014. http://publicaccess.rbwm.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=N2OUOJNI0NO00

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.

Bell Farm House

This photograph of Bell Farm House, taken at the turn of the 19th century, shows farm manager Charles Tough with a shot gun on his lap and a black gun dog sitting at his feet. Presumably, the shotgun is pointing somewhere between his wife Annie seated opposite, and the unidentified man seated in the doorway. Charles and Annie came to Eton Wick from Kent. Charles had been appointed by the Council to manage their recently acquired farm, the fields of which were primarily to be used as the Eton Sewage Farm. Annie was the major driving force behind the building of the Methodist Chapel in nearby Alma Road in 1886.

Bell Farm House was the home of several generations of the Bell family, who were major property owners and farmers in and around the district during the 16th and 17th centuries. The house is circa 1360 in origin and is timber-framed with brick infilling. There have been many alterations over the centuries. In the mid-1850s, the south elevation was tile hung and a Victorian porch replaced the gabled mediaeval bell tower. It is a Grade II Listed Building.

The 14th century Granary belonging to Bell Farm House was converted to living accommodation in 1963. As part of the conversion the pigsties beneath the granary (see top photograph) were made into garages. Bricks were turned weather face inside, and the whole timber frame raised to comply with Building Regulations.

A clipping for the sale of Bell Farm estate. The description of the properties that were then part of the estate (including Prospect Place) and the names of the occupiers makes interesting reading. The reference to 'newly built' Prospect Place dates this to the 1830s.

This is an excerpt from A photographic history of Eton Wick & Eton first publish in 2000. 

Copywrite Eton Wick History Group.

A brief history of Eton Wick

For hundreds of years Eton Wick of Eton Wick depended largely on Eton College and town for employment and trade. Fuel and produce was supplied to the town before the coming of Eton College in the mid-15th century, and to both town and college later. Local school boys were educated at Eton Porny School until 1939 when Slough and Eton (C of E) Secondary School in Slough was built. By the end of the 20th century, the development of Slough Trading Estate and other industries and services, and the vast improvements in transport had virtually severed this historic link.

Little more than a century ago, Eton Wick was being spoken and written of as a hamlet. Perhaps a fair description, as in 1841 there were only 62 houses in Eton Wick, and as recorded in Dr Judith Hunter's excellent book "The Story of A village: Eton Wick 1217 - 1977", this was three times the number existing 40 years earlier. These early dwellings were built on the marginally higher ground to the north of today's village; perhaps not noticeably much higher, but occupiers of those houses would testify to the importance of the extra inches during years of flood. Some villagers can still remember March 1947, when many homes were flooded, and yet the farm houses to the north, although surrounded by the flood waters, remained high and dry.

The growth of Eton Wick came about in spasmodic bursts and was always influenced and restricted by Lammas regulations and the parish boundary. The areas south and east of Eton Wick were Lammas and Common lands, just as they are today. Land to the west of Bell Lane was in the parish of Burnham and much of it belonged to the Palmer family of Dorney, or was part of Bell Farm. Bell Farm House itself lies just east of the boundary. The cottages built mainly for the farm workers, Bell Cottages and Bell Farm Cottages, were across the boundary in Burnham parish (it is said that the latter Cottages straddled the boundary line). It is likely at this time, in the mid-10th century, that the only other dwelling west of Bell Lane was the Shepherds Hut public house.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, most of Eton Wick development was along Common Road between Wheatbutts Field and Sheepcote Road, which was then only a gated muddy farm track. These early cottages had very long gardens or smallholdings, stretching in most cases from the building itself to today's main Eton Wick Road. The buildings backed onto Common Road, giving ready access to the stream and ponds, and the common, on which many inhabitants and livestock depended.  

A few exceptions, built on the main road, included the Three Horseshoes public house and a terrace of ten small dwellings called Prospect Place (built 1833) with their gardens running down to the common. By the mid-19th century, Eton Wick population had risen from 100 to 300. Numbers were to increase in the 1860s when the long gardens and other available infill sites were built on. Many of these houses can be seen along the main road today, with construction date plaques on them such as Palmer Place, St Leonard's Place, etc. By 1880 the population of Eton Wick was approximately 500, but there was now very little land available within the old village for further growth.

 The next big surge of building came in the 1880s to 1890s, west of the Parish of Eton Wick, when land formerly part of Bell Farm was made available for housing development. The residential area was known as Boveney New Town, and comprised of Alma, Inkerman and North Field Roads. It had its own parish council, and soon housed a population of 500, equalling that of Eton Wick parish. Both Parish Councils were then independent of Eton, and the two communities were conscious of their own identities, although very much inter-dependent.

Later, new organisations and infrastructures adopted the combined two-parish title; for example Eton Wick and Boveney Scouts, Eton Wick and Boveney War Memorial and Eton Wick and Boveney Institute (later re-named Eton Wick Hall). In addition to this new development north of the main Eton Wick Road, a few houses were built along the main road in the 1890s, and to the south, Sir Charles Palmer of Dorney developed a long row of terraced houses in Victoria Road.

Possibly the biggest incremental step in population came between World War II and the late 1960s, by which time the population was approaching 3000. Much of the post-war building development was carried out by the Eton Urban District Council (Eton Wick, which by now included Boveney New Town, lost its independent council in 1934). The new building covered Tilstone Field, the allotments which laid between Moore's Lane and the cattle gate to Dorney Common.  Privately owned dwellings were built on orchards and pigsties south of Victoria Road and Tilstone; older dwellings along Common and Sheepcote Roads were demolished to make way for houses and flats, bringing the population to much the same size as it is today.

An important feature of Eton Wick has always been its surrounding Common and Lammas lands, the Rights of which have been jealously guarded over the years. In 1965 these lands were registered under the Commons Registration Act and it is only with the consent of the Secretary of State for the Environment that such lands can be released for development.

Frank Bond, Eton Wick History Group

Farmhouses and Cottages

   At the close of the Middle Ages many houses in the village, the homes of ordinary villagers, would have been poor affairs, huts which could be built or demolished in a day.  But not all, for those who could afford it built in timber with an infilling of wattle and daub.  Bell Farm has already been mentioned and there were certainly others, though none has survived.  It is difficult to be sure which modern houses now stand on their sites. However, the Tudor-Stuart period from about 1550 to 1640 was a time of prosperity for a considerable portion of the population. In the country this meant the landowners, the farmers and the more successful cottagers. They left their mark on the countryside in the very pleasing shape of many new or enlarged homes. Eton Wick shared in this building boom.   Exactly how many houses were built or improved is not known, but at least eight cottages were built in the years immediately prior to 1605 when this was reported to the Crown Commissioners.      Unfortunately it has not proved possible to identify these cottages, but ten timber-framed houses survived into this century and five are still standing today.

   Bell Farm was almost certainly enlarged by the Bell family, who lived there in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. They were undoubtedly responsible for the addition of the great chimney stack on the west, and for the parlour on the north side with its own stack. The fireplace of the parlour, with its lovely Tudor arch, was rediscovered in the 1950's. No longer was it necessary for the smoke to swirl around the rafters before finding its way out through a hole in the roof. The old hall could be ceiled over, giving another upstairs room, and a new staircase was built. One can still see many of the old beams and roof trusses in the bedrooms, and an original medieval window with two delightful trefoil lights has survived, though it must have been blocked ever since the parlour was built.

   The Bell family was a large and prosperous one, farmers and gentlemen as their wills and other records testify. Their names are frequently found in deeds and parish records for over a hundred years until the second half of the seventeenth century when all mention of them ceases in connection with Eton Wick except in the past tense.  At the height of their importance locally they owned property in Eton town and were the owners and not the tenants of Bell Farm. A Joan Bell leased 'a fishery in the chapel waters at Boveney in 1578 and a Richard Bell was still in possession of this some thirty years later. In 1605 Henry Bell was tenant of Saddocks Farm and his brother Matthew of Mustians. About 1600 Henry Bell bought the manor house at Chalvey which he still owned in 1612 though not when he died. In 1641 there was a Thomas Bell at Chalvey and about the same time different members of the Bell family were farming Bell, Saddocks and Mustians Farms. The farmhouse of the last stood on the south side of Common Lane, but its land stretched into Eton Wick.

   Of the five timber buildings only Little Common Farmhouse still shows its timber frame. It must have been built in the seventeenth century when, so it was thought, there was a shortage of timber because of the increased use of charcoal (for iron-smelting) and for shipbuilding. This meant that the house wrights not only left wider spaces between the vertical posts but also made greater use of odd shaped pieces of wood and re-used old timbers.  In Little Common Farmhouse the curved timbers on the front and back of the house have clearly been used before for each has a series of narrow groves along its length. Until the house was enlarged this century it had probably remained little altered , with its two rooms up and down and one large chimney. It was probably never the home of a farmer until recent times, but that of a husbandman or smallholder who rented his few acres in the common fields.

   On the other side of the Little Common is the house known as Long Close. It is now encased in bricks, its timber frame and its beaten earth floor was not covered until after the First World War. Even then in the living room red tiles were laid directly on to the earth until this was altered in the 1970's. Beams can now only be seen in the ceilings, but many more were exposed during those alterations; the thin red bricks of a chimney breast suggested that it was built or enlarged during the Tudor period.

   On the south side of the Great Common stands Crown Farmhouse, probably the oldest house in the village still used as a farmhouse. Despite the name its connections with the Crown Estates was quite short, merely from 1864 to 1932. Its timber frame is visible only on the inside, but the thick studs and beams, low ceilings and absence of jettying all indicate it was built in the early seventeenth century.  Since then, as the fortunes of its owners and tenants prospered it was altered or enlarged and encased in a shell of plaster and warm red bricks. Some of these alterations undoubtedly took place when it was occupied by one of the Tarrant family. A Robert Tarrant first became tenant about 1800 and one or more of the family have lived there for most of the years since. They have lived in Eton Wick for over two hundred years, the earliest discovered reference to them occurring in the parish registers for the year 1763. Today scores of old farming and household objects, maps and photographs adorn the walls or are put away in cupboards, linking the present family with its predecessors.

   The fifth of the timber-framed houses is Saddocks Farm. A great deal is known about this farm and house. The name is first associated with Eton Wick in a deed of 1539 when a Robert Sadocke , yeoman, of New Windsor occupied a messuage (house, outbuildings, garden, etc) and lands in the Wick. At this date the property seems to have been owned by Eton College, but in the reigns of Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, Robert was leasing the farm from the Crown. In the archives of Eton College there is a draft of a grant from the College to King Henry VIII of property including several acres of land, four messuages and a cottage.  One of these was the Christopher Inn in Eton, two were in Windsor, another in the tenure of John Butler in *le Weke' and the fourth was occupied by Robert Saddock. The grant is dated 1546. In 1584 a deed was drawn up concerning a messuage and garden in le Wyk' described as a 'parcel of Eton (Royal) Manor, lately bought of Eton College and annexed to the Honour of Windsor'. None of these properties has positively been identified as Saddocks, but it is certain that the College was selling to the Crown and it seems likely that the land and house soon to be known as Saddocks Farm was included.  It was undeniably Crown property from the seventeenth century on wards until it was sold in about 1940.

   As Crown property it was subject to a number of surveys, but in spite of, or maybe because of these, the house presents a tantalising mystery. Three surveys of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries suggest that the whole layout of the farmyard and garden was changed about the turn of the century and the house rebuilt in a new position; yet within the present farmhouse, so clearly built in Georgian times, is a much smaller cottage. It consists of two rooms up and down with a downstairs room height of only 6 ft 4 in. The mystery deepens when attention is paid to the earlier survey of the estates of the late King Charles I under the direction of Oliver Cromwell. At this date the Royal Manor consisted of three tenanted farms, Saddocks, Mustians and the Christopher though it is not clear whether the innkeeper was also the farmer.  There were three houses and a cottage belonging to Saddocks and the detailed description of them suggests that they had been built at different periods. The first two, with their timber and earthen walls, and each with a hall, kitchen and buttery and three chambers above, may well have already been at least two hundred years old in 1650.  The third house appears to be larger and newer, for its walls were of timber and brick and there were six rooms downstairs, including a parlour, very much a status symbol for the small farmer.   But, most intriguing, the small cottage was described as 'built with timber and flemish walls'; if  this meant flemish bond,  the construction of this  cottage was very much 'avant garde' for this method of laying bricks did not come into general use until the second half of the seventeenth century.

   Where were these buildings? It is frustrating that none can be identified with certainty. It is possible that the cottage is Little Common Farmhouse for it is thought that this was once part of the Crown Estate, or Saddocks Farmhouse itself.

    Of the five houses that have been demolished this century much less is known and no photographs or plans of them have been found. Three of them formed one building and may originally have been one substantial cottage that was subdivided to form three tiny cottages, each with only one room upstairs and one room down.  When this might have happened has not been discovered, but various deeds and maps suggest it had occurred before the end of the eighteenth century.  To the east of Crown Farm once stood a pair of cottages, though only one survived into the twentieth century.  According to the Royal Commissioners on Historical Monuments this was built early in the seventeenth century. Whether it was ever a farmhouse before Mr. Bunce owned it in the 1920's seems doubtful; in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it was part of Crown Farm and was sometimes occupied by a farm worker. Even less has been discovered about the last of the known timber-framed houses. It stood just west of the Greyhound Inn on a plot of land which stretched from the common to Eton Wick Road. It once belonged to Bell Farm, but in the nineteenth century it was sold and became known as Hardings Cottage, a name it shared with several others owned by the same Eton family.

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

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

`Newtown' and beyond Bell Lane In previous newsletters we have seen the development of Eton Wick (in the Parish of Eton) having many building restrictions, imposed by Commons, Lammas, Farms etc., and of course the boundary West of the Parish being Bell Lane and beyond into the Parish of Burnham. This may seem inconvenient, but surely it is the attraction of our village; being surrounded by the countryside. Other local villages such as Upton, Chalvey and Cippenham have been 'swallowed up' by an ever expanding Slough. We are able to walk North, South, East or West through open country or along the river bank and usually return by a different route without fear of trespass. 

To the East is Eton Town and College and growth of the village in that direction was not possible. The town was ever short of building sites to meet its own needs. In fact in the early post Great War years (early 1920s) Eton wanted to build homes to re-accommodate its own families. They were obliged to negotiate with the Eton Wick Council (independent 1894 — 1934) to change the boundary of Town to Village from the 'Sleds' to Broken Furlong, thereby enabling Eton to develop part of their new holding; and Somerville Road with housing, was created. Apart from the boundary change, it became necessary to switch the Lammas grazing rights of Broken Furlong to a like acreage across the main road. 

Without this 'switch' it would not have been permissible to build on Lammas designated land, as a certain Mr Thomas Hughes could have testified over seventy years earlier. In 1846 he had built two houses on land he owned in the village. The land however, known as Tilstone Shot, was subject to Lammas, which prompted a sharp reaction from villagers, and a subsequent court case, held in Aylesbury, ordered the houses to be taken down. 

This exchanged Lammas area opposite Broken Furlong is of course the area that was in dispute in 2007 for the proposed can park, and possible rail halt. The houses and new road were built in early to mid-1920s and named 'Somerville' in, presumably, recognition of the Town Council Chairman, Mr Somerville, whose negotiations with the village had been so successful. It is easily seen then that Eton Wick could not readily expand to the East, and before Boveney Newtown (c. 1880s) came about any thoughts of building west of the Bell Lane boundary was restricted by the land between the lane and Dorney Common being farm land or privately owned; much of it by the Palmer family of Dorney Court. 

Apart from the main through road there were no other roads in this Burnham Parish area, except perhaps Moores Lane, a rough earth track leading to Cippenham and Slough. It could not have been Moores Lane in those early days because Mr Moore had not yet arrived from Rotherhithe. It was perhaps an unusual situation where Bell Farm was situated just inside of the Eton/Burnham boundary, enjoyed the Lammas grazing of Eton and yet had much of its farm lands over the stream and in Burnham. 

Some limited building had taken place across the border by the late 19th Century. The Shepherd's Hut public house had its first beer license in 1833 — this was probably the only dwelling along Tilstone Lane (main road). Bell Farm had built a few farm labourer cottages — some in the lane and eight more built at right angles in what later became Alma Road. They were demolished around 1970 to make way for the flats of todays' Bellsfield Court — again appropriately named. 

Not until 1870 when, following a deteriorating situation with regard to the Eton Town and College sewage that Eton Council purchased Bell Farm, planning to pump their waste the mile and half to the village farm, where in accordance with common practice at that time it would be spread over furrowed land and reputedly was very good for root and other crops. The Council were not farmers, and needed to engage a manager, and to 'shed' some of its acreage. In 1875 they sold seven acres of farm land, just across the stream and border, to Mr Bott of Common Road, Eton Wick. Unfortunately Bott had now stretched his finances to the point of having overreached himself, and within five years had sold his seven acre site to Mr James Ayres, who had an eye for business. Ayres sold off the recently acquired farm land, plot by plot. A single house here, a block or terraced now there; eventually, and within a few brief years new roads and their dwellings were covering the seven acres. Here was Alma Road, Inkerman and later Northfield Roads — not yet Eton Wick, this new development in the Burnham ward was called Boveney Newtown. Its population was a little larger than neighbouring Eton Wick, and being new was perhaps even more vibrant, but in some ways dependent. It had no school for its children, and they were meant to go to Dorney, but of course with no bus service the bleak track across Dorney Common in winters and on wet summer days made this beyond expectations. Eton Wick's small school at the top of The Walk was inadequate, so in 1886 the Crown provided land in Sheepcote for a larger school which served both communities for the next sixty or so years when post war extensions were carried out. 

An amusing (or was it) story of the interim period was related by a Mr Talbot. The influx of Newtown children into the original single room school necessitated a platform upper room for infants. Temporary and crude the floor was a plank affair and it was not uncommon for an infant needing the toilet, perhaps left it too late, and the lower, older class got a 'dripping' from above. Needing to spend a penny, or 'pennies from heaven'? Where was health and safety in the 1880s?

'Newtown' was all that was built each side of Alma Road and the development of Inkerman, Northfield Road and Bell Lane. One field opposite the Shepherd's Hut and South from Alma Road, between Bell Lane and Moores Lane was retained for grazing for about fifty years, until Vaughan Gardens were built in the late 1930s by the Council, and at the end of WW2 twelve prefabricated homes were built immediately East of Vaughan Gardens. West of Moores Lane to Dorney Common (North of Tilstone Lane) [main road] there were no houses until after WW2 when the Eton Council developed the entire area, including the roads of Colenorton Crescent, Boveney New Road and Stockdales. This area was largely covered with allotments until after WW2. Across the main road (South) much of the land was owned by Mr Palmer of Dorney and had not been built on.

Probably the development of farm land for 'Newtown' prompted the Dorney owner to similarly use his land. In 1896 he had a long terraced row of sixteen houses built in what we now know as Victoria Road. Again very appropriately named because 1898 was the year of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. The houses not so appropriately named, being 'Castle View Terrace' and facing due South one would be hardly likely to see the castle in the East. Further development at this time came along the main road and at the end of 'Castle View' gardens. These, and the houses built past the entrance road to Victoria Road (now named 'Victoria' also, but originally known as Hogarth Road in acknowledgement of Mr Hogarth — area administrator to Mr Palmer) attracted business men and others from Windsor and Eton following the 1894 flooding. Victoria Road was a cul de sac for nearly sixty years when the Meux (Shepherds' Hut) field was developed for Princes Close estate in the 1950s. 

Other post WW2 developments included Queens Road and Cornwall Close (private), the East side of Tilstone Avenue and Tilstone Close (also private) and of course much in the old Eton Wick village. It takes more than housing to give a place character and perhaps in a future magazine I can speak of the people who changed the village and gradually brought the two communities together. There were farmers, and of course people like Mr Moore who had followed his newly wed daughter to Newtown; and the strength of both in imposing themselves in such a constructive way. In conclusion now though I will come back to names of roads. Alma and Inkerman are scenes of hard fighting between Britain and France against Russia in the mid-1850s; in the Crimean War, and some twenty five to thirty years before Newtown's main roads were built and presumably named. Why? It was so long after the conflict. Who chose the names? Was it James Ayres? He is listed as a local Market Gardener. Coincidence I doubt. In Alma Road is a house named Galata Cottage. 'Galata' was the height overlooking the river Alma. If you have the answer, please do join in and share it. 

Not content with sending their sewage to Eton Wick, thirteen years later and following infectious diseases in Eton, including Small Pox, they built a Cottage Isolation Hospital between Bell Farm and Saddocks Farm of Eton Wick. This went out of use in c.1930. This small hospital would never be used by residents of Eton Wick, who were obliged to go to Cippenham on account of not being within the relevant Sanitary District. 

Submitted by Frank Bond 

Click here to read Our Village April 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.

Eton Wick Newsletter - Our Village April 2008

The Eton Wick Village Hall committee published a newsletter for a short time in the 1950's. In 2008 the Committee revived the idea and have been publishing a magazine three times a year since April that year delivering it free of charge to every house in the village. The Eton Wick History Group are delighted to have their kind permission to share these insights into village life on this website. We will be showing the front cover and the regular Village history feature articles many of which were written by Frank Bond on the front page. There will be a link to images of each complete Our Village that we republish at the end of each post.

Eton Wick and Boveney

We are very fortunate in Eton Wick to have open country all around and the river so close by. This should not be taken for granted. A village, albeit very much smaller, has stood here for hundreds of years and very probably people were living here, close to the river, before the village had its Anglo Saxon name.

Although the village boundary reached east to beyond the rail viaduct until the 1920's and the west boundary to Bell Lane until 1934, most of the homes before the 19th Century were concentrated along Common Road between the Wheatbutts and Sheepcote. At the beginning of that century there were approximately 100 villagers and by 1860 about 300 (probably one tenth of today's population). Of course this included the six or seven farms which were a little north of the residential Common Road and marginally on higher, less likely to flood, ground. 200 years ago Sheepcote was not an inhabited road, but a muddy farm track alongside the Sheepcote fields which belonged to the crown. The Walk was non existent.

The early dwellings mostly had very long gardens which stretched from Common Road to the main road; and the few 18th and 19th century homes along the main road had extended gardens to Common Road. The Three Horse Shoes' pub's garden was likewise, as was the tiny ten terraced cottages east of that pub. Unable to build on the lammas, common or crown lands, and west of Bell Lane being in the different parish of Burnham, the long gardens were sold off as building plots. The green spaces of today were yesteryears jealously guarded grazing rights. These rights never did extend beyond Bell Land and of course still do not.

With old Eton Wick filling up it looked like a stalemate until in 1870 the Eton Council purchased Bell Farm, to be used as the town's sewage farm. The farm was bigger than needed and in 1875 they sold 75 acres of mainly pasture that was west of Bell Lane.

Although Bell Farm was just inside the Eton Wick boundary, much of its actual farm land was the other side of Bell Lane and consequently came under Burnham. In fact the farm had already built farm cottages for its employees along Bell Lane and on adjacent land.

Soon after the initial sale of the 75 acres it passed into the hands of local man, Mr Ayres. Roads were laid out in Alma, Inkerman and Northfield and he sold plots of the land parcel by parcel. At last room to expand, but being in the parish of Burnham — not Eton Wick. Being close to old Boveney it was called Boveney Newtown. It had its own council, a chapel and two shops. This was during the last two decades of the 19th century. Although not part of the scheme it triggered off building along the main road and establishing Victoria Road, a cul-de-sac with its long terraced row.

Village organisations predating the 1934 unifications under Eton Urban are generally known as Eton Wick and Boveney i.e. Women's Institute, Scout Movement, War Memorial etc. Development west of Moores Lane all came after World War 2 — another story.

The crown lands are now Eton College owned and will surely be protected in their own interests. I like to believe their interests are mostly the same as ours, preservation of Lammas and common lands as far as it is reasonably possible. Without small holdings, livestock on the farms, the need to glean and graze, a general apathy believes all will take care of itself and we will keep the centuries-long pastures. Perhaps it is later than we think.

Submitted by Frank Bond

Click here to read Our Village April 2008 - the first edition of the Eton Wick Newsletter that this year celebrates its 10th anniversary.

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.

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.

Farming around Eton Wick - Bob Tarrant's memories

Robert Valentine Tarrant, known as Bob Tarrant, was born at Crown Farm, Eton Wick, on 18 August 1911. His niece Monica has recorded some of his memories of farming life in and around the village.

Tarrant family photo

Bob Tarrant was the youngest child of George and Lillian Tarrant (nee Hobbs) and he had two older brother - George born 1908, and Reginald born 1910. Bob Tarrant went to Eton Wick infant school where he remained until 1918; he then went to Eton Porney school and left in 1926. He used to go out on the milk cart to help deliver milk before going to school which started at 9.00 a.m.

The family moved from Crown Farm in March 1922 to Manor farm. Between the two farms there were 30 milking cows, and ten shire horses, five of which were bred on the farm - they were Nelson, Anne, Captain, Babs, Rodney, Tulip, Dumpling, Violet, Prince and Bob.

Tarrant Family members in the garden of Saddocks Farm house, around 1900.
In those days the winters were very severe with hard frosts, snow and floods. It was often said that the winter of 1894 had been very bad. The Eton Wick Road was often impassable from either snowdrifts or flooding and the road across the Slads was like a weir at times. There was a row of iron posts across the area at that time, although most of them have disappeared. Iron platforms were put over the posts and planks laid on top of them. The top holes had handrails attached and it was a very scary experience to walk across. The last time this bridge was erected was in 1947. Before then it was quite a frequent occurrence for it to flood. When the floods were bad the only way to deliver the milk and other goods to Eton College and Eton High Street was by boat. Sometimes the boat would only just go under the railway arches.

In 1947 the winter was very severe and the river Thames rose very quickly and everyone was taken by surprise. Crown farm was badly affected with water reaching up the fourth stair in the house. Many pigs were drowned and some of the cows were seen floating off down the Thames.

Crown farm, Saddocks Farm and Manor farm were all worked by Bob Tarrant’s grandfather, James Tarrant. James Tarrant started at Crown Farm around 1870, Saddocks Farm in 1894 and Manor Farm in 1902.

There were several smaller farms in the area: Messrs. Nottage and Ashman at Dairy farm (later H Morris), Jack Langridge at Thatch Cottage and H Bunce at Common Farm, HJK Martin then W Bootey at Jersey farm, and A Borrett at Alderney Farm - this farm was named after the breed of cows he kept. Henry Powell fell on hard times and worked for Bob Tarrant’s father George Tarrant. He upheld the Lammas Rights and every year he would take a farm horse around to various areas, staying at each location for about half an hour to keep the rights open.

Crown Farm house

Crown Farm House
There was also an isolation hospital in Eton Wick that could be approached from Bell farm near Saddocks farm, it was mainly used for scarlet fever patients.

Common and Lammas
The land around Eton and Eton Wick was all Lammas grounds, common fields and commons. Householders or cottages with rights were allowed to turn out no more than two head of cattle.

The Rules for the Great and Little Commons
No cattle shall be turned out upon the two commons before 6 o'clock on the evening of May 1st or after August 1st.

Lammas Grounds and Common Fields
The same rules but between August 1st and October 31st each year.

N.B. Bob Tarrant married May Peck. The Peck family had a farm called Marsh Lane Dairies, Marsh Lane near Dorney Reach. This farm was run May’s parents George and Nellie Peck then passed to May’s brother Jack Peck.

This article is from the script of a talk presented at a history group meeting by Monica Peck daughter of Jack Peck. 27/6/2008