THE EARLY HISTORY OF 24, VICTORIA ROAD, ETON WICK,

EARLY HISTORY, IN OUTLINE, RELATING TO 

24, VICTORIA ROAD, ETON WICK, SL4 6LY.

Photograph above of Thames View Stores
and Eton Wick Road taken in 1913

WILLIAM HEARN : Apprenticeship in saddlery; employment in harness making; more interested in the motor car, driving in 1903; returned to Eton Wick, married in 1906; bought Thames View (by 1991 was Thames View Aquarium), opened a shop and started in business; had some arrangement with 'General' Hill who had a Wheelwright business at the premises now known as 24, Victoria Road; outline plan of area used by Hill before the first World War and taken over by Hearn during the War for engineering.

This plan shows what I remember in 1920. My father purchased the land from No 18 to 36 (present numbers), down to the brook; divided into three plots and retained the centre plot, 24 to 28/30.


Early in the 1920's he phased out  engineering and engaged employees only on a casual basis. Later he discontinued repair and exchange and concentrated on car hire, driving and maintaining his own cars until the end of his life.






In 1924 Thames View was sold and a bungalow erected as shown for our family. A store was made for reserve petrol supply (2 gallon tins) etc. below ground level.

By mid 1930's the bungalow was extended and a new house was built on the adjoining property. A small tank and hand pump for petrol (not for re-sale) was added other changes made as shown.











The Second World War came and the premises not again in use until 1946. Electricity (3 phase) was laid on and the property was connected to the main drainage. Tanks and equipment was installed for petrol for resale. Full motor engineering service was started. The was questioned by the Borough Engineer (Mr Smith) and his Dept. but finally permitted as there had been light engineering industry at the premises well before 1937 so permission not required.

Victoria Road was a cul-de-sac and stopped off at Shepherds Hut Field (now Princes Close). In 1948 this leaflet was distributed to every letter box in the area to make our presence known business card at that time.













My brother soon left working for Hearn Motors to run a business of his own. A small holding keeping pigs and poultry in the field along the back of properties 24 to 36. The plan shows the promises as they were when I sold Hearn Motors in 1952 to B.A.Nuts Ltd. who had rented part of the property for about a year before for their automatic machines. A 21 year lease was granted for the whole premises; an income for my sister who lived in the bungalow.

My sister (3 years old in the photograph at the beginning of this article, outside the shop) sold out to J.T.Ireland for housing development that became Queens Road. The bungalow extension was immediately removed to make way for the entrance to Queens Road from Victoria Road;. She moved out when her new chalet in Slough was finished in 1960. Ireland paid higher rate for premises with light industrial use (leased to B.A.Nuts Ltd.). He appears to have been disregarded it and made application for more houses, but this was not granted and the lease not renewed. I visited the property with Jim Ireland on 11th June 1974. It was empty and not in a good state of repair he offered the premises back for £20,000.



This history was prepared for ASTEEL ENGINEERING SERVICES Ltd of 24, Victoria Road, Eton Wick By J.W.E.Hearn in 1991. 

Photographic History of Eton Wick and Eton - Businesses - Thames View Stores

Mr Barron in front of Thames View Stores

Thames View Stores in the 1970s. John Barron, the proprietor, pictured outside, possibly just off on a delivery run. Originally one of a pair of semi-detached houses known as Wellmans Cottages. It became a retail outlet in 1910 when William Hearn sold saddlery and harness, etc. 

After Barron's grocery stores closed it became an aquarium and pond shop, finally reverting to a private house in 1994. The opening of the new shopping parade in 1951, and later the superstores in Windsor and Slough brought out the decline of the village's small family run shops. 

This article was first published in A Pictorial History of Eton Wick & Eton.

Note: Oliver Stannett revealed in his autobiography that he had a misunderstanding with Mr Hearn when he was 12 years old that resulted in a birching at Windsor Police Station.

Our Village December 2011 - The Way Things Were

At a time when we are expected to tighten our belts, it may help if we reflect on what things were like in living memory, albeit 70 to 80 years ago. 

It was in 1922 that Eton Wick got its first bus. Until then a shopping trip to Windsor involved a tiring and often a wet or cold walk both ways. A few may have had a pony and trap, but there were not many of them in Eton Wick. Some would have cycled, and one well-known man of the '30s told me he walked to and from his work in Uxbridge. Hard to imagine now. 'The blue bus", as it was known, went on to provide a truly wonderful service of three return runs to Windsor's Castle Hill every hour; one of which went to Dorsey and Maidenhead. 

During the 1930s to 1960s the bus was often packed with sitting and standing passengers. Particularly later in the day for the cinema runs. Windsor had four cinemas - 'The Playhouse'; 'The Regal'; 'The Empire' and for many years the theatre became 'The Royalty' cinema. Many may remember the cinema in Eton. 

Nothing lasts forever and by the 1960s the television had killed off the big cinemas. The bus service fell into decline with the public's ownership of cars, and in the fullness of time the Blue Bus proprietor, Bert Cole, who for over forty years had served the village so reliably in all weathers, retired. His popular drivers included Johnny North, John Bell, Des Sutton, Gerry Austin, Mr. Mitchell, Mr. Lovegrove and of course Bert himself and his son. They often stopped in irregular places for passengers to alight. 

Before the T.V. we had the 'wind up' gramophones with their tinny sound-boxes, but it was the 1930s before most homes possessed a wireless set - large, with battery and chargeable accumulator. The very first wireless in Eton Wick was a Cat Whisker's kit assembled by Norman Lane and Bill Brown in the early 1920s. Both men had recently returned from service in the 1914 - 1918 Great War. 

Most pubs and halls had a piano, and a customer who could play one probably got free beer and was generally popular. Years later, when the television took pride of place in the bars, the piano became unwanted. This, of course, enabled the Wicko! Carnivals to get pianos at no cost for their piano smashing contests.

In the late 1920s to 30s, there were few cars, and this was evident by the fact that as schoolboys we could and occasionally did, whip tops along the Eton Wick Road on the way to 'Pomy' school. In 1934 a neighbour berated my Mother because King George V's car had been obliged to stop by The Three Horseshoes pub on account of my young brother playing 'golf in the road. Mother's comment was "of course the car stopped, it could hardly drive over them". There was an exception; every Fourth of June we did see many more cars. In fact, not just cars, these were large limousines with their attendant livened chauffeurs. Nothing today is ever quite like that, and of course the 'Fourth' itself is often not on the fourth, and there are none of the sumptuous dinner parties for parents in the evenings.

A little under forty years after the King was 'held up' Windsor Bridge was closed to motor vehicles (1970) and Eton Wick was no longer a possible route into Windsor; sadly neither could buses take villagers into town for their shopping. Castle Hill may not be an obstacle to the fit, but I can confirm it is to the aged and the less than fit. 

A little over forty years before that 'Royal holdup' a much smaller Eton Wick got its first retail shop and Post Office. Ada Cottages (48 Eton Wick Road) had been used for retailing for a year or two before Thomas Lovell opened a shop there; with the Post Office; around 1887. He had his own bakery and sold household and garden wares. A photograph shows stacked galvanised baths, wash tubs, toilet buckets etc. These were all items too bulky for carrying from Windsor, Probably one or more of the village's public houses sold some grocery items, and I was told that in the period around the Great War (perhaps 1910 - 1912) 'The Grapes' public house, now a restaurant, sold milk from the churn. 

Following the Tom Lovell enterprise five shops were opened using converted dwellings. Additionally, in the early 1900s, Eton Wick got its first purpose-built shop on the original school site at the top of 'The Walk' road. Two of the five were in Alma Road (then in Boveney Newtown). These were both general grocers. Two in Eton Wick old village were not for groceries. One was Welman Cottage (now 62 Eton Wick Road) which had a front extension c. 1910 - 12 and was owned by Bill Hearn for the sale of harness, leather goods etc. In 1923¹, following the death of Mrs. Hearn, Bill became the motor taxi driver, operating from Victoria Road, and the shop became a grocery retailer's and known as Thames View Stores. The name was apt, as it looked out over a low hedge, allotments, and the Recreation Ground to the river. Three doors away; now 56 Eton Wick Road the sitting room was converted to a cycle shop, mainly dealing in 'Royal Enfield' and cycle accessories. This was a few years before the Great War 1914 - 18 and like other village traders the shopkeeper, Ted Woolhouse², tried without success to avoid conscription on account of his business. They did get three or six months deferment but usually denied further appeal. After the Second World War 1939 - 45 the cycle shop reverted to the sitting room. 'Thames View' was a grocer's for 54 years until 1977 when it became an Aquatic shop, until c. 1994 when it reverted back to a dwelling.

Primrose Villas

One other post-war shop was owned by John and Pat Prior in Moores Lane. This business development at the end of Alma Road's terraced row of Primrose Villas was originally built for, and occupied by, John Moore. He came to the village from Kent where he was a businessman, who followed his daughter, Annie Tough, to Eton Wick. Annie was the wife of the manager of Bell Farm and was the prime person responsible for the building of the Primitive Methodist Chapel. Moores Lane got its name from John Moore. The shop in question was at first petrol pumps and newsagent, opened by Bill Sibley, formerly of the 'Walk'. In 1979 It was sold to John and Pat who established a local grocery shop with newsagents. They closed the shop in 2005 and converted it to a private dwelling for their retirement. 

There was another house conversion, in the terraced row of St. Leonard's Place for grocery, newsagents' etc., before selling wool and items of clothing. This shop, I was once told, was the first retailer of ice cream in the village, probably early 1920s. Before the Eton Urban Council built the parade of seven shops in Brewers Field, 1951, the purpose built shop and Post Office on the old school site was almost certainly the main shop of Eton Wick. Inevitably the 'parade' gradually made the other shops increasingly difficult to survive. They changed their usage, launderette, florists, builders' store and workplace, betting shop, motor spares; but alas the days of scattered shops had gone. In 1973 the Council opened the second parade of shops in Bell Lane and one year later the last of the small shops, at 'Thames View' closed. 

Probably before any of these shops came to the village there were door to door traders. Certainly until the post-WW2 years such traders still served the community and in the 1930s there were at least five farmers selling their milk from churns on pony and trap. Also daily deliveries included bread, greengrocery, fish and rabbits, with weekly deliveries of coal and bottled minerals. There were less frequent callers such as gypsies selling clothes pegs and props for clothes lines, along with white heather (for luck) and paper artificial flowers — usually carnations. Most of these were made by the gypsy families in winter time. Less reliable vendors included sellers of winkles; muffins and even sticky fly catchers. About once a year a salesman came, encouraging householders to change their daily paper. If an agreement was reached it was necessary to cut out sixty consecutive serial numbers from the front pages and a book came as an award. I still have a gold hardback book of King George VI Coronation and once had a book 'Britain's Wonderland of Nature'. Many of these offers and callers did not resume after the war of 1939-45 and in time, with labour saving facilities, householders were all away from the home in full employment, and it became a waste of time calling. 

The last thirty years has seen the supermarkets taking the trade from the estate shops and now with the decline of so many the big stores are themselves opening smaller outlets on the estates. There is always a downside, and I cannot see these superstore outlets ever playing the local supportive role that had become a feature of many local traders.

Eton Wick was perhaps late with some advances but not having electricity until around 1949 — 50 was a setback. That was many years after Dorney. The population had stuck at around 1000 — 1200 for the first half of the 20th Century and rapidly increased with the post-WW2 housing. No longer can we say we know all the residents, and neither do they know us. All very different to the period up to sixty years ago when we had ponds; a blacksmiths' shop; the mayday stampede of the many horses let free to graze the common after having been stabled for much of the winter, and so many other happenings to differentiate village life from the town. We can look back but cannot go back. It would be difficult to think of any improvements that had no downside.

By Frank Bond

Clickhere to read Our Village December 2011.

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.

Notes
1 - In Oliver Stannett's memoirs he recalled that Bill Hearne sold his shop and started to run a taxi business soon after Oliver had been birched, aged 12. That would have been in 1915 or 1916 as Oliver was born in 1903.

This image is from the Newtrade archive
and is published here with their kind permission.

2 The impact of The Military Service Act of 1916 was a concern to small businesses across the country. This guidance published in The Newsagent, Booksellers Review and Stationers' Gazette from March 1917 gave guidance on how to build a case to present to the National Service Department. Just because people like Ted Woolhouse were running a business that depended on them was not an adequate reason to avoid conscription. 

From the Parish Magazine - Eton Wick History Group Meeting - Village Shopkeepers - Past and Present

"As we live day by day we don't notice changes which are happening around us " 

So said Frank Bond as he introduced his talk on "Village Shopkeepers - Past and Present" on the 27th May 1998. He referred first to the hamlet which was Eton Wick in the year 1800, with just 100 residents; and the to the early 20th Century shops which sold hardware„ groceries etc., and his talk progressed through to illustrate not only the various changes which had occurred. in Eton Wick' s shops and services up to the present day, but also the considerable changes in the community itself There had been seven farms, now some had been adapted for riding schools and others given over to engineering. The countryside itself has undergone changes with areas previously used for crops now given over to leisure and recreation facilities. 165 years ago there were 300 people living in Eton Wick. There was no evidence of any shops here then, or any easy means of getting to shops elsewhere; for there was no transport, other than horse-drawn vehicle or 'Shank' s pony' . People grew their own vegetables, they would purchase milk, flour etc. from the farmers, and they would make home-make jams, pickles and other preserves for their larders; some would have kept poultry for their eggs and meat. There would have been work for the village' s blacksmith, a chimney-sweep, and also for cobblers and  boot makers. 

MUFFIN-MAN

By the 1920' s Eton Wick was being visited by the muffin-man, and a winkle-man and a man who sold fly-papers; did the fly-paper become a muffin-man or a cobbler in the Winter months? Gypsies came selling clothesline props and pegs - most people were a little afraid of Gypsies because of their apparent ability to successfully lay a curse on you if you upset them. Visits from the 'rag and bone man' with his horse and cart were more welcome, particularly by the children who might be given a balloon in ex-change for old rags. As the years progressed there were the annual visits from a `gentleman-of-a-darker-hue' who went from door to door selling ties, collar-studs, etc. from a suitcase. A Mr. Henry came out from Windsor every Thursday with a cart loaded with galvanised goods, ironmongery, soda, soap-flakes and the famous 'Reckitts Blue'. Another welcome visitor, perhaps in later years, was Tom Cox on his Walls Ice Cream Stop Me and Buy One' tricycle - the fact that he only had one leg gave him few problems. There were two other ice-cream vendors - Vettise's and Sacco's - they just came round on Sundays. Out of season these ice-cream sellers would use their carts to transport the rabbit skins and other goods they bought locally. Tom Cox also sold cakes and bread for Denney's bakery (14 cakes for 1s. 0d.). He was also pretty handy with his bicycle pump in that when some poor soul stepped out of hedge in front of him he hit him over the head with it. 

STABLE FIRE 

The Greyhound Pub with Mr & Mrs Newell

Eton Wick had its own coal merchants, delivering by horse and cart. Bill Parrot' s horse was stabled in what is now 'The Greyhound' skittle alley. Early in the 1930's Scottie Hood' s horse' s stable caught fire and Scottie had to be physically restrained from entering the inferno to rescue his horse. The horse perished but the village had a whip-round and raised enough for him to buy another horse. The coal carts, and others, would be cleaned up and would carry the children of the village on Sunday School outings. 

Chantler then took the shop over and added gas masks to the provisions on offer. Harry Chanter was a very helpful and kind man. He was a trustee of the Eton Poor's Estate for 60 years, he was held in great an affection. There were other tenants of the shop after Mr. Chantler, until it was converted into flats in 1987. 

ICE CREAM 

A Mr. Slade set up shops in St  Leonard' s Place (possibly named so because of its view across the Thames to St Leonard' Hill?), this was the first shop in Eton Wick to sell ice-cream. Mr Slade moved on to The Grapes'. In the mid 30' s Joan Taylor set up as a newsagents, early in the 50's it was taken over by the Cowells, then Paxton, Lock and in the 1960' s by Mr. Lunn. In recent years the shop has been converted into fiats and is now called Taylor Court. Yet another shop which no longer exists is the old aquarium shop in Wellmans Cottages. This shop was run from 1908 until 1923 by Bill Hearn - he stocked umbrellas, saddlery, etc. He sold the shop when his wife died and took premises in Victoria Road (From `General' Hill who made nuts in the War?) where he set up a workshop - he ran two taxis. Later this business was to become Ellis Motors, and engineering works was still in operation at the time of the talk. Mr Wiggins followed Mr. Hearn into the 'aquarium' shop (yet another place where Tom Cox used to work); it became Graham's grocers and Provision Merchant, then John Barron. Later it became The Aquarium Shop, and has now reverted to being a private dwelling. We mustn't forget the cycle shop run by Ted Woolhouse from Bonaccorde Cottages "Royal Enfield Made Like a Gun", now a private residence. 

There was a doctor' s surgery in Alma Road, and can you believe we once had a Co-op in Alma Road! There was also a small shop in Shakespere Place (1880). Charlie Ayres started selling groceries in there in 1898. Bill Bolton failed as a butcher there; he was followed by Lucie Binfield, then Mr. Wilshire and then the Chinneries who dealt with rationing. Harry Cook then used it as a workshop. This too, has since been convened into flats. Prior' s, the newsagents in Moore's Lane, was built by Annie Tough's father, James Moore. This shop was occupied by Mr Sibley and then by Mr Prior. 

31 & 31a Eton Wick Road

Another butcher's shop was George Mumford's at 31 Eton Wick Road (Bracken Flowers and a Betting Shop were there in 1998). Mr Mumford tended to get into trouble for letting people have meat in excess of the ration (it  even had a 'Flanagan and Allen' mention at the Victoria Palace). Mr Mumford altered the premises to accommodate his elder daughter and converted part (later to become the betting shop) into a Laundrette. The butcher's shop was later to become a Greengrocers, then a baker' s and is now Bracken the Florist. 

Bistro

In 1951 the Eton Urban District Council built the `Darvilles' parade of shops. In the shop 

nearest to the Village Hall was Mr Barnes (wet and fried fish), next came 'Arnolds' the Butcher's, (when Roy Arnold retired it became a hairdressers).The third shop was O'Flaherty (chemist); fourth was Clinch's Bakery and Darvilles the grocer next to them. Anderson (newsagent and gents' hairdresser) occupied the sixth unit and A. Bond & Son (greengrocer) the final shop opposite the Shepherds Hut. 

Terry Anderson (who acquired the land for the Catholic Church) sold to Gowers; Clinch sold to Darville - who doubled the size of the shop; O'Flaherty sold out to a Mrs. Baker, but there have been several tenants since. When Frank Bond sold his Greengrocers shop it had been in business for 90 years. 

In I973 the Bell Lane parade of shops was built; Joyce Howard (ladies clothing); another was for hi-fi and electrical goods and then homemade brewing equipment and vehicle sundries. Country Fair, the equestrian shop, is to close and be replaced by a bistro. The hairdresser' s has become `Pipedreams' for cake-baking accessories. 

The final photograph shown on this fascinating evening was of Mrs. Cooley and Pam with their milk-float - the last of our milk delivery people. A suggestion for a Millennium Memorial - commemorate site of the 1st school, the 1st official building for church services and the 1st Institute for Eton Wick. All in one building at the bottom of the garden of 'The Greyhound'

The following meeting was held on the 8th July 1998 when the topic was LOCAL FETES, FAIRS, CARNIVALS AND CONCERTS. 

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 June 1998 edition.

From the Parish Magazine - Eton Wick History Group Meeting - Old Photographs of Eton and Eton Wick

At the meeting on the 29th October the Group was saddened to hear of the deaths of Miss Banham and Ernie Gyngell. We shall miss them both and our sympathies go out to their families, particularly to Mary Gyngell who has not only to cope with her bereavement but also is to have a hip operation - despite an of which she still produced her usual trays of home-made cakes for the evening's tea interval.

So it was in sombre mood that the Group settled down to hear Frank Bond take them through some of his collection of old photographs of the area. However, spirits were soon lifted as he dealt with each photograph in some depth, producing a history in pictures which commenced with a slide of a picture of Eton High Street dating back 150 years. Some of the photographs were taken at the turn of the century and it was fascinating to register the changes which have taken place over the years; interesting, too, to have Mr. Bond identify so many of the people in the photos; and not just his own family, as in the 1895 snap of boys (one of whom was his father) on the footpath to Chalvey carrying huge bunches of dog-daisies to be sold at Dorney Gate or Boveney Lock but also others such as Alf Quarterman, Hammer Stannett - perhaps the last real Hayward, and John Henry Kemp the lockkeeper.

Henry "Hammer" Stannett the last real Hayward.

Many of these older photographs were taken by Mr. Lovell, who ran the local combined Post Office, bakery, and hardware shop; others were by Mr. Hearn who came from Sunbury to Eton Wick in 1908. He was a saddler, his shop sign said he also repaired umbrellas, and when his wife died, he finished with the shop and set up an engineering works in Victoria Road; he also started a taxi business with a Model T Ford.

We heard how the original (1840) school, at the top of The Walk, was made into an institute for men and boys when the present school was built; and how the institute was turned into a shop in 1902 by a Mr. Pratt - whose painted sign can still be seen on the side wall 95 years later; the shop then passed through the hands of a succession of owners: Harman from 1908, Anderson from 1913, and then various others until 1988/89 it was converted into the flats we see there today. 

Villagers reminisced over photos of our two old village ponds, including one of the 'big' pond taken in 1920 with Mr. Bond's sister, Eva (now 83) standing by the fence. This big pond was deep enough to swim in, and it existed until the 1930's after which it was filled in. In yet another shot we could see the ten houses which made up Prospect Place: these houses were mainly 'one-up-one down' with shared toilet facilities, and one at least of them housed a family of eight! And it is hard to believe that the 'modern' houses at the end of Common Road closest to Bell Lane contain the structures of the original old properties, which simply had an external skin and roof built over them to modernise and increase the size of the accommodation. One of the lady tenants had this work carried out around her whilst she remained in the property: she would not move out for fear of losing her Lammas grazing rights. Unfortunately, she suffered such hardship during the course of the work that she fell ill and died soon afterwards.

There were happy photographs of haymaking and of children running races during what must have been a celebration of either Empire Day or the Coronation of Edward VII; and there were the sadder ones as of the unveiling of the War Memorial at the Parish Church. But what the evening brought home to the Group more than anything else, was the importance of keeping a photographic record of our ever-changing surrounds - whether it be new construction it the removal of an old 'landmark' like the old air raid siren. All should be recorded for posterity with details on the back of each print giving the date, the location and the names of any people captured in the frame.

The next Meeting will be on the 10th December when the topic will be 'THE OLD CHRISTOPHER INN (opposite Eton College Chapel) with punch and mince pies to follow. 

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.

Eton Wick Newsletter - Our Village April 2009

Eton Wick and its development post World War II 

We have previously covered the development of Eton Wick between the 18^th and mid 20^th centuries, By the mid 1800's those cottage long gardens were being used for housing along the village main road. raising the population to around four hundred. Between 1880 and 1900 Boveney Newtown was developed as a separate community, with a population of about five hundred. In total now around thousand in 1900.

and the resulting population growth. In 1800 there were about one hundred people living mainly along Common Road. 

For forty years between 1894 and 1934 both Eton Wick and Boveney Newtown each had their own five member Parish Councils, independent of each other, and of Eton. This would have added to the separateness of the two communities who although benefiting from excellent representation were very disadvantaged by a low rate Income. Eton Wick was without adequate street lighting; refuse collections; main drainage and only bucket or cesspit sanitation. Some homes shared water pumps and outside toilets. In 1934 we lost the individual Parish Councils and became part of the Eton Urban District Council. In time services improved. Pre 1934 associations; clubs; the War Memorial and Institute (now Village Hall) all had the prefix of “Eton Wick and Boveney". Now no longer necessary It is an Indicator of our older organisations/structures. Eton Urban Council did much for Eton Wick but alas after another forty years (1974) we became part of The Royal Borough where certainly, with just two representatives in fifty nine. we were to believe we had a diminished voice.

Apart from the eight South View houses built in early 1920's by Eton Rural Council we had no more Council homes until the late 1930's, when twenty dwellings comprising Vaughan Gardens were built opposite The Shepherd's Hut. As World War II came to a close twelve prefabricated homes were built alongside Vaughan Gardens. They were given an estimated ten years of useful life but in fact lasted over twice that long. As millions of service personnel returned from the war the national need of more houses became an overriding concern. Eton was no exception. There was no land in Eton and Lammas or common rights restricted village land available. All building materials were difficult to obtain but despite all, the Council quickly completed the development of the Vaughan Gardens and prefab field with ten more houses, six facing across the main road and four along Moores Lane.

They next bought from the College a large area west of Moores Lane that reached to Roundmoor Ditch, formerly part of Tilstone Fields and for fifty years used for allotments of Boveney and Newtown. This next move ambitiously planned one hundred and sixty two houses and flats, a new Recreation Ground and space for five police houses to be built by Eton Rural Council. This was along the north side of the main road, plus Boveney New Road, Colenorton Crescent and Stockdales Road. Meanwhile squatters. including ex-service families, had occupied the numerous empty Nissen huts on Dorney Common that had been vacated by the WWII anti-aircraft battery. Sadly, the big flood of 1947 inundated and trashed much of the family possessions. By 1952 the new estate was nearing completion and a young Duke of Edinburgh formally opened the Stockdale's Rec.

Already the Council had moved on by purchasing the Brewers' field, adjoining The Shepherd's Hut and building a parade of seven shops. Opened in 1951 they were Barnes (Game and Wet Fish); Arnold (Butchers); O'Flaherty (Chemist), Clinch (Bakers); Darville (Grocer); Anderson (Newsagent) and Bond (Greengrocer). After the shops, the field was developed with Princes Close houses and fiats (1953). Until this time Victoria Road was a cul-de-sac but now had access through Princes Close to the main road. In late 1950's the Council built Haywards Mead and provided a site for the village's first R.C. Church (built 1964). Again this was a development that was made on a large allotment area and later yet another allotment site was used to build flats, along the east side of Sheepcote Road. Probably the allotment areas were used because by public consent the land had been freed of the Crown, Lammas or Common rights when the need for allotments came about in the late 1800's. Other allotments opposite St. Leonard's Place and 'Old Parsonage' were closed when the lease expired in c.1994 but being designated as Green Belt could not be built on. There was another long strip of allotments behind the Village Hall but around mid 1960's the plot was incorporated into the Haywards Mead Recreation Ground. The Council then built Clifton Lodge on a site previously covered by six Harding Cottages, then using the land of Common Road; Thatch Cottage and Victoria Terrace they built Albert Place flats.

In the 1960's the prefabs, along with two farm cottages in Bell Lane and a terraced row along the east end of Alma Road were demolished, making room for Bellsfield Court flats and a second parade of shops (1973). The Council wanted to develop Wheatbutt Orchard but in the event it was sold by Eton Collage to private developer's c.1981. Perhaps had the Council purchased the Wheatbutts site it may not now be the village's one fenced-in estate. Some Councillors later expressed regret they had not built a through road connecting Queen's Road, Cornwall Close and Tilstone Close, but hindsight is a luxury. However, they had done a good job, built needed homes; straightened and widened the road In places and by 1974 had a village estimated population of around 3,000.

Looking at the private sector, one of the first post WWII developments was the building of homes along the east side of Tilstone Avenue by Jim Ireland and later, homes of Tilstone Close. Pre-war village builder Alf Miles bought the large site south and west of Victoria Road from George Nuth which, as with Tilstone Avenue, had been used for pigsties. He then proceeded to build houses along Queen's Road (1960's) before he developed Cornwall Close. Meanwhile, Jim Ireland purchased a site south and east of Victoria Road from Mr Hearn and built along that end of Queens Road. It is often said they had not planned to connect their respective site roads, but eventually they did. It is easy today to see the midway point where they met. A terraced row of quite good houses along the west side of Sheepcote Road was demolished making way for private bungalows and houses that now face onto the Council flats.

Bunces Close was a considerable private estate that was perhaps only possible because the large area would have been freed of restrictive use; i.e. Lammas or Commons. when the eight South View houses were built there in early 1920's. Common Road being the oldest part of the village may have been redeveloped first but in the early post WWII years the old houses were still homes in a time of dire needs. Today the only semblance of the old Common Road is Wheatbutts Cottage and The Greyhound. Hope Cottages are still there but bear no likeness to earlier years. At the east end, the thirteen terraced Clifton cottages there were replaced by Georgian style houses, six west facing houses of Albert Place were replaced by Albert Place bungalows; and Ye Olde Cottage was replaced by four modem houses (1952/3).

West of 'The Greyhound' pub had stood two old dwellings; ready to be demolished in 1939 but pressed back into use for wartime evacuee families. After the 1939/45 war they were replaced privately by two bungalows, but these have been replaced with about eleven homes. The long garden of the 'Three Horse Shoes' was the only undeveloped plot along Common Road until around the 1960's, when it was developed along with the site of semidetached Rose Cottages. The new homes built there were adjacent to the village's larger pond that was sadly filled in about that time.

Builder Alf Miles purchased from Harry Prior 'The Homestead' and its orchard, making way for several bungalows and houses at the north end of Bell Lane. This was yet another private sector development, again in the mid 1950's. Since that time four larger houses were built just north of the orchard site and adjacent to the only allotment area we have today. Inevitably the eight shops - seven of them cottage adaptations of the pre-war era were much affected by the Council parades and in the fullness of time all closed and became residential, four of them turning into flats (see photographs on page 6). Today we have one non Council shop 'Bracken Flowers and Julies Florist'.

Just as the Council-built shops hastened the demise of the old shops, they in turn are now suffering the ascent of the Superstores. In my lifetime the village had been serviced by the home and cart; the front room shops; the Council shops and now largely by the out of village Superstores.

Many other non-Council homes were built on various sites, including plots In Alma, Inkerman, Northfield and Victoria roads and several along The Walk.

Sadly the common's stream is now less attractive. Its shoddy rustic fencing and of course loss of the dairy cattle has resulted in reduced grazing with the consequent result the stream Is barely visible on account of brambles, something we did not have in earlier years.

This concludes my village growth musings but perhaps in a later Issue we can look at the early characters who shaped our village before any of us were born!

Frank Bond

Click here to read Our Village August 2008.

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 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.

Eton Wick Remembered - Home and Childhood

Many memories centre round the home and childhood, though naturally they vary from family to family and decade to decade.  In general homes were less sophisticated then those today.  There were few household gadgets and luxury items, and for much of this period many homes in the Wick ware without gas, electricity or running water. None had main drainage.  Fire and elbow-grease provided the energy.  Floors were usually often a home-made peg rug, bright with colours of cut-up rags. Next to this the fender would gleam like silver, having been burnished weekly with a square pad which looked like a piece of chain mail. In contrast to the silver was the black of the cottage range made shiny by dint of hard rubbing and blacklead. The range burnt solid fuel and had two hobs and a small oven. They were still being installed in the 1930s in homes which until then had managed with open grates arid side ovens. The side ovens were heated by the open fire; once hot, they retained their heat for a long time, and the skilful housewife could very  successfully regulate the temperature by  judiciously refuelling the fire. Often there was a trivet on which a kettle or saucepan could be stood to boil; but saucepans were also stood  directly on the glowing coals, and it was hard work to clean off the soot without the use of  detergents and 'Brillo' pads. Bread and even fish could be toasted in front of the fire, and in one family at least it was the regular Sunday job for one of the daughters to toast a bloater for  Father's tea.

One disadvantage of both kitchener and open grate oven was that they made cooking an  

unpleasantly hot job in summer.  The summer months could be trying in other ways. In homes near the brook, clouds of mosquitoes made hot, sticky children hide their heads under the sheets trying to sleep. Flypapers were hung in the downstairs rooms and were soon festooned with dead flies.  However their effectiveness did not last forever, and in time the dead flies would drip off - a horrid but commonplace occurrence which was simply accepted as the way of life.

Those were days when many families still had to fetch water from a communal pump or outside tap. It was a wearisome chore, and on winter mornings the pump had to be primed with a kettle of hot water before it would work and the tap unfrozen with a candle or paper burnt close to the closed stem of the tap. Buckets of water had to be carried in to fill up the copper on washdays and bath nights; afterwards the water had to be baled out into buckets and then tipped on to the garden or common.  Few houses had bathrooms - there are said to have been only two in the village when the first District Nurse came to live there in 1916, and she insisted on living in one of them (Wheatbutts Bungalow). For other households washing in a tin tub in front of the fire was a once weekly routine.  One story concerning bath night is now forever frozen in my  imagination. It tells of an elderly lady bathing in the kitchen but discreetly hidden from view by a draped clothes horse - or at least she was until 'God Save the King' was played on the wireless and, loyal to the chore, she rose to the occasion.

Of necessity most children were required to help a considerable amount in the home. Washing by hand was a long, wearisome task, especially when there were ten children in the family; and there are still sad memories of  mothers washing in the evening by candlelight. When the rubbing, scrubbing, boiling and rinsing was finished., the mangling could begin.  The children could help by folding the things and then turning the handle of the mangle with both hands if necessary - while mother guided the linen through. Washing up, dusting, chopping wood and running errands were jobs which perhaps are not so different  today, but it is rare in the Wick now to see children looking after their younger sisters and brothers - including the baby in the pram or  basinette, as was quite usual in the early years of this century. Gone too is the Saturday morning job of cleaning the knives.  The stains could be removed by a special machine, which some families had; but in others the job was done by rubbing each knife blade with moistened, powdered bathbrick or Oakey paste. Woe betide any youngster who forgot to clean the part of the knife where blade and handle joined.' Children worked on the allotments and while still at school helped in the family business, if there was one.  Young Bob Bond collected the horse from where it was grazing, on the way home from school, and at the age of twelve must have been one of the youngest people in the country with a cab licence.  Some families were poor enough to take   advantage of the soup kitchen in Eton and so perhaps twice a week one of the children would run to Eton in the long school lunch hour to buy a jug of soup.This could be filled out with peas to make a nourishing meal.

In many homes children were expected to earn a few pence whenever possible looking after a neighbour's children, running errands, mangling or maybe even helping in a shop. Payments were small, but when families were large every bit helped and mothers were thankful for 'small mercies'. One man, who worked as a schoolboy for a greengrocer in Eton before school, in the lunch hour and in the evenings for about 2s. 6d. a week before the First World War, remembers one week receiving only a 'hatful of specky apples'. In those years childhood ended with the labour exam at school, and children might start their working life from the age of twelve though   certainly some children stayed until they were fourteen. From then on life was likely to be hard, especially for those who went into service.   At sixteen young Winifred Sibley began working as housemaid at Cippenham Lodge, the home of Mr Twinch, a gentleman farmer. This was her second place and easier than most. Her day did not begin until 6.30 am with the dining room to sweep and dust before the family had breakfast. Mrs Twinch was very strict; there was no skimping on jobs. Church was compulsory on Sunday mornings and young Winifred on her  fortnightly Sunday off had to be back before nine o'clock in the evening.

While so many girls were in service the  launderies provided employment for the married women. It was hot steamy work, without the benefit of electric irons or detergents. Soap was bought by the hundredweight in mottled blue or yellow seven-pound blocks, which were left to dry and then chopped up for use. Washboards and scrubbing-brushes were used for really dirty items, and at Thatch Cottage a second small copper in the yard was used to bring back the whiteness to soiled teacloths. At this laundry the irons were heated and kept hot on a special 'ironing stone' with a ridged surface, which was set by the fire; but at other laundries there was an 'ironing stove' around which the irons could be rested and heated. As well as the flat-irons for the main work there were round-bottomed irons for polishing the starched and glazed shirt  collars; for frills and delicate work there was a range of gophering irons.

The main work of washing was usually done in the cottage scullery, where the copper produced the gallons of hot water needed. Mrs Miles converted one of the pair of cottages known as Vine Cottage into her laundry so that there was room for the various operations indoors, but at other launderies the business had to spread into sheds outside. At Thatch Cottage there was one for mangling, another for drying and a third in which the ironing was done. Some women did one job and others another. Woollen socks and sports gear from College were washed not at the laundries but by individual women, who collected them after games and returned them clean and dry the next day.'

Iron Hoop courtesy of
1900s.org.uk

The children of Eton Wick were country children who knew every hedgerow and footpath in the parish. They knew where to find the birds' nests and that the best cowslips grew in the Hyde. The bushy elms along Bell Lane made marvellous playhouses for the girls, and Blind Alley, the narrow strip of land leading from Little Common to Chalvey Ditch, was a place to light a camp fire and cook wild ducks' and moorhens' eggs. Children played with tops and marbles as in any English village, but I like the picture of schoolboys at the turn of the century rolling their marbles down the centre of Eton Wick Road on their way home from Porny School. Both boys and girls played with iron hoops which could be bought at Hearn's shop. If they had to be mended they were taken to the smithy; this too was a favourite haunt of many boys who would creep in quietly to watch the horseshoes being fitted.  They would wrinkle up their noses at the acrid smell of the burning hooves as they peered through the smoke to admire the skill of the blacksmith - joy of joys if one was allowed to work the bellows.

Although they did not all belong to the same era there are scores of other memories which bring back pleasant and exciting days. At the turn of the century a German one-man-band   occasionally visited the village with a dancing bear, and for many years a man with a   barrel-organ and monkey came to the Wick. The girls loved to dance to his music and sometimes he would encourage a few of them to try out their steps on a kind of platform attached to the organ. Another event belonging to the early years of the century and the 1920s was diving for plates in the river. It was part of the competitions and races organised by the Porny School for the boys who learnt to swim at the Royal Humane Swimming Baths at Cuckoo Weir. There were distance races too, and certificates to be awarded; and the school competed against others.

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