The Pubs of Eton Wick

The Pubs of Eton Wick

by Frank Bond

The earliest mention of an ale house in the village is a very tentative one: local historian Judith Hunter found an isolated parish reference to the Small Fox in Eton Wick in the early 1700 's or late 1600’s.

The next mention is quite positive and is the recorded fact in the Vituallers Recognizances of 1753 of the Bulls Head and of the Three Horse Shoes (recognizances were pledges made before a court or magistrates). 

The Shoes was built sometime before 1705 and, like the beer houses later, was probably a

private dwelling. Certainly it became an Ale House before 1753 Vituallers Recognizances and could have possibly have been the first in the village, apart of course from the vague reference to the Small Fox.

The other contender for being the first, the Bulls Head, was the end cottage - then the only one - of Hope Cottages, now No 37 Common Road. It was built about 1725 and became an Ale House about 1732. It was run by Elizabeth Griffiths and later her son William. By the mid 1750s it had reverted to being a private dwelling, and then presumably only The Three Horse Shoes survived. After about 90 years it was again used as a Beer House by William Woolhouse.

We must remember that the village was very small in the 18th Century.

There was no Boveney New Town, no houses South of the main road, very few along the main road and nothing built along The Walk or Sheepcote. Apart from the outlying farms the village had less than 100 inhabitants of all ages, living mainly along Common Road.

Back in history we often read of alcoholic drink used to poison. Home made drink and wine in particular varied so much that it was comparatively easy for a host to add poison to his guest's drink. The old practice of drinking one's health and touching glasses was allegedly derived from the good faith habit of each tipping a little of one's drink into the other's glass or tankard. Then when the Host drank the guest was assured Good Health was intended. It is reasonable to believe that Beer sold along Common Road was really a provision for locals, whereas establishments along the thinly populated main road would have served through travellers.

In 1830 it is thought that the village only had the Shoes providing beer. That however was the year of the Beer Act permitting any one to sell beer providing they paid a small excise fee. By 1833 the Greyhound was licensed, followed a year later by the Shepherds Hut just outside the village boundary. Eight years later in 1842 we had the Grapes, now known as the Pickwick. It was about this time that William Woolhouse again opened the Bulls Head in Common Road.

The Three Horse Shoes was the only fully licenced inn until after World War 2; the others were limited to being Beer Houses. Judith Hunter reminds us that in the mid 19th Century there was about one pub for every fourteen families. Today with a population about thirty times greater we still have the same number of pubs, except of course the Bulls Head.

It is certain that the Grapes was built on the garden of Common Road Thatch Cottage in 1840 - 42 and squeezed between the terraced row of Prospect Place (one up and one down) ten terraced homes and the row of Hardings Cottages, now the site of Clifton Lodge. A village map of 1839 shows the gap between the two terraced rows. This suggest that the Grapes became a Beer house when it was built unlike the other pubs in Eton Wick.

Only in the last sixty years have pubs changed from being "men only", apart from a few clay pipe smoking women, and the spittoon with the sawdust on the floor for people who missed.

Of the village pubs only the Grapes was ill suited for the horse and carts or carriages. The Greyhound had stables that were in regular use, certainly from the 1920's to the 40's by Bill Parrot who was one of the two village coal merchants. The row of stables are now the skittles alley.

The Three Horseshoes also had several stables and in the 20's and 30's these were used by Roll Bond and his contracting firm. By the mid thirties his sons had replaced the horses with lorries.

The Shepherds Hut that for so long stood almost alone just outside the village had a field stretching from Bell Lane to Moore Lane. By the 1880's or thereabout this was reduced to the Brewers field of perhaps half the area and the pub was situated in the N.W. corner.

In the late 1940's most of this field was sold to the council for the parade of seven shops and all the houses in Princess Close. Until this time certain local characters always expected to have their own seat or chair and it is well remembered some folk saying, "I will sit here until old Jack comes in".

Just before World War II the pubs became more of a social place and regular annual outings took place to the sea and Goodwood Races. This was resumed in the post-war years but of course as we approached the 1960's more and more cars replaced the excitement of a coach trip and involved the whole family.

Before this, most Pub outings seemed to be male only perhaps because joining in did not seem ladylike. Probably the Greyhound was the only exception to this practice in the village.
Television at this time was also providing in-house entertainment and the social role of the pubs changed for all times.

At the Greyhound they probably had the longest serving Publican ever in the village. Bill and Lil Newall took the pub in about 1930 and although Bill died in 1947, aged 62, Lil carried on as landlord to complete 35 years of service. A second opinion claims it to have been 40 years. More startling is the fact that throughout all those years she herself remained teetotal. Mrs Newall was 96 years old when she died in 1984.

At the Shepherds Hut there were publicans who nearly equalled the Newall’s long tenancy. Mr and Mrs William Stacey took the Hut in 1899 and like Bill Newall, Bill Stacey died leaving his widow to carry on as Landlord. Mr Stacey died a day or two before Armistice day 1918 and his widow remained at the pub for another 14 years, a total of 33 years.

Bill Cobourne followed Mrs Stacey at the Hut and was another long serving Landlord. Unfortunately I am not sure how long he served but probably nearly 30 years.

The first Stacey in the village to be Landlord was a William Stacey at the Grapes and the father of William at the Shepherds Hut. Another son, John, became Landlord of the Grapes, but by the 1920's father William and his two Landlord sons had died leaving their widows to carry on as Landladies.

Vic Short of the Three Horseshoes was also a reasonably long serving Landlord but without more research we cannot be sure how long he served.

There is a newspaper cutting from the time of the First World War stating that he had unsuccessfully applied for military exemption. It is thought he left the village in 1937.

He was followed by that great London character Amy Buck who, it was said, kept two lots of opening hours. One for normal trade and one in the back room for special customers wanting an out of hours drink, particularly American Servicemen.

A change of name for ‘The Grapes’ to ‘The Pickwick’ did not bring longterm gain, as competition from off-licence outlets and supermarkets together with the changing social scene brought the closure of the Pickwick in 2004.

The Eton Wick Newsletter - August 2016 - `Our Village' Magazine

Village shops before the superstores (Part 1) 

At a recent local History Group talk we discussed trading before the coming of superstores in the late 1970's. Our knowledge depends on memory, recording and what we are told. At best sometimes questionable. 

Recorded history of Eton Wick is limited, and frequently incorporated with that of Eton. The Anglo Saxon name of 'Wyk' is suggestive of a supply area to a habitation; in this instance Eton. 'Wyk' we are told, meant the provider of necessities to that place - again Eton. This is itself a suggestion of early trading; albeit perhaps wood for fuel, barricades, buildings, and willow-withies for the fish traps, hurdles and fencing. Perhaps also fish, livestock and rye. This is my conjecture and not necessarily factual. Dr Judith Hunter's book 'The Story of a Village 1217 -1977' is the only work I know of that covers our general history. (Copies are still available from the History Group). Judith would have used some of the history written by the Rev Vicar John Shepherd eighty years earlier, titled 'Old Days of Eton Parish', although it essentially covered the College; its Chapel; the town and village churches and schools, with some thoughts on Common and Lammas. 

There is the more recent 'Photographic History of Eton Wick and Eton' (2000) and the 100th Anniversary publications of the Eton Wick School (1988), and of the Methodist Chapel (1986), both by Judith Hunter; also the book recording Eton Wick war fatalities (2000) and John Denham's collection of 'Eton Wick 1939 - 1945'. These are single subject records however, but to my knowledge are the extent of our recorded history. There are a number of personal stories, never meant for publication but an invaluable source of knowledge. I have-several of these, including the memories of a local farmer; a London evacuee's time at Eton College, and her being bombed out from her Eton home in December 1940: an eye witness account of the Dorney Common anti-aircraft guns in action; the rescuing of post war squatter families from flooded huts on Dorney Common in 1947; the arrival of a gas depot in Alma Road 1929 and the story of Harry Chantler, our popular grocer and postmaster (1929 -1973). 

The group talk on pre Superstores Eton Wick, commenced by saying that the village's first known shop was during the 1840's in one of the Harding Cottages, and owned by John Kirby. The original Harding Cottage was along Common Road, and it was probably during the early 19th Century that a terrace row of four or five more were built at the end of the long plot, and along the main road now the site of Clifton Lodge. It would not have been a shop by later standards, but almost certainly a front room adaptation, and probably sold some groceries, candles, paraffin, matches, soaps, pot menders etc. Canned foods were not an item in 1840. 

Eton Wick's population at this time was barely 400, and most of the few cottages had very large plots providing room for chickens, perhaps a pig, goat, and even a cow. Residents along Common Road with its stream and ponds even kept ducks, and still they had substantial vegetable gardens and currant bushes. This self-sufficiency was no help to Mr Kirby's venture, and in due course he packed up. There were no allotments and would not be for another fifty years well after most of those large cottage plots had been sold and built on. That first known shop was very close to 'The Grapes' public house, and its demise gave the landlord, William Simmonds, the opportunity to sell groceries from his licensed premises. In fact I was once told that the pub sold milk well into the twentieth century. 'The Grapes' was renamed 'The Pickwick' in 1984 and became a restaurant in 2003. 

Around 1870* John Kirby reappeared and again set up a shop and home, now at Ada Cottage (now 46 Eton Wick Road). This was only 50 — 60 metres west of Harding Cottages and 'The Grapes' and next to another public house 'The Three Horseshoes'. Both pubs have recently closed. John Kirby's new outlet at Ada Cottage in the early 1870's was destined to trade for over 100 years, with many owners and many uses, from grocery, post office, ironmongery, bakery, fishing tackle, fish and chips, millinery, war time tailoring, cycle parts, shoe repairs, interior decorating materials, and a printers. It retained a shop front appearance until the end of the 20th century, long after becoming solely residential again. 

By 1876 John Kirby had died and Mr Thomas Lovell had taken over. With no opposition he expanded the business with the first Eton Wick bakery, first Post Office and an extensive range of galvanised buckets, baths and tubs added to the grocery. Tom's brother Fred meanwhile traded in drapery and footwear. Opportunely this coincided with extensive house building beyond Bell Lane in the new area of Boveney Newtown (in the Burnham Parish until 1934). Lovell's stores may well have been the only shop throughout the remaining 1800's. There were of course various vendors with their horse drawn carts. This included farmers with milk and eggs, bakery carts from Eton and coal merchants. Newtown development throughout the 1880 — 1890's produced two shops but I have no year of their opening. The first I believe was at Shakespeare Place and the other at Garrod Place and both were purely grocery stores. Some years later the Co-op opened a larger store replacing the Garrod Place beginning. 

In 1902 Pratts of Eton obtained the Eton Wick old school site at 'The Walk' junction, where

they had the village's first purpose built shop known as Clifton Stores, erected for the purpose of retailing groceries and household necessities. Perhaps not at first a great success, it was transferred to Mr Harman in 1908, who after five years sold the business to Mr Anderson. It was 1913 and a year of changes. The Post Office moved from Ada Cottage to Clifton Stores. The council attached a fire ladder and reel of hose to the outside wall of Clifton Stores; presumably for general use in case of fire, while somebody cycled or ran to Eton, mustered the voluntary brigade, who with horse drawn pumps galloped to Eton Wick. The ladder was a feature until 1987, but the hose went earlier. Also in 1913 a brick mortuary was built off Common Road: at this time river bathing and consequent drownings were not uncommon. In 1907 a third retail shop was opened and this time for Royal Enfield Cycles, repairs and hire. Villager Ted Woolhouse opened the shop in the front room of a terrace house close to Lovell's Stores (now 56 Eton Wick Road. He did not live in the house, but it was rented out separately — minus a sitting room. Ted was reputedly Eton Wick's first car owner, having a De Dion purchased in 1907. Around 1910 Bill Hearn moved into a 'semi' at Wellman Cottages, just three houses from the cycle shop (now 62 Eton Wick Road) and much later known as Thames View Stores. Bill used the sitting room to sell and repair or manufacture leather harnesses, saddlery, bags etc. Ambitiously he had printed Eton Wick view postcards. Sadly Mrs Hearn died around 1913 and with his young family he moved to Victoria Road to pursue small engineering and eventually a taxi business. 

The Wellman retail outlet became the third grocery shop along this stretch of road, being owned by Wiggins. Grahams and Barons: ending its days in the 1990's as an aquatic store. There was another shop along this road, at the end of St. Leonard's Place, by The Walk (now Taylors Court). This apparently came about at the end of the Great War, when farmer Harry Bunce helped set up the shop for a young Mrs Godwin, a recent widow of Charles Godwin, a Life Guard who was killed in France during a 1918 German air raid. Nellie Godwin married again, and as Mrs Slade left the shop and was at 'The Grapes' as publican for a while. The shop was extended, changed hands frequently, but the long serving Joan Taylor had a newsagent, tobacco and sweet shop throughout the 1930's — 1950's: There were now five shops along that road; two more in Alma Road; and, lastly another west of the Shepherds Hut, owned by George Mumford the village's first long serving butcher. It opened in the early 1920s. There were regular road vendors by the 1930s; including Mr Hendry from Windsor. who sold soaps, tubs, ironmongery etc., and my father who was Eton Wick's longest serving trades person. He started greengrocery in 1900 at age fifteen years and one way or another continued until he died in 1957. In the next issue we will see how all these businesses declined into oblivion with the post-war Council shop parade and finally the superstores. 

Submitted by Frank Bond 

The photo above shows Ada Cottage, Eton Wick Road - Lovell's shop late 1890s 

Note * The Census for 1871 John Kirby at Ada Cottages with his occupation recorded as Grocer, ages 80.

Click here to read Our Village August 2016.

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

Trade and Commerce Grows in the Late 19th Century

Eton Wick at the end of the nineteenth century was a very different place from that at the beginning, and not just in terms of bricks and its population had risen from about a hundred people to well over eight times this. Many new families had moved into the village - none of the surnames recorded in the early parish registers as belonging to Eton Wick (1640s-1740s) was there a hundred years later. The first house-to-house census was taken in 1841 and the Enumerators' Schedules Books for this and the following three census years give the names and many other details of everyone living in the village at those dates. Several names found in the books are still familiar today - Ayres, Benham, Cooley, Deverill, Hammerton, Miles, Newell, Paice, Prior, Stacey, Woolhouse and others. Few families, however, were constant members of the village, and though some moved only short distances and sons and daughters returned when housing or employment made this possible, others stayed for only a few years. The majority of newcomers came from local villages and towns, but there were people from almost every English county and even Ireland.

This village of the mid-nineteenth century was still a very rural one with at least a third of the men working on the land - farmers, market gardeners, labourers, cowkeepers, jobbing gardeners and pigmen. It was very much a working-class community; more than half the men were either farmworkers, labourers or servants earning perhaps no more than £26 per annum. A rather smaller number were craftsmen - plasterers, coopers, sawyers, bricklayers, cordwainers, a blacksmith and a wheelwright. Most of these must have worked outside the village, except the wheelwright, William Simmonds, for his workshop was behind the Grapes. He must have been a very enterprising person, turning his hand to many trades, for in the twenty years that he is known to have lived in the village he is recorded as beer retailer, carpenter, wheelwright, builder, grocer and coal merchant.

This was a village without any very rich or very poor for the Census Schedules revealed none that were so destitute as to be classed as nor any that belonged to the privileged class of ‘gentry'. The richest members were undoubtedly the farmers of the two largest farms, Saddocks and Manor. In an era when the employment of servants was essential to show that one was above 'the poor and labouring' classes very few in Eton Wick could afford even one living-in maid. Only the Goddards of Saddocks Farm could boast three servants - a governess, a housemaid and general servant. In this household, besides the family with its seven children and the servants, there was also a farm hand living in. Saddocks was large enough by Victorian standards to house them all adequately, but others were by no means so fortunate. A family of nine including grown-up sons and daughters, as well as younger children, somehow managed to sleep and feed in one of the cottages of Prospect Place which consisted of only the one room up and down. More tragically, a mother and five young children were forced to spend at least one night, that of the 30th March 1851, sleeping in the backyard of a neighbouring cottage, having been 'kicked out of house and land'. Not many households in the village, however, were as large as these, in spite of the fact that families were larger - nine or more children was not uncommon - but the elder ones had usually left home before the youngest were born. Infectious diseases also killed many babies.

There must have been scores of villages not very different from Eton Wick, but in one respect it was unusual. This was in the number of working women. There was no question of a choice between marriage and a career, or between a career and a family. On reaching their mid-teens most girls of working class families left home to go into domestic service - to make room at home for the younger children, and because their parents were glad of one fewer mouth to feed and of the small savings the girls managed to send home. If they were lucky enough the girls would get married, and before they had many children, enjoy a few years when they could devote their energies to their own homes and families. Once several children had been born, then many of them found it necessary to turn their hand to any job that might add even a few pennies to the family budget. A few took on dressmaking or domestic service, or even working on the land, but the majority took to laundry work.

In few other villages of South Buckinghamshire were there such opportunities. This was almost certainly because of the proximity to Eton College. From about 1840 conditions at the College had begun to improve, resulting in the employment a greater number of people to attend to the needs of the boys and the staff. The College Laundry was built in 1881. Until this time all the school linen and boys' clothes were washed at small home laundries, no more than cottage wash-houses and sheds, mainly in Eton, Eton Wick and Chalvey. Undoubtedly, the women also washed for their more affluent neighbours and one, Elizabeth Kedge, of Eton Wick (she lived in part of the parsonage) reached the pinnacle as 'Laundress to Her Majesty'. By the end of the century five laundries were advertised in the trade directories - Frederick Burfoot of Alma Road, Mrs Haverley, Mr Sargeant, Mrs Sarah Miles and Mrs Lanfier of Albert Place.

With the laundries came other opportunities in the village. The 1830 Beer Act made it possible for anyone to open a beer house on the payment of a small sum to the Excise Officer. Within three years the Greyhound had received its first licence and a year later the Shepherd's Hut, and the Grapes in 1842. All three were cottages and probably at first sold the beer from a barrel in the kitchen. The licensees often followed another trade. William Simmonds has already been mentioned and David Deverill, beer retailer at the Greyhound in 1841 and 1851 was a labourer. He was succeeded by Isaac Deverill who had been living next door at Thatch Cottage as cowkeeper and dairyman, but who in 1861 told the census enumerator he was a farmer and beer retailer. His son, James, was a greyhound trainer, possibly with Her Majesty's staghounds. Presumably because he was proud of his son's job, Isaac chose the greyhound for the sign of his beer house.

Curiously too the road leading to the Greyhound was named after the family. For many years the road was known simply as Deverill's walk which in time was shortened to The Walk. Not all the beer retailers appear to have bothered with a sign and no mention of one has been found for the beer house run by William Woolhouse at Hope Cottage in the 1840s. At that date with a population of about three hundred the village had a choice of four beer shops and an inn - one for every fourteen families. No wonder in later years the church and chapel found it necessary to fight for temperance.

It is not known when the first shop in the village was opened, but it is likely to have been about this period. John Kirby was in 1846 and is to have lived at Hardings Cottages.  But he did not prosper for long and there was not to be another shop in the village for some years until William Simmonds opened his grocery sideline at the Grapes. Then about 1870 John Kirby returned to the village and again opened a shop, this time at Ada Cottage. He was an old man now and after his death his widow carried on for only a few more years. However, a new tenant took over the shop, and by 1887 it was a bakery and Post Office run by Thomas Lovell. A letterbox stood next to the Three Horseshoes for many years. Almost certainly by this date there was a second shop in the village, another converted cottage - Welman Cottage, or Thames View as it later became known and now Baron Stores.

There were to be no more shops in the village last century, though the rapidly growing area of New Town was almost immediately served two shops. Isaac Crabbe used his front room in the end house of Garrad Place as a general store. Mrs Elizabeth Burfoot was the other shopkeeper and probably was the first to serve at Shakespear Stores (2 Alma Road). Undoubtedly right from the first years Alma Road was the heart, the main street, of New Town; here besides the laundry and the shops were two small businesses. Perseverance Place had been built to the requirements of George Howell, maker, painter and decorator; his workshop adjoined the house. This building has been demolished, but many people remember when the house was used as a surgery. In the 1870s Henry Burfoot had only been a bricklayer living in a small cottage substantial workshop and yard behind. This is now K.G.B. Engineering Works. Henry Burfoot was more than a jobbing builder; indeed he advertised himself in 1891 as ‘builder and contractor, oven builder a speciality, hot range and boiler fixing’.

In the old village another enterprising person seems to have been Henry Elkins who lived in Albert Place in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. He had his own workshop and smithy, not by the house for there was no but on the other side of the brook in the triangular field known as Wheelwrights Yard. Of the other men who were their own masters three were connected with the roads - a fly proprietor who plied for taxi trade from Baldwin Bridge, a carman who hired out himself and his car, or long waggon, and an asphalter.

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

Eton Wick Scouts

The Eton Wick Scout Troop was first formed in the early days of the Boy Scout movement before World War I by Mr E. L. Vaughan, a master at Eton College. The photo shows the troop at camp at Osmington Mills near Weymouth, August 1914, with their Scoutmaster E. L. Vaughan.

1914 Scout camp

From left to right: Bill Woolhouse, George Percy, Bill Bond, Scoutmaster E.L.Vaughan, C. Jacobs, Ernie Wetherhead, Ern Thomas, C.Balm, and George Newall.

The camp was held at the outbreak of World War I; George Percy was destined to be killed serving on the Western Front, while Bill Woolhouse became a prisoner of war. He suffered severe facial wounds, which were tended by his captors.

The troop having been disbanded during the war, a new Troop was formed in October 1926. Mr Sharp was appointed Scout Master with Mr Wetherhead as Assistant Scoutmaster, and Mr E. L. Vaughan became Chairman of the group. To set the group off, Eton College Scout Troop offered secondhand uniforms at 2/6d each, the colours being green and white. Weekly subscriptions were 1d a week, and the troop met in the Eton Wick School Room.

In February 1927 Mr Evans, Vicar of Eton, took over as Chairman with Mr Vaughan becoming Vice-chairman. The group flourished with twenty Scouts attending their first camp at Lulworth Cove, Dorset at a cost of fifteen shillings a head.

February 1928 brought changes in the leadership with Mr Weatherhead becoming the Scoutmaster, assisted by Mr Judd who later became Scoutmaster of the Eton Troop.

Good Scouting achievement won badges and awards, and one particular feat won special recognition. William Hodge, a nine year-old Wolf Cub of the 1st. Eton Group, was awarded the Scout Gilt cross and Certificate by the Chief Scout, Robert Baden Powell, in April 1929. William and his friend, six year-old Alan Kingston had been playing on the ice, when it gave way under their weight and Alan fell through. William and another boy tried to pull Alan out but the ice gave way under their combined weight and they also went under. William continued his efforts alone after the other eight year-old boy left the scene. Eventually William succeeded in pulling his friend out of the freezing mire, no doubt averting a fatality.

 Alan Kingston and William Hodge

Certificate awarded to William Hodge by the Chief Scout, Robert Baden Powell, to accompany his Gilt Cross. The certificate reads: This certificate is granted to Wolf Cub William Hodge of the 1st Eton Group as evidence that I have awarded him the Gilt Cross in recognition of the pluck & promptitude he displayed in the rescue of a boy who had fallen through the ice, at South Meadow, Eton, on March 1st, 1929.

The Eton Wick troop continued to gathered numbers and in January 1930 a Scout Cub Pack was set up under the leadership of Miss Clatworthy. Another welcome phase was the completion of the new Scout Hut during 1930. The hut was located in Wheatbutts field, the site being leased from Mr Vaughan, the owner of Wheatbutts.

                                            Robert Baden Powell

The first Scout Hut in Wheatbutts

Building of this Scout hut had started in 1927: Ernest Coke, who joined the Scouts in 1927, helped his father with the building work. This Scout hut was destroyed by fire in 1963.

The Girl Guide Company was formed in the 1920’s and met at the Village hall. The photograph is of the Eton Wick and Boveney Guide Company outside the hall (known in earlier time as the Institute) in the 1930s.

Girl Guides, Eton Wick

A diary of events for the Troop covering the 1930’s is not available but it is remembered that there were changes in the leadership, with Mr Williams, Mr Short, Mr Ernie Coke and Mr Maoelin becoming leaders. The last two were Rover Scouts; Ernie Coke later became Eton Wick Troop Scout Master. Another local troop change during the 1930’s was the troop scarf which went from green and white to black and white.

Eton Wick and Boveney Scouts 1933.

At the back: Stan Bond and George Bright. 

Fourth row from the front: unidentified, Jack Ling, Ern Lovell, Bob Cook, Bryant. 

Third row: Stan Bright, Ern Lynch, Basil Bavin, Ken Weller, Bob Huse, unidentified, Jim Stannett, Gordon Paintin, George Newell, Francis Holcombe. 

Second Row: Frank Bond, Fred Sibley, Cyril Short, Ernie Coke, unidentified, Miss Clatworthy (Akela) Peter Cooley, Harold Woodley. 

Front: Arthur Hood, Sid Gomm, Dick Harding, Ken Lovell, Doug Slade, Ed Bond, Fred Harris, Ern Bond, Alf Turner, Walter Pates, Albe Bond, Jim Newell and Maurice Young.

This particular Scout Troop was formed in 1926. In WW2, Stan Bond was killed in the Desert campaign and Walter Pates (an air gunner) over France.

There is no record showing how active the Scouts and Guides were in the village during the Second World War. A local newspaper report on paper and metal salvage within the village says that the Guides went about the task with so much enthusiasm that "if it was not screwed down on the cart it went", while the boys showed little interest in salvage!

It seems that the Scout Troop ceased sometime during the war years as from the diary we learn that a group meeting was held on March 1st 1946 to discuss reforming the 1st. Eton Wick and Boveney Scout Group. A new committee was formed and the Reverend Hare appointed Chairman. Mr Stevens became the Cub Master and Miss Morris became Guide Leader.

In 1949 Ernest Coke became Scoutmaster and reformed the Scout Troop with his leadership. Also at this time, Mr Peter Morris took over as Cub Master.

Ernie Coke enrolled as a Boy Scout in the Eton Wick Troop on April 9th 1927.

Ernie Coke

He became Scout Master of the Troop in 1949. After he retired, his son John Coke took the post of Troop Scout Master in the late 1960’s.

The 1950s

To raise funds for new equipment the troop turned to collecting waste paper and holding fetes, and in 1952 were able to purchase new Troop and Cub flags, tents and other equipment. The new flags were dedicated by the Reverend Hare at St John the Baptist church, Eton Wick.

Flag parade outside church

The first Scout Fete held in 1952 in the Wheatbutts. The fete was opened by Geraldene McKeown. Also in the photograph below are Bob Bond and Ernest Coke (Scout Master).

Fete opening party

During 1952 John and Margaret Fennel became Cub Masters of the Eton Wick Cubs. The photograph below shows Margaret Fennel (Eton Wick Cub Akela) and Ernest Coke viewing the gold Medal of Merit for outstanding service to Scouting which was presented to John Fennel, Area District Commissioner in November 1964.

John Fennel and his gold medal of merit

Ernie Coke (left), Group Scout Master, congratulates his son John on winning his Queen's Scout badge. 

Stan Humphries, Eton Wick Scout leader looks on. 

John later succeeded Stan as Troop leader for the Eton Wick Troop.

From left to right: David Springford, Peter Lines and Tony Cutts 

receive their Queens Scout Badges in 1955/6.

Eton Wick and Boveney Scout Camp Scout Rally, Beaconsfield, 1954.

Some of the boys are holding tin mugs, which are about to be filled from the pitcher. Among those present (left to right) were Mike thorn, Alec Benham, Chris Smith (at back), David Springford, unidentified, (?) Pitchard, Rob (?) Hood, (?) Emery, Terry Harman, Tom Foster and Tony Clibbon. Kneeling on the right is Ern Coke the Scout Leader.

The 1960’s were eventful years for the Eton Wick Scouts and Guides, and the Cub and Brownie packs. In January 1960 the Eton Wick Wolf Cub Pack entertained ten American boys from the 178 High Wycombe pack at the Wheatbutts Scout hut. The Windsor and Eton Express reported that the guests were welcomed with a “Grand Howl” and entertained with a sausage and mash supper, games, and a camp fire sing-song.

Eton Wick Scout Group Gang Show April 1960

After raising money in a ‘Long Slog’ by Scouts, Guides, and parents, the new Scout hut was opened in December 1960 by Air Commodore E.L. Brodie, County Commissioner (Scouts) for Buckinghamshire. During the opening ceremony the Air Commodore unveiled a portrait of Baden Powell which had been given by Colonel Butcher, the Chief Scout Commissioner for Australia. Also during the ceremony Margaret Fennel was presented with a medal of merit for outstanding service to the movement, recognizing her many years' service as Cub Master, Guide Captain and Ranger Skipper.

Entertaining the American visitors

Margaret Fennel receiving her medal for outstanding service.

The Scouts' and Guides' fundraising activities included the annual Scout Fete at the Wheatbutts, camp fire evenings, Gang shows, Bob-a-Job weeks, and the collection of waste paper. The money raised was used to organize Christmas parties for Eton Wick pensioners, to send Scouts to the World Jamborees, and finance the annual Scout and Guide camp.

Margaret Fennel leads the Cubs' campfire sing-song 

(see Martin Deebank's message below)

Local Scouts of the Buckinghamshire Contingent to the 13th World Scout Jamboree in Japan being seen off by Mrs Wilson, Chairman of Eton Town Council at Slough Station (1971).

2nd left, Stan Mills, (Eton Wick) group leader; centre, Steven Denham (Eton Wick).

The 13th World Jamboree scout camp was struck by a hurricane

Flooding at the 13th World Scout Jamboree, following a hurricane. Many scouts had to be evacuated to schools and public buildings by the Japanese Home Defence Force and the American Army.
Scouts digging drainage ditches

The British contingent dug drainage ditches in their camp.

The Buckinghamshire Scouts contingent performed a sword dance at the Jamboree, taught by the Datchet Morris men over several weeks before the Scouts left for Japan. The final act of the dance involved interlocking the individual swords for one member to hold aloft a star made by the interlocking swords.

The picture shows Steven Denham, foreground, and the completed sword star (inset).

Eton Wick School children performing at the Scout Fete July 1973. which was opened by Miss Beryl Reid. Other attractions were the Village Shinty competition finals, Can-Can dancers, Trick motorcyclist and various competitions.

In July 1997 a disastrous fire, thought to have been started by vandals, destroyed the Scout Hut. Many trophies and much equipment was lost. Although the building was replaced, money for new equipment had to be found.

Many fundraising events were held by parents and well-wishers, including a Valentine Dance, car boot sales, and a firework night. £6000 was raised for replacement gear, but much memorabilia was lost for ever. The new Scout hut was opened by former England Rugby Captain, Will Carling, in 1998.

The new Scout Hut 

Cubs football team c.1968/69

This picture was provided by Martin Deebank, who wrote:

"The photo is of the Cubs team around 1968/9, after playing in an end of season cup competition on the day of my birthday party. If I remember rightly, we had hardly won a game all season, then we played this cup competition (possibly at Richings Park - it was somewhere near the Crooked Billet roundabout at Iver Heath). We expected to get knocked out in the first round, but we managed to get to the final (so making me late for my party).

The Eton Wick cubs are in the front row; left to right as you look: Paul Miller (?), Rod Pethybridge, Steve Hynam (his parent's went on to run the Pineaple pub at Dorney), Andrew Everitt, Bruce Gould, James Moss, Roger Paintin, Martin Deebank, Paul Connor (later to die as a teenager in a horrific motor-bike accident outside the Grapes pub), don't know (?), don't know (?), Martin Rowlands. Our manager Terry (?) Reeves is the chap on the right behind the players."

Martin's mother Ellen used to run the 2nd Eton Wick Brownies as Brown Owl, and he writes:

"In the loft I've still got a scrapbook that the Brownies did for the Diamond Jubilee celebrations of the Guiding movement. Names of the Brownies who helped to compile the scrapbook are inside the front cover. They are as follows: Gnomes - Irene Brudenall, Diane Jarratt, Kay Symons & Cheryl Norbury; Elves - Lisa Hunt, Heather Caley, Fiona Hunt & Jane Greenwood; Imps - Pauline Sharp & Elizabeth Reilly; Sprites - Nancy Attride, Christine Marik & Jennifer Hughes.

Also, I think that my mum has sneaked into one of the photographs on your site. Under "Eton Wick Scouts" it looks like her 5 from the right (with the white hair) in the picture of Margaret Fennel leading the Cub's campfire sing-song."

Would you like to share your memories of your time as a Scout, Guide, Cub or Brownie with the Eton Wick or Eton Troop? Maybe you were involved in their competitions, or in committee work?

If you have any stories we could publish on the website, please get in touch by sending an email to guestbook@etonwickhistory.co.uk. If you have any photographs, even better!

This article focuses on the Scouts and Cubs, but it would be good to hear from former Guides and Brownies too.

There are other memories of Eton Wick Scouts in the article "A Sixties Childhood in Eton Wick" by Steven Denham.

THE VILLAGE GROWS

Palmer Place

One of the most important features of the nineteenth century was the tremendous rise in the population and the growth Of the towns and villages; Eton Wick was no exception. It was by no means a constant or steady increase, nor was this to be expected but, crowding apart, it was the decades when the village saw an increase in the number of houses that also saw a rise in the village population. However, there was very little building land available; the jealously guarded Lammas rights saw to that. The alternatives were to divide the land already used for housing by either squeezing houses in between the older ones, or by shortening the gardens and building on them, or to dig up the orchard and meadow still within the village area. Of course, the reasons why any one of these things happened depended on the wishes, interests and, perhaps, the business sense of the individual owners of the land as well as the pressing need for houses. 

The years after the Napoleonic wars were lean years, slump years when over the country as a whole there was a dearth in the building of cottages. Many were allowed to fall into ruin and people who had to make the best of such homes suffered. Yet in Eton Wick at least seventeen houses had been built before the end of the 1820s. By 1841 when the first house-to-house census was taken, there were sixty-two houses, three times the number at the beginning of the century. Several were built by the owner-farmer of Bell Farm, John Atkins, such as Bell Farm Cottages, Prospect Place which used to stand between the Three Horseshoes and the Grapes, and the oldest of the Clifton Cottages opposite the Greyhound. Others were built by Eton townsfolk who owned land in the village - Hardings Cottages which were demolished to make way for Clifton Lodge old people's flats and the Parsonage. 

Most of these were rented working-class cottages - the earliest were built of red bricks with peg-tile roofs, but as the century progressed yellow bricks and purple slates became ubiquitous. They were very plain houses with either one room up and one down, or more usually two; each house had a garden, though it was smaller than those of earlier centuries. This is the housing that has mostly been demolished since the war - perhaps rightly so, for by today's standards it had many defects. Yet in its time it was very good accommodation, comparing princely with the back-to-back houses and cellar homes of so many industrial towns, or the one-room hovels of many country villages. Several of the houses had wells and others pumps, though no doubt the brook was still used for water. Cottages were expected to share facilities as is clearly shown in a deed of 1833 which specifies the rights of the occupiers of the ten cottages making up Prospect Place to use the one well, one pump and one privy. 

Two houses did not fit into this general pattern. One was the large six-bedroomed house, built in 1826 as a gentleman's residence, 'convenient to Windsor and Eton and with a very pleasant view of the Castle'. Today this is the Parsonage, but it if it was built as a speculative venture, which seems possible from the advertisement in the contemporary 'Windsor and Eton it does not seem to have been successful, for within a decade the house had been divided to form three dwellings. The other was Thatch Cottage, built in 1833 by Isaac Deverill for his own use. It had quite a large garden and a shed probably used as a cowstall for he was a cowkeeper. 

From 1841 to the end of the century the census records give the figures for the number of people and houses in the village. They show that from 1851 to 1860 the population of Eton Wick rose by forty percent and the number of houses in proportion. In the next ten years, there was a further seventeen percent increase. Dry statistics perhaps; but at the time the people must have wondered what the village was coming to and regretted the change, just as they have done several times since when the village they remembered was fast disappearing. By 1881 the number of people living in this part of the village was at its highest until after the Second World War. 

The village, however, had not yet spread beyond the confines of the old area; instead, almost all the houses were squeezed into the village area or near the farms. Gardens became much smaller; few were now big enough to keep a pig and chickens or even a cow. Henry Palmer of Dorney Court bought much of the gardens belonging to Hope Cottage and built the six houses of Palmer Place on the land. Ye Olde Cottage lost its garden too for the building of Clyde Place, Bonacourt Cottages and Ada Cottage. Even the gardens of Prospect Place became much smaller when Albert Place and Victoria Terrace were built along the edge of the common and Vine Cottage next to the Three Horseshoes. No longer could the common be thought of as the centre of the village, for the Eton Wick Road was clearly more important. 

The houses were very much alike in plan and again plainly styled in yellow bricks, similar to those built earlier in the century and many thousands in other towns and villages. They differed, however, from the much older houses of the village in many ways apart from their outward appearance. Each room had its tiny grate which little resembled the great hearths of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries made to burn large logs and to heat a bread oven built alongside. These small grates were made of iron and burnt coal, though it is unlikely that any besides that in the kitchen was used regularly. Coal was far too expensive. A few lucky housewives now had the luxury of a wash-house with a built-in copper. In themselves, such outhouses were not new in Victorian times, but never before had they been such a feature of terrace houses or designed specifically for the onerous chore of washing. For village housewives, they were indeed a great boon, comparable to the introduction of spin driers a century later. 

Victorian Copper

Victorian Grate

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

Eton Wick Newsletter: Our Village December 2009

Eton Wick and it's 19th Century Changes 

Having previously looked at the growth of Eton Wick it is now time to reflect on some of the happenings that importantly changed the lives of earlier generations. For centuries hamlets and villages like ours were centred around farms and the small clusters of labourers' dwellings; all having well trod cattle and foot tracks. Such as they were, the local tracks or roads would have been seasonally either very muddy or dusty routes between farms and fields, labourer cottages, market or the nearest water source. 

In Eton Wick we have at least four of those 'in' village roads and three other 'through' tracks that connected the village to the outside towns and villages. The 'in' tracks were (a) Sheepcote Road and (b) that part of Common Road that bisects the Great Common and connects between Manor and Saddock Farms and Sheepcote Road. The third is Bell Lane that connects Bell Farm with the main road of today and the old Kings Highway; and lastly Browns Lane (now known as part of Common Road) that gave access from Dairy Farm to the main road. 

Over the years some roads have changed their name. The main part of Common Road is probably as old as there have been dwellings along it. Additionally there were many tracks that did not develop, a few of these still survive. The three through roads were Inner Meads Lane between the Common Road farms and Eton's Common Lane; the old Kings Highway between the top of Bell Lane and Brocas Street, Eton, that was joined by a track from Old Boveney, immediately south of the Eton Wick Church; and the road we all use and was later designated the B3026. The first two have declined rather than developed, but should give us a good idea of the roads our forefathers were used to. Tracks still used include the path from the Great Common to Chalvey, paths to the river, also between Bell Farm and Little Common; across the 'sleds' to Meadow Lane, and across Dorney Common to Old Boveney. You will doubtless think of others. 

Since the 1870's at least another fourteen roads have been created in what we now know as Eton Wick. The Walk, Victoria Road, Alma, Inkerman and Northfield Roads were developed between 1875 and 1900; Tilstone Avenue in the mid 1930's and at least another eight since WWII ended in 1945. Albeit some are estate roads and/or cul de sacs. In its early years Moores Lane was not in Eton Wick and not known by that name until John Moore came to the area in the 1880's. There was a footpath across the fields known then as the 'slipes' and leading to Cippenham. Since the Slough sewage farm and later it's staff houses were developed half way to Cippenham, the road was improved and we know it as Wood Lane. 

The 20th Century brought many changes to the village with the coming of gas (1910), electricity from 1949, main drainage, subsequent central heating and double glazing, but I think there were more noteworthy advances in the 1800's. At the outset the population was approximately 100. There was no school, church or cemetery, no shops or public meeting place and no piped water. Even the Thames must have seemed untamed with no weirs to control the flow — hence more flooding — and no pound locks to make navigation easily possible. Young children would have worked in the fields with mum; weeding, gathering and gleaning for the backyard hens. They rarely left the village and probably some never did. 

Some village lads helped with the horse drawn barges, each leading their 'charge' along the towpath to Marlow where they unhitched the horses and stabled overnight with the horse before riding it back across Maidenhead Thicket to Windsor. My Father did this as a schoolboy in the late 1890's and was paid the princely sum of one shilling (5p). 

In those pre school years of early 1800's many would have been unable to read or write. The first school locally was Eton Porny, built in 1813 and replaced with the present school in 1863. It was another 27 years before Eton Wick's first school (1840) which again was replaced by a school in Sheepcote Road in 1889. Even then the school attendance was not always considered necessary or possible. It was not until 1875 that schooling became compulsory. 

As late as 1888 an item in the Parish Magazine reported that 90 children could be educated free of charge at Eton Porny, subject to regular and punctual attendance of Sunday School for at least one year and of being parishioners of Eton, born in wedlock. Until 1890 schooling was not necessarily free and a charge of two pence or more each week was the norm! This may not seem much but for labourers working for perhaps one pound, having several children, could amount to 10% or more of the family budget being paid out for an education that parents themselves had never enjoyed. 

In the years before schools, Sunday Schools had meant just that; the opportunity to learn to read and write as well as being taught the gospel. Apparently Eton Wick did have a circuit preacher for a while in the early 1800's. With no hall or school he would have needed to use a farm barn or a local cottage.

Between the 15th Century and 1875 the Eton College Chapel had served as the Parish Church. There was no other church in the town until 1769 when a small chapel was built near the present site of St. John the Evangelist. Being unsatisfactory it was replaced 50 years later, itself to be replaced by the present church in 1854. Eton Wick had to wait and make do with going to Eton or perhaps Dorney until in 1867 St. John the Baptist was built. The Methodist Chapel in Alma Road was built 19 years later, in 1886, and in that year a branch of the Temperance Guild came to Eton Wick. Although the village had a church in 1867 the churchyard was not consecrated for burials until 1892. The Eton cemetery near Cotton Hall was first used in 1847 and for 45 years villagers were obliged to go there for burials. The first Parish Magazine was produced in 1878, just three years after the Parish Church was established at Eton's St. John the Evangelist and much of local history used by writers since then have used the writings of Reverend John Shepherd in those early magazines, and his subsequent book. 

The first shop of any consequence in the village was that of Thomas Lovell, baker, post office and household goods, recorded in 1878 at the Ada Cottage (immediately west of the 'Three Horseshoes' public house). 'The Shoes' was first recorded in the Victualler's Recognizance's around 1750. The Greyhound' and The Shepherds Hut' were first licensed in the mid 1830's and The Grapes' (later The Pickwick' and now a restaurant) in 1842. 

Boveney's first pound lock was installed in 1838 and was replaced by the present lock in 1898. 

Socially the village came of age in the last decades of the 19th century, forming a Horticultural Society with its first show in 1878; (twelve years before Eton Town's first show). A village Football Club around 1880, a Cricket Club in 1889, a Young Men's Club in 1885, a Rifle Club in 1899 and getting its first allotments in 1888 and 1894. Also in 1894 both Eton Wick and Boveney New Town each had its own five man Council, to manage their affairs independent of Eton for the next 40 years. This had not happened before and has not been so since. 

In 1892 piped water came to Eton Wick. Only recently built houses would have had this luxury, away from the hitherto shared pumps, but it not only provided water indoors but introduced garden cesspits and indoor toilets. Early recipients included those in The Walk and in Victoria Road. 

The first trains crossed a wood viaduct over The Slads and the Thames in 1849 and this must have heralded affordable coal for the masses. Its earlier transport depended on barges. 

Yes, I think the 19th Century brought us more real advances. We could say 'light years' ahead, even though the village depended on candles and oil lamps — the gas (1910) and electricity 40 years later had still to arrive. In 1800 there was no Boveney New Town and the village population was around 100. In 1899 there were 450 in Eton Wick and slightly more in Boveney New Town. Now it has roughly trebled the 1899 combined total. 

Frank Bond 

Click here to read Our Village December 2009.

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.

Note: since this article was written in 2009 The Pickwick first became The Silk Road and then closed. The Three Horse Shoes and the Shepherds Hut have also closed leaving the village with one pub, The Greyhound open for business. The pubs that were known as the Shoes and the Grapes have been converted into houses as have all the other former commercial properties on the north side of the Eton Wick Road over the past 50 years. The Shepperds Hut's future is as yet unknown.