Tough Assignment - John Moore and the Moore Family

John Moore, father of Annie Tough, lived most of his married life in Rotherhithe in Kent. He is not thought to have been a Methodist until after his daughter embraced the faith, and he may not have become a member of a chapel until he moved to Eton Wick sometime after 1877. By this time he had retired from his trade of mast and oar maker, with sufficient money to become involved in the development of Boveney New Town. He bought at least two plots of land and on these built Primrose and Snowdrop Villas. What prompted his decision to follow his daughter to her new home we shall never know, but it had far reaching results. Annie was his eldest child, daughter of his first wife, who had died long before 1877. He was married three times and although there were twelve children, the family was a close-knit one, and he brought his third wife and at least three unmarried daughters and a son with him to Eton Wick. Friends and family came from Rotherhithe for the opening of the chapel and all of the names on the chapel's foundation stones are those of members of the Moore family. 

Mr and Mrs J W Moore, Miss A M Moore, Mrs L B Bailey, Mrs E S Eddy, Mrs E M Groves, Mrs A M Marks and Mrs R E Symonds

For many years seat rents were paid for Mr and Mrs Moore and the two daughters still living at home, and also for Miss Ada Moore who was an active member of the chapel in her own right. John Moore was one of the eight original trustees and a considerable benefactor to the chapel. He never became a local preacher, but he was a helper, a term which implied that he assisted with the services. Amongst other things he presented the Chapel with its first harmonium in 1893.

Outside the chapel he carved himself a position of considerable local importance. His success in this field was recorded in the Rotherhithe Advertiser:

'He was the first highway surveyor elected in Boveney Parish; the first School Board member elected in that parish; the first Parish Council chairman elected by the parishioners; also the first District councillor, and the first Guardian of the poor elected by ballot in the parish. He was also the first promoter of allotment schemes in Boveney, posted the first letter in the first post office provided there; obtained the licence for the chapel by which the fourth marriage in 600 years was performed in Boveney Parish, and that was the wedding of his youngest daughter; and built the first six villa residences in Boveney Parish'.

He was more than a little proud of his achievements (quoting from the newspaper in his Christmas cards), but such a recital hardly does justice to his energy and drive. Boveney was a divided parish. The old village was very small lying close to the river and on the other side of Dorney Common to the new (and rapidly growing) community of Boveney New Town. The impact of John Moore on the civic affairs of this quiet parish cannot have been anything but shattering and within a very few years the centre of local government had moved from the village to the new settlement over the border from Eton Wick. When parish councils were first instituted in 1894, the first chairman of Boveney's was indeed J W Moore and council meetings were held at the chapel for an annual rent of 10s. Moore's Lane is named after him.

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

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

THE MAKING OF OUR VILLAGE 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Submitted by Frank Bond 

Click here to read Our Village December 2014.

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

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

thames.me.uk website

Tough Assignment - Annie Moore - her early life

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

Annie Moore - her early life

Annie and Emma Moore 

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

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

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

Bell Farm House illustration by Bob Jeffs

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

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

OS Map of Eton Wick courtesy of National Library of Scotland

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Photographic History - Village Characters - John W Moore

Moores Lane is named after John Moore, who came to Boveney New Town (as it then was called) from Rotherhithe, Kent. His daughter Annie (a founder of the Alma Road Methodist Chapel) was married to Charles Tough, who became manager of Bell Farm. John Moore had Primrose Cottages and Snowdrop Villas built in Alma Road; his own house was at the end of Primrose Cottages abutting Moores Lane. Boveney had its own Council from 1894 to 1934 and Moore was the first chairman. 

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

Tough Assignment - A Chapel of Their Own 1886

At first Mrs. Annie Tough met with considerable opposition from the owner of the land; she was after all in no position to offer a fair price for a plot, however small. There were no rich patrons offering a hundred guineas or more as there had been when St John the Baptist's Church was built, and however dedicated the band of Methodists, they were few in numbers. We know the names of only a handful of them - John Moore, Ada Moore, John and Emma Lane Mr & Mrs Thomas Green and Henry Goodman. Annie's father had left Rotherhithe and bought land in Boveney New Town on which were built Snowdrop, Primrose and Shakspear Cottages. He and his family lived at Primrose Cottage. Annie's younger sister, Ada, already an adult woman, also came to live in the village. John Lane was a master builder who, after being widowed, had met and married a member of the Maidenhead Church and was thus brought to Primitive Methodism. Henry Goodman came from Dorney where his family had been prominent Primitive Methodists since the 1850s. No doubt these and other loyal workers supported Mrs Tough to find a site for the chapel, but it was she who finally wore down the resistance of James Ayres, the developer. As a businessman he was far less impressed by her ardent Christianity than her sheer persistence! At long last she 'obtained from him a conditional promise that if a certain gentleman effected a purchase of land that day she should have a site for a chapel.' The sale went through and he kept his word. 'I give it to you', he said, 'as a reward for your perseverance'. 

The stage was now set for the next great effort - raising the money to build the chapel. The land was a gift, though as Mr Ayres had refused to give it to anyone except Mrs Tough, it had first posed a problem, solved in the end by the property being invested in her as Trustee. The cost of the building was only to be about £300, not a great deal even in those days for a church, but a considerable amount for the Primitive Methodists of such a small community to find. But find it they did, and in a very short time there was sufficient money guaranteed for the work to begin. 

It was a proud moment that first Sunday in October 1886 when the chapel was at last officially opened. We can still see the building with its yellow bricks, porch, and arched windows, and its inscription 'Primitive Methodist Chapel 1886.' From Alma Road it looks very much as it did a hundred years ago. No doubt it was viewed with immense pride that day, but no records survive to tell us the details of the occasion. Imagination must paint the picture of the congregation crowded into the tiny chapel - Mrs Tough supported by members of the Moore family, John Lane, skilled tradesman and foreman with Henry Burfoot (who built the chapel), village and circuit members of the Methodist Church, as well as many other well wishers from the neighbourhood. 

 In spite of the rain the meeting held the next day attracted a good congregation. It was a circuit as well as chapel affair and Mr Lodge of Maidenhead acted as chairman. Addresses were given by church members from Maidenhead, Dorney and Slough as well as by John Lane of Eton Wick, who was the chapel treasurer and one of the eight trustees. This was a time for congratulations, a time for appraisal of successes achieved - and the work yet to be done. No doubt the speakers talked of the spiritual life of the chapel, but it was the more practical considerations that the local newspaper reported. over £130 had already been raised towards the building fund, but a further £145 was still required to clear the debt. 

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

Tough Assignment - The Fund Raising Continued

Money matters dominate the early records of the chapel. The account book shows that there
was an income of almost £160 in the first year. The money came from special collections taken at the stone laying and opening ceremonies, donations, profits from teas and collections made outside the meetings and services by chapel members such as Mrs Tough, Mr Goodman and Mrs Lane. Of the 69 people who gave to the chapel this way, 62 made their contributions through Mrs Tough. By this simple statement in the account book we catch a glimpse of the energy and dedication of Annie Tough which was to characterise her contribution to chapel life for the next fifty years. 

Hers, however, was not the only effort and there were many helpers at the bazaar held over three days in December. The event merited a whole paragraph of description in the Windsor and Eton Express: 

Page from the Seat rent Book

'On Tuesday week and the following three days a bazaar was held to reduce the debt of the new chapel, opened in October last. The chapel was suitably decorated with mottoes. The stalls were prettily set off in a Swiss style by pink sateen and white muslin, evergreens and pink with white ruche. The rostrum was decorated with an archway of evergreen and roses, filled with artificial grasses and flowers kindly lent by Mrs Riley of Upton. The stallholders were Mesdames Cutler, Crabbe, Lane and Pierce, the Misses Moore and Davey. The amusements were 'Room of Art', galvanic battery, bran tub, cabinetto* kindly lent by Mr Moore) and piano. Miss Curie, of Dorney, (after the usual devotional service conducted by the Rev J Lee) in a few appropriate words expressed the pleasure it gave her to help a good work, and in a very pleasing and gracious manner declared the bazaar open. Both in decoration and throughout the sales the very efficient service was rendered by Messrs J Moore and family, J Lane, T Green, J Crook and A Cutler. Through the kind help of many friends in the neighbourhood the profits amounted to £16 1s 2d.' 

Few people in Eton Wick had more than a very modest income, and although by the standards of the time, as well as today, this sum was quite a small reward for such a lot of effort, it was the equivalent of half a year’s wages for many a village man. 

After this great effort, the subsequent years brought in much less money - an average of only £30 per annum for the remaining years of the 1880s and less than £17 per year in the 1890s. 

Donations now were few in number and the income came mainly from seat rents, collections at anniversary services, special collections for such items as 'lighting', profits on teas, the occasional entertainment, sale of 'bazaar articles' and the various small contributions made through chapel members' books. In the last few years of the 19th century only Miss Ada Moore continued collecting, and for a few years the income did not cover the expenditure and the treasurer had to lend the difference. 

A page from the earliest
Chapel Account Book.

In spite of this, however, each year £5 or £10 was 'paid off the principal', the £100 borrowed
from Miss (?) Lane to pay the remainder of the builder's bill in 1887. Tables, trestles and such homely items as brooms, teapots and spoons feature in the accounts of these early years and there are fairly frequent mentions of repairs. The clock was mended in 1893 and two years later the harmonium, which had been a gift from John Moore. Oil, wood, lamp glasses and candles were regular items of expenditure, as was the £3 paid each year to the chapel keeper. It was his or her responsibility each Sunday to light the upright stove in the chapel and the school room fire, to look after the oil lamps and to keep the chapel clean, a more onerous task than today for the untarred road was muddy or dusty according to the season. The winter of 1894 brought extra work clearing up after the floods which inundated the village.

Neither the seat rent book nor the account book, the only surviving chapel records from this period, give much indication of the richness of the spiritual life, but a little can be deduced. There were occasional mentions of the Sunday School and its scholars, so dear to the heart and the aspirations of Mrs Tough. A roll book was bought in 1893, and though we can only guess at the numbers on the roll, it was certainly no more than a dozen, for even seated close together on forms, no more than this could squeeze into the tiny back schoolroom. Sticky on hot summer days, it was wonderfully cozy in the winter heated by an open fire. Mottoes and testament cards were purchased and also school prizes, described as 'story books' one year. Oranges - a real treat for most village children - were bought at Christmas, and excursions (Sunday School treats) began as early as 1890. 

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

An example of a cabinetto being played can be found on YouTube.

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. 

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.

Tough Assignment - Ministers, Local Preachers and Trustees

 Ministers with pastoral responsibility for Eton Wick

Local Preachers belonging to the Chapel

These are lay men or women appointed to preach anywhere in the Connexion, but who normally preach at churches within their own Circuit.

The date give is the year they first became a Local preacher.

before 1893 John Lane

 before 1893 Frank Tarrant

1902 Frances Annie Tough

1902 S Baker

1907 Frances Paintin

1935 William Templeman

1951 Daphne Hogg

1952 Tom Dally

1953 Helen Banham

1963 Dennis Nelson

1981 Neville Thorman 

Trustees

Eight trustees were originally appointed in 1886, but by 1933 these had been reduced to only three. It was resolved to draw up a new trust deed and to increase the number to twelve. Two of the original trustees retired. By 1952 it was again necessary to elect new trustees to bring the numbers up_ to twelve again. For ninety years the trustees were responsible for the fabric of the chapel, in 1976 duties came to an end with the passing of the Methodist Churches Act which transferred responsibility to the Church Council.

 

Frances Tough	Eton Wick	Domestic duties	1886-1930
John Lane	Eton Wick	Builder	1886-1913
John Moore	Eton Wick	Mast and Oar maker	1986-1911
Henry Goodman	Dorney	Gentleman	1886-1892
James Leaver	Maidenhead	House decorator	1886-1933
Robert Kirby	Maidenhead	Paper finisher	1886-1933
Henry Murby	Maidenhead	Ginger beer manuf	1886-1894
Jesse Wilkins	Maidenhead	Brass finisher	1886-1936
Ada Moore	Eton Wick	Domestic duties	1933-1947
Archibald Chew	Eton Wick	Woollen merchant	1933-1943
Annie Chew	Eton Wick	Domestic duties	1933-1966
Harry Cook	Eton Wick	Plumber	1933-1976
Ivy Jewell	Eton Wick	Domestic duties	1933-1950
William Sullivan	Eton Wick	Medical lam maker	1933-1952
William Pratt	Slough	Civil servant	1933-1967
Charles Wilkins	Maidenhead	Cycle dealer	1933-c1960
Augustus Eggleton	Maidenhead	Upholsterer	1933-1952
Henry Carter	Maidenhead	Compositor	1933-1952
George Weeks	Cippenham	Farmer	1933-1949
Charles Pasco	Windsor	Schoolmaster	1952-1963
Allan Kempton	Maidenhead	Accounts clerk	1952-1976
Claude Wisbey	Slough	Distribution supr.	1952-1976
Winifred Jewell	Eton Wick	Restaurant mgr.	1952-1976
Ernest Drake	Eton Wick	Grocer's assistant	1952-1960
Majorie Morris	Eton Wick	Librarian	1952-1976
Joyce Chew	Eton Wick	Secretary	1952-1976
Sylvia Chew	Eton Wick	Civil Servant	1952-1976

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