Old Windsor memories
Here are memories of Old Windsor and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Old Windsor or a Old Windsor photo.
The Pig Farm
Just outside Windsor is a place called St, Leonard's Hill where beyond there was a massive pig farm. Wall's Pork Sausages bought all the pigs. It was owned and run by a man called Lovejoy. I worked there when I was twenty years old, both as a tractor driver and also a muck cleaner, cleaning pigsty after pigsty. My brother in law, was the head man and there was nothing you could tell him about pigs. He would carry a catapult with him at all times, and he could take aim at anything either standing on a branch or on a wall and if it were a pheasant or a small bird, their days were numbered! Down on the farm there was a slurry tank which was open to the elements. It consisted of a four square area built of breeze blocks in height of about four foot. The slurry stank vile, as well you can imagine, seeing that the slurry was only emptied out twice a year. It was... Read more
Not The Bells of Ouzeley And Not Wraysbury
This photo may have been taken from Wraysbury (on the opposite of the Thames from the Bells of OUSELEY) but the Bells of OUSELEY - not Ouzeley - is, in fact, in Old Windsor.
Holidays at The Lock-Keeper's Cottage
My family and I, Ernest Aspey, regularly holidayed here in the early 1950s as my grandfather, Henry Slaughter, was the Assistant Lock-keeper at the time. This photo is significant to me as I was led to believe that the man in the foreground of the photo was my grandfather and we have a copy of it at home. My most vivid memory is of the time I fell in the lock and was rescued by an employee of the Thames Conservancy, who later received a commendation for this action. Unfortunately, I do not know his name.
Merrimeade
My family lived at 12 Ouselely Road from 1957 5to 1959. It was, repeat WAS, a wonderful home before the current family moved into it. They have destroyed it. I wish I could afford to buy it and refurbish the house. We had a gardener (Mr. Muir), a housekeeper and a nanny (Mrs. Brown of Straight Road). I call England the "Home of my Heart". I miss that house and our times there greatly.
Memories of Berkshire
Honey Pot Cottage at Wraysbury
My aunt, Beryl Reid, moved into Honey Pot Cottage in Wraysbury in the late 1950s and we spent many happy days visiting her. The river was fascinating and there was a houseboat on the other side of the river that seemed to be there for years and years. She had a lovely curved stone seat at the bottom of the garden where I used to sit and let the water lap my feet and the ducks used to come up into the garden every day to be fed. As time went on Honey Pot Cottage because heavily populated with cats and they had the greatest time running up and down trees and hiding in the thatch. Unfortunately those days are long gone.
Wraysbury School.
I went to Wraysbury School and one day came late. Everyone was gathered in the canteen for morning assembly, and when I got there, everyone clapped and I was pushed up to receive a large brown envelope. Going back to my place, I asked the girl next to me what they were clapping about, and she said, "You've passed the scholarship". I was so vague, I don't know how I did it. One day I had walked out of the gate to go home for lunch (about a mile and a half) and a pupil watching me looked very disapproving, but said nothing. When I got home, my grandmother said it was just past 11.00am! I'd gone out in the morning break period. Everyone was looking for me until I brought a note back about 2.00pm, feeling very foolish because everyone was laughing, especially the pupil who had watched me and said nothing! When I was due to leave, Mr Watson, the headmaster (a lovely kindly man with... Read more
Before They Built The Reservoir ...
In the 1950s I used to stay with my grandparents in their bungalow (The Aspens, adjacent to Raynor's Farm) in what is now called Farm Road; it is not even a road now but simply an access gate to the reservoir. Back in the 1950s, before they built the reservoir, it was a track, Coppermill Lane, off Coppermill Road, Wraysbury, but it is now, sadly, under water in Wraysbury Reservoir. They were happy times for me, but as I didn't have a camera at the time I don't have any photos of what the area was like at the time. My grandparents died in 1959 and are buried, so I (much) later discovered in the churchyard of St. Michael's Church, Horton - in unmarked graves which nobody can locate with accuracy, which saddens me considerably, as you can imagine. If anyone remembers them - Henry and Elizabeth BURG - and can provide any information, photos, anything - that would be true magic. ANY help in refreshing my memories would be gratefully and happily received. Ron Burg. ... Read more
Datchet Under Water 1947
1947 was the year that my parents, my sister and I moved to Datchet and the shops in this photo, taken 2 years before, are so familiar, even now. Not long after having moved here, the snow which had lain thickly on the ground for many weeks, began to thaw. The Thames eventually broke its banks, due to the volume of water now finding its way from further up river and the whole of the village green was under water. Our house, very fortunately, was not flooded but I can remember my parents taking up carpets and moving furniture upstairs (just in case) Also coming down to the water's edge by the International Stores and waiting for punts bringing food etc. across the water and the people trading from their boats. As no buses could get through to take us to school we had to be picked up by lorry and taken to the main road in Langley to pick up a bus for the rest... Read more
1947 Floods.
Born in 1944 at no 2, Waterworks Cottages (later 123, Slough Road) on the corner of Castle Avenue. I have vivid memories of the floods, though only three at the time: Mother, Father, Sister and Self were confined to the (very small) upstairs for many weeks, as when the water subsided, downstairs was of course thick with mud and assorted unsavoury objects! (no main drainage in those days). Mother had only a single gas ring upon which to cook, washing facilities were rudimentary, and toilet facilities consisted of one Elsan bucket! Supplies were delivered mainly by ex-army DUKW amphibious vehicles, with Village Bobby P.C. Burr in charge, and well I remember him shouting at me to stand away from the window, and, having failed to do so, being struck between the eyes by a then very substantial Mars bar which he had launched with Constabulary zeal! The R.A.F. came around with huge hangar heaters in an attempt to dry out downstairs, but of course everything had to be thrown out,... Read more
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