Waltham St Lawrence

A majestic yew tree marks the approach to St Lawrence’s, which has a west tower of flint and stone blocks topped with early brick. The doorway is definitively Perpendicular in style, but the west window is of 13th-century vintage with finely-detailed cusped intersecting tracery. The body of the church is flint with Victorian detail, including a bleak Victorian window of 1847 on the south transept front. Internally, the church shows its Norman origins with two-bay arcades north and south and unmoulded arches separated by pieces of wall. Two of the responds have a very elementary row of flat leaves. The arcades of the short Norman church were continued east by two standard Decorated bays, but no chancel arch. The font is Perpendicular, octagonal with no separate foot or stem and panelled sides. Of the pulpit, 1619, only the back panel with caryatids in its upper part is original. The tracery heads of the screen are original, and show their Decorated rather than Perpendicular origin. Abundant stained glass by Wailes, Kempe and M Schneider of Regensburg probably dates back to 1847 - a mysterious choice. Tombs and monuments include Sir Henry Neville, 1593, and two wives and a daughter, and Captain Henry Neville, 1809 - a military still life; Katherine Thomas, 1658, has a memorable monument with an urn of a curiously organic shape, somewhat like an inverted pear on a short marble column, placed in a niche with no ornament.
An extract from from"Berkshire Churches Photographic Memories".

Our last view shows Dorney Reach with the Berkshire bank on the left. This tranquil stretch of towing path, now part of the splendid Thames Path long distance footpath, has had its tranquillity rudely shattered. Now, in the middle distance an elegant duck egg blue-painted steel bridge carries the ceaseless roar of the M4 motorway across the River Thames, in effect the latest Maidenhead by-pass.
An extract from from"Maidenhead Photographic Memories".

A former royal manor, Bray is well known for the song ‘The Vicar of Bray’, celebrating the vicar who changed sides several times during the Civil War and after to keep his living. The tranquillity of this delightful village is traffic-blighted, like many in the area. Here we look along the High Street towards the junction with Church Lane. At the end is the Hind’s Head Hotel. The Ringers on the right is now the Fat Duck Restaurant. The timber-framed cottages have long gone.
An extract from from"Maidenhead Photographic Memories".

From the High Street, Ferry Lane leads down to the river and the former ferry point. We are looking back up the lane with the river behind us. On the right is part of the George Hotel, as it was then. The view is little changed apart from the outbuilding on the right with the two dormer windows which is now a house, Tansy Cottage.
An extract from from"Maidenhead Photographic Memories".

Here we are standing on the slipway where Ferry Lane disappears into the River Thames. The straw-hatted boy peers round the fence of the George Hotel from its riverside garden; another boy fishes. The George is now the renowned Waterside Inn with a thoroughly developed river terrace that includes an oriental-style gazebo. In the distance is part of the Fishery Estate along Bray Reach, started in the 1890s by a rich widow named Annie Smith.
An extract from from"Maidenhead Photographic Memories".