Windsor memories
Here are memories of Windsor and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Windsor or a Windsor photo.
My Dad
My dad's uncles purchased a horse and cart with their gratuity from WWI and travelled from Cippenham to the market in the Guildhall. They sold crockery they bought from barges on the Grand Union canal direct from the Potteries, you could order replacements for broken crockery. There was the usual traffic jam on Castle Hill and dad would jump off the cart and race up Kings Stairs(?) (they were open to the public then) race across the castle and out the gate, still beating his uncles to the Guildhall.
The Queen And Pantos
I was going from Slough to our favorite pub (The Victoria Arms) on the bus in the 60's not knowing it was Ladies Day at Ascot. The bus ground to a halt at the bottom of Castle Hill, the clippie (young people will have to Google that!) yelled "It's Lizzie!" and everybody jumped off to watch the Queen, Queen's mum, Margaret and Snowden go into the Theatre Royal. Pity there is no pics of the 73(?) pubs in Boro of Windsor! even in W Cornwall I met an ex postie who worked in Slough and Windsor and could name every pub! Before that we went every year to the pantos, Norman Evans with his pneumatic falsies and "over the garden fence" act always made a wonderful dame. Dad took the family back in the 80's, alas no Norman Evans! Panto sometimes meant a meal in a restuarant in Slough, very unusual for us or anyone in the 50's, dad once lost his glass eye on the bus to Windsor!
Back to Windsor
I've been here - to this very spot, with the precious women of my life - my Mom when I was a child, and with my children when they were women. How can it be that it looks exactly the same in 1890, 1971 and 2001? I can feel the cool brick under my hand, and see the flowers over the edge. I wanted to jump down and walk there when I was a child and later with my girls. How can it be that the air and the sky is the same. When I want to remember, to feel, to grieve, to rejoice - I go back - back to where memories and feelings are connected - Back to Windsor.
Fishing on The Thames at Romney Island.
As a teenager living in the Old Kent Road back in the early 1960s, Windsor was surprisingly accessible to me. I spent most summer Saturdays fishing the lock cut at Romney Island. A number 53 bus would take me to Lower Marsh, which was the rear entrance to Waterloo Station. A short walk up the slope past Dewar's bottling plant and I was on the station concourse. It was about forty minutes by train to Windsor & Eton Riverside if I remember rightly. The first thing to greet me at Windsor would be the delightful smell of freshly baked bread coming from Denny's the bakery. I would stroll past the Donkey House pub and along Romney Walk, eventually reaching Tom Jones's boatyard and the lock. The lock in those days was a delightful old wooden structure with long beams by which the lockkeeper would manually operate it. The weir too was of wooden construction back then, with a pitched roof over the walkway. The lock keeper kept an old punt... Read more
St Leonards Hill
Living approx, six miles from Windsor, one on a clear night could just see Windsor castle. I have been often told that Her Royal Majesty had her own country house where I lived and that on occasions she would reside there rather than in the Castle itself. Not too far away was where Billy Smart would have his circus animals roam wild in a huge enclosure. Again not too far from there from where Her Majesty had her house, there was a woodland and somewhere within the woodland was a clearing where upon a good clear night the guards at Windsor Castle would often see what appeared to be flaming torches forming a circle which would be approx, twenty yards or even more in diameter across, and on seeing these flaming torches circling in procession, the security would notify the police to investigate, one could not be too careful when it came to the Queen's well-being when she was within her country house. St Leonard's Hill was in the 1960s... Read more
Windsor Sundays
I remember always being taken by the parents to walk around Windsor Castle on a Sunday afternoon, just walking in then, not security checks or admission fees! And we were so bored of going to see the Dolls House which now you have to queue for! Then a walk down by the river with all the swans... never a ride on the pleasure boats... too expensive! How times change things!
Cab Rank, Wheel Stop
I always understood that these were wheel stops to prevent the carriages rolling back down the hill and were not to tie the horse to.
The Good Days
My Mother owned the Kings Head and i worked in the reastaurant with her she done all home baking and had Eton College lads and there familys eating there,also a great trade was the Army lads from both barracks,I married one in 1956,we are retired to somerset but my heart will always be in Windsor,we served teas to the queues of people visiting our late Kings floral tributes,my late father was a porter at the castle for awhile,all my four daughters were born in Windsor and i had many friends who still live there,The kings Head has changed so much like the many public houses have,the pub at the end of church street was called The Ship pity they couldnt leave them with the same name,all our pubs were like land marks to us,i know times change but names should not.I spent so many happy Memories in windsor and i visit often as my daughter lives in Holyport.I used your site when you first started up and it has improved... Read more
Ye Olde Kings Head
My Nan, Esa Victoria Manning owned the Kings Head and lived there with her family. She was a great cook.
Winter Sundays
1964-1967 There was a time when nearly every Winter Sunday was spent walking from the Egham side, through the Beechwoods then up the Long Walk to Windsor for an early cream tea, then back through all the leaves and cob nuts to the small pub somewhere on the Egham gate side.
You had to hurry at times as there were sunset closing times on some gates. Not the Pub one though!
There truly were beech copses which had cobnuts, Oak, Elm and Plane leaves shin deep, with swirling smoke from Park keeper's cottage chimneys.
We walked miles and miles for fun and because it meant being together but 'behaving' :-)
A visit in 1985 showed it to be largely unchanged and I hope that is still so. Someone else posted about the timeless quality of great monuments, whether stone or landscape. So be It.
Olivia
Warning, it Should't Rain Inside The Bus
I have two early memories of Windsor. One, not far from here and having my photo taken with a huge parrot. The second is a bit funnier. We lived in Chalfont St Peter and when I was about 9 in 1964 my elder brother and his mate took me for a day out to Windsor. We bought Rover tickets and bottles of Tizer and waited for the bus. We all finished our drinks and then the double decker Green Line bus arrived. We went upstairs, of course, and sat in the back. The only other person was a grown up women half way down. By now my bladder was fit to burst but my brother was adamant that we weren't getting off before Windsor. So, I lifted up the back bench seat and behold, there was a long shallow metal tray. Quietly and quickly I pee'd in this tray until it was brimming. My brother and his mate thought this was a real laugh. We all sat down and a... Read more
To Kelly With Love
Windsor Castle, such precious memories come to mind when I think of this place. It connects me to the people I love, and even though they're gone now - the feelings, the thoughts, their presence is real and tangible when I'm there. What a great gift England has given me.
The Mansion on St Leonards Road
I used to work on a pig farm which belonged to a farmer by the name of Lovejoy, he was a provider for Wall's Pork Sausages. The thing was that I had some time to myself where I would explore the woodlands around St Leonard's Hill, one day I found an old derelict mansion with hardly any of its structure worth mentioning. But to the front of the mansion there were two huge pillars of stone like one would see on some Greek island. The story goes that the Lord of the mansion, a wealthy man, had a daughter for whom he bought a frisky horse on her 18th birthday. The horse got spooked and galloped away with her through the woodland. There was a low-lying branch where she could not escape herself being caught up in its branch. She was found a few hours later, hanging by her neck within the forked branch. The funeral was to take place, where she and the horse were buried within the... Read more
The Olive Branch
Outstanding memories of times gone by are the Olive Branch Tea Shop (just before the Theatre Royal) who made the most delicious doughnuts and a little further up the hill was a family run chocolate shop - E.V.Tull. Mr. Tull made the most exquisite chocolates and at Easter and Christmas there were the most magical displays all in chocolate. Fullers Cake Shop was another treat which with the others have long departed and been overtaken by the likes of McDonalds etc. All very sad! Not much magic left there except the Castle and that is almost too regal for its modern surroundings.
Memories of Berkshire
Herbert's Supply Stores Eton High Street
My Great-Great-Grandfather William John Herbert established the Herbert's Supply Stores seen to the right of this photograph. The stores were made of twenty four departments and held the Royal Warrant for Queen Victoria, the Empresses of Russia and Germany, and many minor royals from across Europe. Following a fire in 1896 the building was rebuilt as seen here. The business became Cullum's Garages during the mid 1920's.
Burning Bush
Dad always called this the burning bush, I assume it was the first public lighting they'd seen.
Granny Trotter
Immediately on the right here was Eton College's Rectors House (?), mum's mum was cook, she was a WWI widow with 5 kids and walked daily from a railway slum in Stoke Gardens Slough. When mum left school in the 30's at 14 and was too young for work the rector's wife said to gran to bring the girls along (Nell, mums older sister), mum was "tweeny" (in-between stairs maid) and hated it. Rector took them all on a "holiday", I think to Littlehampton. The girls were laughing at some joke, sitting on the lawn with their mum when they were told off by the rector's wife and given some sewing to do. Mum swore she'd never go into service and got a job packing razor blades, cutting her fingers. Gran also did a "bagwash", washing packed in a pillow case, mum collected and delivered it in an old pram, gran caught her hand in the mangle. A treat was a rabbit which one of the boys caught whilst caddying... 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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