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.
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
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 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.
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
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.
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