Where is eton wick

These would meet together in their little community to discuss and settle matters which concerned their common benefit, and, at long intervals, would be called to arms by their thegn to join in resisting the inroads of some marauding foe. It may be conjectured that this colony was known as Cole Norton or North tun; 'town' or 'tun' in Anglo-Saxon being the name given to the enclosure or hedge which surrounded the homestead of the thegn and his dependents.

But what of the town of Eton itself? Old maps and engravings, as well as information which belongs to the time of the Foundation of the College, make it clear that the river and its tributaries present a very different appearance to what they did even in the fifteenth century.

The main stream has considerably shifted its course. Several of the streams have been diverted, some have disappeared altogether. Going back still further, we may conjecture something of this sort. If we could have taken a bird's eye view of the southern corner of the parish nearest the river, or even if we could have looked down on it from the chalk hill on the Berkshire bank, which in later days was crowned with the Round Tower, we should have noticed several intersecting streams and a cluster of islands, and especially a stream of some width flowing out of Cuckoo Weir stream and passing along the lane on the north side of South Meadow into Barns Pool, re-entering the main stream to the left of the College Eyot.

On the principal island thus formed, we may conjecture that one of the early warrior-chieftains chose a sited for his homestead which would command the river and be secure from sudden attack, while his retainers built their log huts or cottages round him, protected by his fenced enclosure or tun; and out of this small nucleus the ' town ' little by little grew.

In old documents Eton is very variably spelt. The first spelling suggests that the name properly signified the Island Town, or the Town on the Eyot, and that this name was in course of time extended to the rest of the parish. When the parish first appears in the pages of chroniclers, it was in the division of Bucks which was known as the Hundred of Burnham , but it seems to have been afterwards, either wholly or in part, transferred to the Hundred of Stoke.

Most of the land in very early days was probably, like the country on the opposite bank of the Thames, thickly wooded, but by the time of the Domesday Survey, taken by the order of William the Conqueror in , Eton already was a place with some resources and importance of its own. The land had been largely cleared and was partly in pasture and partly cultivated, although there were still woods and copses large enough to feed swine on mast and acorns.

There were two water-mills valued at a rent of 20s. One is supposed to have stood at Cuckoo Weir, and what is known as Deadman's Hole may have been caused by the washing of the mill-stream.

The other mill stood in what is now the Playing Fields, perhaps near the gate which now opens on to the College Eyot. There were also large fisheries, yielding a rent of eels. It was here that the royal family resided; hence the property acquired by the King in the neighbourhood. The Manor of Eton was one of such holdings. It belonged to his wife, Queen Eddid or Eadgyth, and on her death reverted to the Crown. A little later, the Conqueror granted it to Walter son of Other, who was appointed Warden of the Forest, and also was the first Governor or Constable of the Castle Keep, which was just then erected on half a hide of land in the Manor and Parish of Clewer, as a suitable military post to command the neighbourhood.

This Walter, who afterwards took the title of Baron Windsor, had on his Manor fifteen ' villeins, ' tenants under their lord of strips or portions of land and working between them six plough teams, also four ' bordars ' or cottagers, who held their cottages and gardens on condition of supplying the lord with poultry and eggs.

He had besides attached to his land four servants or serfs. The two mills, some of the fisheries, and woodlands mentioned above, belonged to this Manor. There was also a second Manor in this parish held of the King by Walter son of Pont; he had thirteen villeins, five bordars and seven servants, whose lands were not geldable, i.

He had two fisheries and acres of pasture land. In addition to some rent, these thegns had to aid in building forts and castles and maintaining bridges in their jurisdiction and to provide a certain number of men for the King's army. The building of the Keep was followed by the building of some other parts of the Castle, and Henry I. What communication there was between Eton and the Castle, except by ferry, is uncertain.

But, as for many years yet there was no town on the Berkshire side of the river, we may presume that the presence of the Court and garrison helped considerably to the development of the trade of Eton. At any rate it had become sufficiently large and prosperous for a weekly market, which was held on Mondays. For this, King John granted a charter to Roger de Cauz in Of the two manors mentioned above, one only survives under the designation of the Manor of Eton cum Stockdales and Colenorton.

From the titles of its Courts and their powers, it would seem to have been a Manor of consider-able importance in the neighbourhood. The other Manor is represented by what is now Crown land and by what was in later years acquired by the College. John Shephard, M. The text is has been copied from the original book that is now out of copyright. The s were a decade of change. Mrs Annie Chew , in place of her aunt, became joint society steward with her husband, Archibald Chew.

They brought to the role their own ideas and a loosening of the reins. Such changes, however, were over-shadowed locally by the plans for an extension to the chapel and also nationally by the Methodist Church Union and the publication of 'The Methodist Hymn Book'.

The first steps in bringing to fruition Mrs Tough's dream of a larger schoolroom were taken within a few months of here death and in January it was decided that 'rough plans and an estimated cost' should be obtained by Mr Chew as soon as possible. By September the Circuit Committee was able to give the necessary permission for a fund to be set up and early in the Tough Memorial Fund was launched.

It was a large undertaking for so small a Society. Membership was only about twenty and much of the money would have to be found from outside the chapel. Meanwhile another problem had to be faced - the need for new trustees. Of the original eight appointed in , only three remained. James Leaver and Robert Kirby, both elderly men, asked to be allowed to retire. It was decided that in future there should be twelve trustees, and in January eleven new ones were appointed with only Jessie Wilkins continuing in harness to give continuity to the Trust.

The important change which took place in , however, was the union of the various Methodist Churches. The Primitives had broken away from the Wesleyan Church in the early 19th century over their evangelical preference for open air services, or camp meetings.

Now some hundred years later such differences were being resolved and the Windsor and Maidenhead Wesleyan Circuit and the two Primitive Methodist Circuits centred on Maidenhead and Slough previously Windsor became one Methodist Circuit.

Eton Wick was no longer a Primitive Methodist chapel, and in the wake of the amalgamation came a re-organisation in the running of the society. It is difficult now to separate these changes from those brought about by the death of Mrs Tough and the end of her autocratic rule, but the appointment of Mr Frederick Styles and Miss Winifred Jewell as poor stewards was an innovation taken from the Wesleyan Church.

The annual meetings of the trustees were now more formal affairs with minutes being taken, and class leader meetings were begun. Mr and Mrs Chew were clearly the central figures running the chapel, but other members were also taking more responsibilities. The Society, however, was still very small, with less that twenty five members at the beginning of the decade and only twenty nine at the end. In the Roman Catholic Church of St.

Gilbert was built opposite the old recreation ground. The first school was built in on a site now occupied by the Post Office shop, but by the schoolroom was so overcrowded as to be 'unwholesome' and the present school was built in on land given by the Crown, on which Lammas rights were relinquished.

The school was enlarged in and again in The Village Hall was given to the inhabitants of Eton Wick and Boveney in by former Eton College housemaster Edward Littleton Vaughan - a great benefactor to the village who died in His widow, on her death in , bequeathed a stained glass window in the village church in memory of her husband.

An important feature of Eton Wick is its Commons and Lammas Lands, the rights of which have been jealously guarded over the years. The term 'lammas' usually applied to meadows used as common pasture after the hay was cut, but here it also embraced the open fields over which the village hayward grazed the horses and cattle after Lammas Day or as soon as harvest had been gathered.

In so many parishes these common lands were lost through enclosure, but in the 19th century Eton College as tithe owners, and the Crown, supported the village and commoners of Eton Wick in their opposition to the Inclosure Bill which John Penn, Lord of the Manor of Eton and of Stoke Poges, tried to push through Parliament. The defeat of the Bill in , celebrated by the town and village with bonfires and feasting, has enabled farming to survive in Eton Wick.

It is interesting to note that when some Lammas land was sold in 19th century to the GWR for the Slough-Windsor branch line, money paid as compensation for loss of Lammas rights was used to buy the old Recreation Ground for the villagers. It was completed in and cuts through the Roundmoor, Chalvey and Common Ditches.

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Eton Wick.