One of our members recently moved into the delightful cottages and brought us a question. Why would there be a wall between a single window, splitting it into two? For the first time in quite a while, the Group was flummoxed.
The answer was not thought to be about architecture, nor some of the innovative building materials or techniques used, nor partitioning a room, but a legacy of the old window tax. Something that was brought into England & Wales in 1696 by King William III and remained until July 1851, when it was finally repealed and replaced with a tax on inhabited houses. Critics condemned the tax for diminishing natural light and ventilation, contributing to poor health conditions.
There is a great story about their history in “A History of Prince Consort Cottages“, by G. Baxendale in Windlesora 8 (1989).
Windsor Local History Group 