A Village in the Shadow of Eton
Published in Windlesora 18 (2000)
© WLHG
Eton and Eton Wick are believed to predate the College by several hundred years. Their place names are Saxon in origin and believed to refer to the proximity of the river and its many streams creating an eyot, or island, upon which the inhabitants set up dwellings. Eton Wick is low, and being so close to the Thames, very floodable throughout its history. Early settlers would obviously have built upon the marginally higher ground to the north of a stream running through the old village from west to east, and in fact farms and farm buildings still do occupy those drier positions.
Manor Farm, together with the Manor was purchased by John Penn in 1793. About this time the Crown Commissioners, also appreciable land owners, had thoughts concerning the enclosure of the Common and Lammas Land to the east and north of Eton Wick. Penn endeavoured to push an Enclosure Bill through Parliament which would, had it succeeded, have left us with a very different village today. Fortunately, the Bill was defeated in 1828, and there was much celebration in Eton and Eton Wick.
Nearly 200 local people had signed or marked the petition opposing the enclosure of their common usage grazing lands. Perhaps nothing is exclusively advantageous, and certainly Eton Wick now found it difficult to grow. The Commons and extensive Lammas Lands could not be built upon unless there was unanimous agreement, or a Parliamentary Bill, and west of the village boundary was the Parish of Burnham, which few probably thought to build upon. For four decades after the defeat of Penn’s Bill, additional homes were added by the purchase of large garden plots where houses, often terraced, were squeezed into the available space. Then, during the early 1880s, farmland to the west of Eton Wick, and in the Parish of Burnham was bought by a Mr Ayes who sold the plots, laid out roads, and by the turn of the century the village had doubled its size and population. Strictly speaking, perhaps one should say ‘villages’ because this growth beyond the old village boundary of Bell Lane was now to be known as Boveney Newtown; it was to have its own council and in many ways to be independent of Eton Wick. The first years of Newtown, as it was generally known, caused its residents to look to distant Burnham for spiritual guidance or for support when their own Primitive Methodist Chapel was being built.
In 1892 Boveney Newtown came under the Vicar of Eton, and by special arrangement residents could now be buried in Eton Wick, though the two communities would not yet be regarded as one. The village hall, being sited close to the border of the two communities in 1907, was very appropriately named The Eton Wick and Boveney Institute. Likewise the Scouts, other organisations and the War Memorial were all named Eton Wick and Boveney. This is no longer
necessary, as for over 60 years we have been one village in the same parish. Only in historic matters is there a division which occasionally one complains about. No householder west of Bell Lane (Boveney Newton) receives any benefit for Old Eton Charities, and of course really has no benefit of grazing rights on Lammas Lands or Commons. This is of no consequence, however, and the days of rights and obligations associated with these lands have for most practical purposes gone.
Eton Wick has always been a working class village, having no big houses or a village squire to give financial support to deserving causes. However, there was one such person in the past, Edward L Vaughan. He generously provided the superb village hall with the land, promoted the early Eton Wick and Boveney Scout movement, financially supported football and cricket, the Church, the Sunday School and its outings, the Horticultural Society and some of its awards, and much more besides. Mr Vaughan, ‘Toddy’ as he was well known, died over 50 years ago, but for another 50 years previously he had inspired the village and left it a better place.
People moving into Eton Wick often do so because they feel surrounded by fields and commons, and have the Thames within five minutes walk yet are still able to reach towns quickly. Without the Commons and Lammas Lands so jealously guarded by earlier generation, we might perhaps be another part of Greater Slough. Other villages such as Cippenham, Chalvey, Farnham and Upton, have all lost their rural identity.
The growth of Eton Wick into Boveney Newton, and beyond, has almost reached its limit of expansion. After World War II hundreds of houses and new streets brought many new villagers. To a large extent this was a shift of population within the Eton Parish, as many of Eton’s own residents were moved into the village. Interestingly, if we look at the population nation-wide in 1842 it was 5 million and is now tenfold. Reading was 19,000 and now 150,000, London was 1.5 million and now 7.5 million, but Eton was 3,409 and is still perhaps less than 4,000. The farms have unfortunately largely declined, and the few village ponds have vanished, but there is still a feeling of being a ‘Wicker’ – one is still a villager!
Frank Bond
Chairman, Eton Wick History Group
Windsor Local History Group 