A childhood memory
Published in Windlesora 27 (2011)
© WLHG
I wonder if any of the readers of Windlesora remember Denmark Street before it was bulldozed to form the foundations of Ward Royal? I was born there too many years ago to want to remember, but I do remember the Holy Trinity Chapel which stood there and formed an important part of my childhood.
I’ll retrace my steps slightly to give you a little background. I was born in my Gran’s house in Denmark Street but actually lived in the next street; Edward Square – No 15, in fact. In all the streets which formed the Victoria Cottages there were no No 13s, so we lived between No 11 and No 17. I finally left Edward Square in 1960 to get married, shortly before the cottages were demolished.
Coming back to the Chapel in Denmark Street, it was erected back in 1868 when Victoria Cottages were built and it seems to have been designed as a type of communal hall, later being used as a Primitive Methodist Chapel and then by the Salvation Army. After the Army moved out it seems to have been unused for a number of years – that is until 1926 when it was rescued by Holy Trinity Church for use by the Church and the Parish. According to a local newspaper report on the opening of the Chapel a considerable amount of money was spent in refurbishment and the building was made available for Sunday services, Sunday School, and came to house various social events.
The building itself sat back about six feet from the front face of the adjoining row of terraced cottages either side and this formed a wonderful area for us children to play cricket and various other games. As I have been unable to find any photographs or drawings of the Chapel I have added a rough drawing from memory which I hope will convey the general look of the building.
It was about 30 feet wide and about 60 feet deep with a small internal vestibule and a raised platform at the opposite end which had a carved altar piece fixed to the rear wall covered with folding doors which could be opened when the Chapel was used for official Church services and meetings. A side door led to a small kitchen and toilet at the rear which, due to its dark and dingy atmosphere always seemed to be able to harbour ghosts and various other forms of frightening possibilities for us kids. At either side of the Chapel was a narrow open passage with a tall door which I assume was meant to serve as a fire escape but in all my years I never saw these doors opened and I don’t really believe they could have been opened if it had ever been necessary. Although the doors were tall they proved no obstacle to us kids when a ball was kicked over as we could shin up the door and over the top in a matter of seconds!
Part of the newspaper report relating to the improvements made to the Chapel in 1926 mentioned the installation of a new stove. This, I imagine, would have been the same stove which my Gran and I had to try to light when the Chapel was used for a social event – this would be about 1947-50. It was a tall Tortoise stove, similar to those you see in films or old photographs of prisoner of war camps, Nissen huts, etc. It was a round vertical cylinder of cast iron with a flat top having a small door into which you could drop fresh coke when it was well alight. The steel flue pipe also had a ‘damper’, which was a hinged flap which you could use to control the amount of ‘draw’ the flue had to encourage the stove to bum. A small door at the bottom of the stove acted as a point to riddle out the clinker and ashes when the stove finally went out. A simple piece of equipment you might think and simple to light and operate – but just you try. Many, many times we would go across to the Chapel with a bucket of coke, some wood sticks and screwed up newspaper to attempt to light the stove. The newspaper would be pushed into the bottom access door and a few sticks placed on top together with a few selected pieces of suitable sized coke. A match was applied to the paper and the bottom door and top doors shut, and the damper opened a little. We waited with baited breath as Gran and I looked at each other waiting to see if the first attempt would be successful. After a couple of minutes we could hear the burning paper roaring up the inside of the stove and the slight crackling of the wood. Gran would give a grin and gently open the top door to pour in some more coke only to find a few charred sticks and a wisp of smoke to greet us. The dead embers were dragged out of the bottom door and we started again. This could for several attempts before we were successful and with dwindling supplies of newspaper and wood the situation would often become serious. Being in a Chapel Gran would offer up a prayer at some time and some not very religious words if it went out again but eventually the stove would give in and the coke would begin to burn. Of course this always assumed you could start the proceedings with dry paper and wood, if anything was a little damp then you were in for a long haul and maybe you might be lucky to get the stove going a few minutes before the evening event was due to start.
The reason for the stove lighting ceremony was that when my Father, Tommy Tickle, came home from the war in 1946 he organised a small social club at the Chapel which, I believe, used to meet on Wednesdays for whist or a beetle drive, and on Saturdays for a social dance when a small band would be engaged to play. I can remember these events well and was allowed to stay for a short while to see the dancing, etc. before being put to bed in Edward Square where I was left on my own until the dance ended – I would presume about 11.00 p.m. or thereabouts. This was nothing unusual in those days. On some occasions we would have a concert and various local residents would be encouraged to do their party piece on the small stage to a piano accompaniment. We would have singers of varying degrees of ability, comedians, children reciting poems, etc. A great mixture of home spun entertainment for all the family. I can honestly say the cottages had a great community spirit which was sadly swept away when the new development took their place. I shall not offer my opinion on the design of Ward Royal but I don’t think the same community spirit has possibly been seen there since it was built. I said previously that I have been unable to find a picture of the Chapel but I have found a picture of the interior and this is in the Beryl Hedges book Around Windsor in old photographs. On page a picture of a group of people in the Chapel and I was amazed to see my father standing in the centre of the back row dressed in his army uniform. Behind him can clearly be seen the wooden altar piece with the folding wooden doors in front. If anyone has any other photos I would love to see them.
I cannot let the story pass without some mention of the 1947 floods which devastated Denmark Street and the surrounding area. As my Father couldn’t get to work at Datchet he knew the Golding Brothers who operated the ferry across the Thames and borrowed one of their punts. Together with a couple of mates they punted round the streets helping people get down a ladder they carried to get to work or collected a list of shopping which people needed while they stayed in their first floor rooms. I have several stories relating to the floods but they may have to wait for another time. The reason I mention the floods is that I had attended the Mothering Sunday service on the 16 March at the Chapel and on leaving we kids found that water was coming out of the road drains not going in as it normally did. During the course of the evening the water rose higher and higher and it was clear that some flooding was due to happen. In Edward Square we were a little higher than Denmark Street so the flood water never reached us but my Gran had about three feet of water in her house. During the Sunday evening it became clear that some smaller items of furniture could be taken upstairs but the larger pieces would have to stay put. But Dad, being a resourceful chap, obtained the Chapel keys and took some of Gran’s furniture into the Chapel and placed it on top of the pews. He also walked along Denmark Street asking everyone whether they wanted any furniture put in the Chapel but I don’t think anyone did and, of course, a lot was ruined.
One small item I must regale you with – and it shows what children can get up to when they don’t have television and computer games to occupy themselves with. A group of us local kids were sitting on the Chapel step chatting and playing one day. Looking around we discovered a large quantity of snails at the bottom of one of the side passage doors. Being the inquisitive types we were we brought some of them to the Chapel step to watch them crawl along. This was fine until I noticed that one was crawling under the doors. Before I could fish him out he had disappeared – these snails can really travel when they want to you know. This is fun, I thought, and carefully directing another it too wandered under the door. What a great idea! Collecting about 20 or 30 snails they were all placed close to the bottom of the door and all managed to enter the Chapel without opening the doors. The deed was done and I left to find something else worthwhile to do. The day of reckoning came when I bumped into the local Rector, Rev Eric Dawson-Walker, who asked me if I knew who had put a lot of snails under the Chapel door. I, like a true Christian, said I knew nothing about it but it was clear one of my mates had ‘grassed‘ and I was a marked man.
As the reader will gather the Chapel, as we all called it, was an important part of my childhood and I and all my friends living around the area knew it intimately, both inside and out, and my only regret is that the demolition of the cottages which I called home for over 20 years has passed with so little record being made of their existence. I appreciate there are some photos of street parties, etc. The 1897 Ordnance Survey maps of Windsor show the chapel on the south side of Denmark Street quite clearly. I am indebted to Pamela Marson for her diligence in finding a newspaper cutting of the opening of the refurbished Chapel and to her kindness and enthusiasm in helping me with my quest. The sketches of the Chapel frontage and location are my own so I take responsibility for their lack of accuracy and general scruffiness!
Windsor Local History Group 