Windsor History, Old Views and Genealogy

The Queen - Letters as a Princess

feeds@yuku.com (thamesweb) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 14:41:59 GMT

The above BBC page is either new, or newly updated. In either event it was very interesting to read the Princess's letters and to see the photographs.

College Crescent

feeds@yuku.com (vikingnick) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 14:36:33 GMT

Hi Hazel

We remember your mum, although we didn't know her by name and my mother in law, Noreen Lehane, remembers her well. The other names your mum or you might recall is Mr and Mrs Deeley - she was a music teacher - Mr and Mrs Deller who lived in our house and bought it from new in 1929 (we are the second owners from new, well third I suppose but the second family), Mrs Warskitt, who was headmistress at Trevelyn school, Mr Dixon, Maurice and Sylvie O'Brien, who ran the...

Google search font size

feeds@yuku.com (Hazel Austin) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:21:24 GMT

thamesweb - please delete this after anyone's answered because it's a one-off - have Google users on the forum found a failsafe way to reduce the enormous font size Google have just introduced on their searches? I've scoured the web, but can only find lots of queries and moans about it, not a straightforward way to reduce it to normal. Wondered if anyone had solved the problem? Using iGoogle makes no difference, nor changing font size under View. There is the suggestion to use...

Fourth of June and Brunel's Bridge

feeds@yuku.com (Hazel Austin) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:25:49 GMT

Not a terribly interesting picture, but you seldom get one of the royal family near this bridge - indeed, you don't get many so close to this bridge at all. I was wondering why she was so far upstream? This is from the Illustrated London News, 15th June 1889 - although it portrays the Fourth of June with the Eton boys' procession on the river. At that time you'd think there was somewhere along the promenade she could have watched from; actually she seems to be in a - for her -...

The remembered smells of Windsor... and Dedworth...

feeds@yuku.com (Hazel Austin) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 11:23:15 GMT

Here is a thought for a wet Sunday afternoon. Not a heavyweight local history type question, (so omit this thread if that's what you want) but interesting nevertheless. I wondered whether other posters recall past Windsor buildings with an accompanying, distinctive "smell"... that's conjured up when you recall the place and imagine standing inside. And if so, which buildings? I know some people on the forum usually recall what somewhere looked like extremely...

The right death record?

feeds@yuku.com (catmrs1959) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 00:50:45 GMT

Is it possible to find out, via this website, when a Windsor resident died.
George Short, retired Dyer in 1851 census, died sometime between the 1851 & 1861 census.
I have found 2 death records for a George Short; 1854 & 1856, both Windsor. But which one was the retired Dyer? I want to send for a copy of the death certificate but don't know which to go for.
Anyone out there have access to the local Parish records? Or perhaps knowledge of local churchyards where...

Peascod Street, 1949

feeds@yuku.com (Hazel Austin) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 17:23:11 GMT

Francis Frith have a photo of Peascod Street in 1949; on the right just past Foster Brothers the shop has some elaborate "curtains" suspended outside that I don't remember at all.... am I right in thinking this must have been a butcher's (although I thought a lighting shop came next) and these were a fly-stopping set up, and if I'm wrong, what sort of shop was it and what were those dangly curtains for?

Incidentally, there's the funny old Darvilles shop...

King's Gift of Coal and Coal Deliveries in Windsor

feeds@yuku.com (thamesweb) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:07:11 GMT

On another thread questions were asked about the coal yards in Windsor. Well, I have just rustled up this little film about coal deliveries in the old days. The heading states The King's Gift of Coal, 1945. There are shots of a horse and cart being loaded with sacks of coal direct from a railway truck in the coal yard by Alexandra Gardens, and a couple of takes of a quite elderly couple receiving a delivery. It is very contrived, with the old man shaking hands with the coalman...

Royal funerals and sailors...

feeds@yuku.com (Hazel Austin) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:03:43 GMT

...I'm sure everybody but me knows this, but I came across an account of the funeral of Queen Adelaide in 1849 which was accompanied by sailors. I knew Victoria had a naval escort (who pulled.....yes, we know that) but I didn't know it was so for other royalty. What was the "naval connection" when it was always the Army who had a connection Windsor - and I thought the Royal family?

Incidentally, I also learned that at the 11th hour it was discovered that Queen...

Edward VII and his dog Caesar

feeds@yuku.com (thamesweb) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 21:39:05 GMT

A little while ago I was asked if it was true that Edward VII's dog, Caesar, walked behind his coffin during the funeral procession.
I wasn't sure but have now been sent the above picture. So it was true!

This view is in London so not strictly a Windsor thread, unless of course he was brought here on the...

Underground passage

feeds@yuku.com (the jiffle king) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 09:04:45 GMT

Can anyone help me with a question which has rattled round in my head for a few years. I worked with a lady who claimed that in the 70's (before the IRA bombings) that the site which is currently occupied by McDonalds on Thames street had an underground passage into the castle. She is the only person I have ever heard say this and I've asked a few people.
I've seen nothing on Thamesweb about this, but I would love to know if she was right or if my suspicions that she made it...

Fletchers Secondhand Bookshop

feeds@yuku.com (dwedmunds) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 08:22:06 GMT

I'm an avid collector of secondhand books & wondered if anyone remembers Fletchers bookshop @ 40/41 Thames Street, I think it closed in the 60's. As I youngster I spent many a happy time browsing the shelves, it seemed huge to me but probably wasn't as big as I thought. I do remember the smell of old books as soon as you walked in the door! I wonder what happened to their stock when it closed? Binned I expect.

Inside the Round Tower

feeds@yuku.com (Hazel Austin) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:44:47 GMT

Sorry if this map is elsewhere on the site, but I noticed it was by Wenscelaus Holler - who did the picture of the Parish Church and maypole on the Seasonal Mystery thread. You'll need to slide it across, but I thought it better to have it large because of the detail involved.

What interested me was what was inside the...

The Taste of Windsor - Great Traditional Local Recipes

feeds@yuku.com (thamesweb) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:51:24 GMT

This thread is designed to entice our readers to publish their favourite family recipes from years ago, perhaps the 50s, maybe wartime, even better the 30s, or as long ago as Victorian times.

With an increasing number of readers recalling what they did each day, where they went, and the sights they saw, I feel it is time to recall what they remember eating - The Tastes of Windsor. I am aware that these tastes may have been similar in other parts of the country, but a good recipe...

Dye Colour Works, Peascod Street

feeds@yuku.com (Hazel Austin) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:36:32 GMT

On the left of this lovely Louise Rayner water colour of lower Peascod Street is a shop roofboard that says "Dye Colour Works"... the one with three pigeons posing on the top...

I'm wondering if anyone has any knowledge of this business at all? Presumably Ms Rayner painted what was there, so it should be in Kelly's somewhen. I'd admired the picture before but it wasn't until I was scouring all available old images of Peascod Street for the Conservative...

Billy Wilkins/John F Canning

feeds@yuku.com (Hazel Austin) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:58:03 GMT

A brief article in a 1958 Express describes how John F Canning, who lived at Foxcote, Bolton Avenue until leaving for Canada in 1911, had written to Bert Allen, Secretary of the Royal Windsor Rose Show about the following show which he hoped to attend (he was a good rose-grower apparently) as he would be in Europe then. He asked Mr. Allen for news of Billy Wilkins, who he remembered playing for Windsor Football Club. This was Mr. Allen's reply:

"Billy Wilkins must now...

John Fortescue, Author, Librarian and Archivist, Windsor

feeds@yuku.com (thamesweb) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 17:16:35 GMT

John Fortescue, Author, Librarian and Archivist at The Royal Library, Windsor
Historian of the British Army

In 1911, a young actress called Winifred Beech was taken by friends to a tea party at the modern, red-brick home of the writer Thomas Hardy in Dorset. It would, for her, turn out to be an occasion of great significance. But not because of the brief encounter with the venerable author. Gazing across a crowded...

Seasonal Mystery...

feeds@yuku.com (Hazel Austin) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:46:59 GMT

Seasonal only because it was apparently drawn by one Wenceslaus Holler in 1666, I found this on a folk tradition website. It is Windsor Parish Church and the town maypole, 1666.

Okay, where is the maypole then?

Without knowing what the old church looked like I can't work out which way it is facing, but my two...

Windlesora 26 - Local History Magazine published Dec 2009

feeds@yuku.com (thamesweb) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:20:13 GMT
Copies of the book will be available at Waterstone's, Peascod Street from December 5th.

Windlesora 26 Contents

The Circus comes to Town. Geoffrey Try. 200 Years of the Circus in Windsor
'I saved the Train'. Hester Davenport. Heroism on the Windsor Express
...

Dame Beryl Mann and the Windsor Pantomimes

feeds@yuku.com (Hazel Austin) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:50:34 GMT
Dear Dame Beryl,

Following my return to active duty after a protracted absence ("done a runner" I think was your regrettable phrase of choice, but we shall let that pass...) I am perturbed to find that a post of mine, concerning the purveying of Army and Navy Sweets in your confectionary shop (fictitious as it happens, but we shall let that pass too...) has caused you consternation and alarm. Anxious to avoid the Forum in any unpleasantness of a libellous litigation...