Although these two books do not cover local history in Windsor itself, we have decided to include them here as so many Windsorians have close connections with the Ascot area and will certainly be familiar with many of the places mentioned in the book and so thoroughly researched by the author, Christine Weightman.
'Cheapside in the Forest of Windsor' covers the area to the south west of Windsor Great Park and provides a comprehensive history of Sunninghill and Ascot up to the division of the parishes in the 19th century. The book will be enjoyed by all with an interest in the local history of this area.
'Remembering Wartime' takes a detailed look at a similar area of but also includes Ascot, Sunninghill and Sunningdale during World War Two. There was much activity hereabouts with the USAAF at Sunningdale Park, members the exiled Dutch government at Rosewood, Burleigh Road plus a wide variety of nationalities living in the area for the duration of the war. The book covers the use to which other large houses in the area were put by a wide variety of organisations. These included Beech Grove, Kingswick, Englemere and The Berystede Hotel.
The book also covers a number of the futile measures of war such as the removal of grand and not so grand railings and gates from properties all around the area, often to the anger of local residents. A campaign was also instigated to collect old pots and pans from which the aluminium would be used to make Hurricanes and Spitfires. Sadly this nationwide campaign merely created vast dumps of unusable scrap metal.
Of a considerable number of photographs, perhaps the most poignant is that of the Sunningdale Home Guard Dugout and Machine Gun post set up beside a phone box. Special PC Oswald Mold is in attendance. There is no doubt that the resistance that this defence could have put up in the event of an invasion would have been shortlived and almost certainly fatal to those manning it. But I suppose in wartime most of us would be anxious to at least do something...
All in all a fascinating read. It is one of those books that you can open at any page and immediately find a paragraph of interest and I recommend it to all with an interest in WWII in general and in this area in particular.
Copies are available price 10 each (plus 2.00) P&P from Cheapside Publications, Heronsbrook Cottage, Cheapside, Ascot, SL5 7QG or from Chapman's in Sunninghill. 'Remembering Wartime' is almost out of print, but is being reprinted in April so orders can be placed now for delivery shortly.
Christime Weightman has also written 'The Bobby's Notebook' (On the Beat in Early Victorian Sunninghill) at 4.00. It comprises a remarkable survivor, the day to day notebook of a policeman in 1841, before the days of the County Police Force, and transcribed here with an explanatory essay.
