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| Numbers 8 (left) & 6 (right) High Street photo Rob Gordon |
by Janet Kennish
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| Numbers 8 (left) & 6 (right) High Street photo Rob Gordon |
Since the first years of the 20th century these two dwellings have been landmark shops in the village. Number eight is into its second century as a butcher's and number six survived as a dairy to about 1970. The butcher's shop front had been added to one of the residential properties before 1896 and that of the dairy to the other soon afterwards. Previously the butcher's house had been occupied by the Corden family of painters to Queen Victoria, on whose pictures of the village in the 1870s we rely so much for information before the advent of photography.
The whole property (plus the corner top corner beyond) belonged to the Lords of the Manor and was rebuilt by them in the mid-eighteenth century to replace a derelict house whose tenant had thereby forfeited its ownership.
| Baptist Chapel, Yew Cottage, Butcher, Dairy, Baker c1910 |
Riding Court Farm Dairy & delivery vehicles, 1920s/30s? |
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The shop number six is fondly remembered in the village as Stevens' Dairy and tea shop, supplied from their farm at Sumptermead at the end of Buccleuch Road. It first appears in Kelly's street directories from the mid-1930s, while in the early 1900s it had been the dairy shop of the Kinross family, based at Riding Court and Ditton Park farms. The splendid shop front was built for the Kinross business in what had been the small front garden of the private residence 'St Austins' according to the 1896 sale plans (see below).
The forerunner of Datchet's excellent butcher's shop was founded, as Copeland's, between 1891 & 1896. The shop deeds show that the business passed to Checkley in 1908 and then (for £1000) to Augustus Harris in 1914. In 1937 it became Reeves & Son of Staines and now for nearly thirty years has been successfully run by Graham Russell.
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In 1896 the Montagu estate put all their Datchet village properties up for sale Not all actually sold at that time. |
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red brick with tiled roof & small garden in front, contains: Top floor: 2 Bedrooms with fireplaces, First floor: 2
Bedrooms, W.C Ground floor: entrance hall, Front Dining Room with stove,
Back Sitting Room, Let to Mr Stokes at £45 per annum on yearly tenancy due to expire June next ........................................ Lot 4, First-Class Freehold Butcher's Shop & Dwelling
House Let to Mr Copeland, Butcher on 21 year lease from 1984 at £35 per annum |
The Corden family of painters consisted of William the elder (1797-1867 and William the younger (1819-1900), and his son Victor (1860-1939). Thus the images of Datchet in the 1870s and the rebuilt church in 1864 must by William the younger and it is assumed those of the church in 1857 before rebuilding are also his. It is only William the younger who certainly lived here by the early 1850s.
The first William was a painter of china in Derby and Nottingham who exhibited his designs (particularly portraits) at the Royal Academy. This led to commissions for Royal portraits, including the Queen. He also copied many portraits in her collection and was sent to Coburg by Prince Albert in 1844 to copy Saxe-Coburg pictures there.
His son William was also born in Derby but moved to Windsor in 1819. He travelled to Coburg with his father and constantly copied royal portraits for the Queen to give as presents, as well as carrying out new commissions, mainly working in watercolour. Victor Milton Corden painted landscape and military subjects, also for the Queen. (Information from Dictionary of National Biography)
| census year | 8, Corden's house, now butcher | 6, Walsh's house, Dairy now shop |
| 1901 | Thomas Checkley, butcher | house empty |
| 1891 | Benjamin Beamish GP | Louisa Atkinson, independent |
| 1881 | William Corden, artist | house empty |
| 1871 | William Corden, artist | Major Lewis Walsh |
| 1866 rate survey | owner: Duke Buccleuch, occupiers: W.Corden, Major Walsh | |
| 1861 | William Corden | Major Lewis Walsh |
| 1857 rate survey | owner: Duke Buccleuch, occupiers: W Corden, Major Walsh | |
| 1851 | Richard Morison, GP | Lydia Walsh |
| 1841 | Richard Morison, surgeon | Fanny P Walsh |
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From William Cordon's Sir Robert Harvey's hunt meeting outside the Manor Hotel, 1874 |
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Corden has used
artistic licence here, to move his own house into a clearer view
than might be possible from the far side of the village. It
shows the two dwellings without their later shop fronts and
balconies.
On the corner is the ancient White Hart pub, by this time run for the Lord of the Manor by the licensee of the Manor Hotel. In about 1880 it was demolished and replaced by the baker's shop (for a long time as Hawes) and now by a modern building, currently the Wine Rack. The White Hart had a bowling alley in a long shed behind, seen here as like a barn. |
More interesting information is known about the occupants of house number eight than six. Names were recorded in the land tax lists and from the 1780s to 1830 (in addition to those below) include Mr Cooper, Mrs Alder, Mr Chilcott, Richard Livesay and Samuel Wilmot.
| Bake house and wash house, rear of number 8 before recent work. Late 18th/19thC? | |
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The house is known to have been built by 1781 because in that year (the earliest to survive in the land tax lists) a Mr Gillson is given as the tenant of one of the houses under the ownership of the Duchess of Buccleuch. And then in
1783 the household effects of Mr Gillson were sold at auction on the premises. The sale catalogue describes the
contents of each room and the sequence from top floor to kitchen exactly matches
that of the 1896 sale description for the butcher's shop, number eight.
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From the 1790s to 1820s the house number eight was occupied by the Buccleuch and Montagu family's steward, Major Walter Scott (nothing to do with the novel writer). He would have been the Lord of the Manor's eyes and ears, and during the Black Datchet riots of 1812 one of the ringleaders was caught and brought into 'Major Scott's house in the village'. Here he apparently became contrite and made a promise to behave, though one which he did not keep for very long.
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Wine Rack, looking down High Street to numbers 6 & 8 photo Rob Gordon |
From left: Willcocks Chemists' & Hawes Bakers' shops in the early 1900s |
This late 20th century rebuild of the 1880s corner property deliberately echoes many features of the shop it replaced: the raised corner entrance (which probably served originally as a flood defence), the mock-timbered gables, jettied-out first floor and the 'oriel' type projecting windows. The style of the old shop itself had referred to the Manor House which had recently been updated with a mock-timbered Jacobean facade exhibiting these features.
The first leases of these two shops, described as 'newly built', are from the Duke of Buccleuch in 1882. They replaced the ancient White Hart on the corner (see Corden painting above) which had belonged to the Lord of the Manor and by this time was being run by the same licensee as the much smarter Manor Hotel opposite. The White Hart is recorded as an inn from about 1730 but can be traced as a house called Piper's back to the 1560s in the court rolls of the Manor.
Windsor & Maidenhead, 40666, 6 & 8 High Street, Grade II, 5130, SU9877 5/13
Late C18 much altered. Two storeys & attic. Square mansard roof with plain tiles, central chimney. Red brick with parapet & stone coping. Six windows on first floor, two double hung sashes with original glazing bars. early C20 shop fronts with balustrade balcony over.
Interior has C18 stair with turned balusters & early C19 marble surround to fireplace.
Censuses: online or local public libraries
Kelly's street directories: local public libraries
Corden painting: in private hands
Montagu sale catalogue: Beaulieu Archives or present researcher
Manor Court Rolls: Beaulieu Archives & Northamptonshire Record Office
Land Tax lists for county 1781-1832: Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies, Aylesbury
Gillson sale catalogue: Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies, Aylesbury