Eton Wick | |
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Parish Church of St John the Baptist |
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Eton Wick shown within Berkshire | |
OS grid reference | SU945785 |
Unitary authority | |
Ceremonial county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | Windsor |
Postcode district | SL4 |
Dialling code | 01753 |
Police | Thames Valley |
Fire | Royal Berkshire |
Ambulance | South Central |
EU Parliament | South East England |
Eton Wick is a village currently in the English ceremonial county of Berkshire, but traditionally in Buckinghamshire, on the River Thames. According to the Grid Ref at the 2011 Census the population was included in the civil parish of Eton. It is very close to both the historic towns of Windsor and Eton, as well as Slough and Dorney Lake, the rowing venue for the 2012 Summer Olympics. The village has grown rapidly between the 1880s and the 2000s.
After the construction of Eton College in the 15th century, a small group of houses were built immediately west to the college grounds. Making up the homes of shoemakers, tailors, and other workers who worked in the college. The hamlet was physically separated from the rest of Eton by land owned by the college, and was known as the wick.
The wick was on the very edge of the parish, on the opposite side of the border adjacent to the village, cottages were built to house farmhands working at nearby Bell Farm. Throughout the 19th century, scholars at Eton College took a personal interest in the village. Building a village hall and a small school in the village, the college was traditionally responsible for the social well-being of the settlement.
In 1880, the owner of Bell Farm, Charles Dorney, sold some of his land for residential building. The new village was called Boveney New Town. After the 1894 Civil Parish act, the Wick was transferred from Eton parish to Boveney parish and became known as Eton Wick. Eton Wick and Boveney New Town were almost immediately next to each other yet both retained their own councils until 1934. The population of the villages during this time was around 500
After the second world war, both villages were expanded and built into each other as part of the wider national push for more housing, bringing the population up to around 3,000. In 1965 the land surrounding the village was registered as commons land under the Commons Registration Act, meaning the land cannot be developed without permission from the Secretary of State for the Environment