Author Archives: Dreadnaught
The Slough Bomb Mystery
Of the many secret files of World War Two that have been declassified, only one contains the word ‘mystery’ in its title. The event that confounded the British War Cabinet and the high-command of the RAF was termed the Slough
How Cippenham Court Farm became The Slough Dump
Prior to the 20th century, Cippenham was a quiet country village consisting of humble terraced cottages surrounded by some large farms. East of the centre was Cippenham Court Farm which is the only one from which buildings survive to the
Cippenham’s Cinema
Cippenham has only ever had one cinema. Originally named the Commodore it opened its doors on 30 November 1938. A stone’s throw from Everett’s Corner, it was situated on the Bath Road at the east side of the junction with
The Mystery of the Cippenham Duck
In the late 1960s when I was a small boy, I was playing one day on Cippenham village green with two other local boys when they announced that they were going to play on the “duck”. I didn’t know what
The Cippenham V1
In World War 2, Cippenham escaped relatively lightly from German bombing. At around 8:40 AM on 23 August 1944, however, a V1 flying bomb (doodlebug) fell from the sky and exploded near to the boundary of the village green. A
Disastrous Fire at Cippenham Green, 1908
A century ago, house fires were much more common than they are today. Open hearths and naked-flame lighting created opportunity for accidental fires to start and the higher flammability of furnishings meant that they could take hold with rapidity. The
Cippenham Royal Palace
There is a tradition that in Cippenham there was once an Anglo-Saxon palace which was home to the Kings of Mercia. In A Topographical Dictionary of England published in 1848 [1], the entry on Burnham says “It appears to have
Lost buildings of Lower Cippenham Lane
Lower Cippenham Lane is probably the oldest route through Cippenham. It is noteworthy that one end heads from the likely sites of John, Earl of Cornwall’s Cippenham Palace in the direction of the Abbey he founded in Dorney in the
Station Road
Here is a very nice postcard photograph of Station Road dating to some time in the thirties. It has been digitally processed by us to increase the detail as much as possible. Click on the image to see it at
The 1940 bombings of Cippenham
The Slough trading estate and outlying villages could be said to have escaped lightly from German bombing in WW2 by comparison to other industrial areas and London. The reason for this would have been Luftwaffe’s strategy which, following the effective