Category Archives: era
VE Day in Salt Hill Way
This photograph is of a street party held in Salt Hill Way to celebrate the Allied victory in Europe. In fact like many of the other street parties, it was actually held on the weekend following Tuesday 8 May, 1945.
The strange tail of the Chalvey Stabmonk
Few people today will have heard of the bizarre ‘Stabmonk’ ceremony that took place annually on Whit Monday in Chalvey where a plaster-cast effigy of a monkey was given a mock funeral and burial. The first printed reference to the
Author Susan Cooper and WW2
Susan Cooper is an acclaimed author of children’s books and is best known for her fantasy series, The Dark Is Rising. She was born in 1935 and grew up on Westlands Avenue in Huntercombe (the area around Huntercombe Manor straddling
Ploughing Match 1913
The photographs below are from The Royal South Bucks Ploughing Match and Agricultural Show held at Cippenham 1st October 1913. The ploughing competition took place on Josiah Gregory’s Farm (Western Farm). The field in the pictures is probably south of
Queen Anne’s Well, Chalvey
Queen Anne’s Well is said to have first been used to supply drinking water to the monarch at Windsor Castle at least 300 years ago. It wasn’t a well in the sense generally recognised today, but actually a spring. The
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