Old Windsor

"OLD WINDSOR, a parish in the hundred of Ripplesmere, county Berks, also containing places in the county of Surrey, 2 miles S.E. of New Windsor, 2½ from Egham, and 2 from Datchet. It is situated on the river Thames, and includes the hamlet of Sunningdale and part of Virginia Water. The village, which has the union poor-house, may be considered a suburb of New Windsor [which see]. The principal seats are Beaumont, once the residence of Warren Hastings; Moat Farm, occupying the site of a hunting-seat of the Saxon kings, at which Earl Godwin is said to have died; Sunning Hall, and Corvath. Above two-thirds of the surface are comprehended in Windsor Great Park. The living is a vicarage* in the diocese of Oxford, value £250, in the patronage of the lord chancellor. The church is dedicated to St. Peter. There are besides the district church of the Holy Trinity at Sunningdale, built in 1840, and the royal chapel, built by George IV. in the Great Park for the accommodation of the tenantry and keepers connected with the royal demesnes. The Independents have chapels at Old Windsor and Sunningdale. There are National and industrial schools, partly supported by bequests of Lady Onslow and Mrs. Harmesley. The Rev. G. Isherwood is lord of the manor. A pleasure fair is held annually.

"CUMBERLAND LODGE, a mansion in Windsor Park in the parish of Old Windsor, in the county of Berks, so named after the Duke of Cumberland, the victor at Culloden, to whose memory a pillar has been erected close by."

"SUNNINGDALE, a hamlet in the parish of Old Windsor, county Berks." [was made a separate civil parish in 1894]

From The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland(1868). Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003. Other descriptions can be found from other periods in various trade directories covering Berkshire from the early 19th century onwards from Berkshire FHS (members only) and from A Vision of Britain Through Time.