On Thursday 19th September, a group of 15 members met at10:00am on Windsor Bridge for a walk around Windsor and Eton.
David & Gwyndaf had done their homework and planned a walk that was to take in sights of Windsor that many of us had not seen before. The walk was loosely based on The Queen’s Walkway and a series of 63 of the town’s attractions, but we were to cover only the sights in the centre of the town.
Starting at the bridge, we went past the memorial to King George V, designed by Lutyens, the Old Bank House, that used to be a brewery and is now part of St George’s school, and the Theatre.
We then passed the Curfew Tower, built during the reign of King John, and which is where the bodies of traitors were hung from the battlements, stepping over the clock in the pavement (an advertising gimmick for Dyson’s, the clockmakers).
There were many unusual attractions: the death warrant for Charles I, a game of hopscotch based on monarchs connected with Windsor and the parish church of St John the Baptist which held an 18th century picture of the last supper, a wonderful carved altar rail by Grinling Gibbons and the royal pew with two grand wooden thrones.
As we stood beside the Guildhall, we managed to see the changing of the guard, with the band of the Irish Guards playing and the pipers wearing the Irish kilt.
These were followed by the Welsh Guards, wearing bearskins with the leek badge of green and white.
Later, Bill Jones discovered that there was a video taken of the whole event and posted on YouTube. If you look very carefully in the video you’ll see our group at about 5 minutes in! Click here to see it 1st Battalion Welsh Guards with Pipes of Number 12 Company Irish Guards
By the time we had seen the Queen’s train, the Jubilee Fountains and the river, we were feeling quite tired and decided that we should retire for lunch at Cote Windsor and leave Eton for another day.
It was a glorious summer’s evening., and many of our party took shelter from the sun on chairs beneath a large marquee on the paddock lawn.
We studied the racecards, which gave details of all the horses, riders, past form, owners, trainers, heritage, and weights. We checked the odds given by the bookies, then chose our horse based on its name, looks or the rider’s colours.
Many of our party were able to pick a winner in one of the seven races that were run that evening, however some (myself included) had to be content with keeping the bookies in business.