Bill Owen in Maidenhead Court.

Bill Owen in Maidenhead Court.

*****************************

Cookham and the surrounding area has had over the past seventy or so years quite a few actors and actresses who have made their home close to the village itself. During the war the well-known actor James Mason made his home in Cookham Dean. One well-known actor that everyone who has followed the series “ Last of the Summer Wine” was Bill Owen the character actor who played Compo Semonite.

Bill and his family lived very quietly in a house called “Lavender Lodge” on Islet Road in Maidenhead Court, a house today which has been altered quite a lot and now has an entrance on Sheephouse Road and is now called White Croft, which appears to be next a new complex now called Boulters Lock Residential Home.

To my recollection Bill bought Lavender Lodge from a family called Ravenhill in the 1950’s. I remember the Ravenhill family quite well, as the farm at Sheephouse supplied them with all their dairy needs.

The first film I can recall seeing Bill in was “Robin Hood.” In which he played Studeley a poor peasant who was being hounded by the Sheriff of Nottingham and Robin Hood played by Richard Todd comes to his rescue. This of course long before he became a household name as Compo.



The Dingle, Maidenhead Court.

The Dingle,

Maidenhead Court.

********************

It is amazing how much change can take place over a seventy-year period. The house above was known as “The Dingle.” The one time home of a Miss Russen, a retired London West End milliner, who lived there with her long time housekeeper Maggie. The house at that time was shrouded from the road by a line of laurels and it was plain brickwork and not white.

Miss Russen was a very kind person and very much resembled the actress Margaret Rutherford. and also went walking with her little Yorkshire terrier “Shrimp.” When Shrimp died of old age, she replaced it with another one called “Ting-a-ling.” When Maggie passed away, Miss Russen sold up and moved into a retirement home for gentlefolk.



The early Refrigerator.

A 1930's Refrigerator.

*********************

Today, everyone has to have a refrigerator and maybe a deep freeze chest as well, they can’t imagine living without one. The photo above is an example of the first refrigerator that I ever saw in about 1935-36 in the dairy farm shop at Sheephouse Farm, Maidenhead Court. My uncle and aunt purchased it so they could keep the milk, cream, butter and eggs for customers that wanted extra to their regular daily deliveries to their homes. Yes, even in those days, 365-7 was the norm, and the cows had to be milked twice a day.

As you can see in the photograph, the Freon gas compressor was mounted on the top of the unit, so that the surrounding air could readily cool the heat from the compressed gas. Prior to this milk was kept cool by standing the bottles in a tray of water and a cloth placed over the top with the ends in the water so as to keep the milk fairly cool.



Jack Gardener and The Mount Farm.

The Mount Farmhouse.

**********************

We now turn to a family that had quite a lot of influence on the village and district. I now refer to the Gardner family of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. The best know of its family of course was Sir Ernest Gardner M.P. Member of Parliament for Windsor and Maidenhead constituency, who made his home at Spencer's Farm Maidenhead along with his brother Joseph.

It was Joseph's son John Sylvester (Jack) Gardner that many of my age will remember when he owned The Mount Farm and Lower Mount Farm in Cookham and Cookham Dean. He'll also owned Sheephouse Farm in Maidenhead Court, which he rented out as a tenancy to first my great uncle Alfred James Hatch, then to his son Jack Hatch.

Jack Gardner of which I have no photograph could well be described as a gentleman farmer. Whose dress during the daytime was always in plus fours and Harris tweed jacket and flat cap. I can remember during the war when picking potatoes with other classmates from the Top School, his favourite expression was, “ Up behind the Harrow boys, up behind Harrow! This was so that no potato was left behind covered up in the ground.



Cookham Flood History.

Cookham Flood History.

***********************

The photo above shows the flood of 1894 in Cookham High Street. It has happened several times since including 1947. My father, grandfather and great grandfather knew that this could happen at anytime when certain weather patterns occurred, also that the whole village is sitting on one vast bed of gravel and that water will find its own level no matter how many flood barriers you install. If you live in a flood plain, then you have to prepare to put up with the consequences of flooding and the damage it can do to your property. History has a nasty way of repeating itself.

In 1947 the only way to Moor Hall was by boat. The Royal Exchange, now Malik’s was flooded, so was every building going towards The Moor, that included Tom Emmett’s old forge now a Tandoori. Access to Berries Road was only by boat.

The Cookham Village "Dad's Army."

Dad's Army Headquarters.

*************************

I now take you back 52 years when this building behind the “The Crown” was the home of Cookham Village platoon of “Dad’s Army” better known as the Home Guard, but in the first instance was named “The Land Defense Volunteers” or LDV on their arm bands. It also was the home of the Cookham Army Cadets.

The reason for my sudden switch to this building is that it may be by now not even recognizable with the present modernization of The Crown. I seem to remember that most segments of the Home Guard were associated with public houses as their base of operation. Cookham Village Platoon for the most part did guard duty on the two bridges. They were the Toll Bridge and The Railway Bridge. Plus they also had some input with The Upper Thames Patrol, between Cookham & Marlow Locks.

I did cover the Cookham Army Cadets earlier in this blog with their photograph taken on The Moor just outside the pub.



Walnut Tree Cottage.

Walnut Tree Cottage.

*********************

Walnut Tree Cottage, the one time home of the Briggs family, who I remember were very much into growing your own produce at home and in their Sutton Allotment. They also kept chickens in a run in the far corner of the garden and fed them among other things all their kitchen scraps. This was quite a common practice in many households in the village sixty to seventy years ago.