The Mount Farmhouse.
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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.
1 comment:
Ernest Gardner was my great grandfather, his eldest daughter Helen was my grandmother.
I've heard loads of stories about Spencers
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