As the wheel turns.

As the wheel turns.

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It made me smile when I read that The Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead want you to re-invent the wheel, I refer to the bicycle wheel. There was a time in Cookham when nearly everyone rode a bicycle. Husbands to work, wives to do their shopping, and the children rode a bicycle to school. Even the school teachers rode bicycles.

At an early age one knew how to repair a puncture in a tyre, it was common practice to carry a repair kit in a leather pouch attached to your saddle. For major repairs like aligning the rim of the wheel, one would go to Mr. Greenslade who had a little shop in The Pound.

As a backup you could always go to Owen Hildreth in Market Street, Maidenhead. He was the local bicycle dealer and repair shop. Here one could find a bicycle to fit ones pocket or purse. I doubt if the bicycle will come back to the wide use that the village once knew due to the density of today’s traffic. Plus the introduction of safe cycle-ways is nigh impossible due to the density of housing and narrow village roads.