Englefield Green before 1900
For hundreds of years Englefield Green was variously referred to as Ingfeld, Ingfelde, Ingfield, Engfield, Enfeld1 and Inglefield. Its permanent name became established as Englefield Green in the middle of the 18th century, though Turner2 states that it continued to be referred to as Ingfield in Parish documents. By the middle of the 18th century large villas began to be built round what was then called Ingfield Heath (the green open space to the left of the road leading to Old Windsor). Many of the owners of the villas were connected with the Court at Windsor. These included Sir Edward Walpole, brother of Horace and referred to by him as “The Baron of Englefield.” Warren Hastings lived in Beaumont Lodge, which was described by a traveller passiung through Englefield Green as “the sweetest prettiest place I ever saw, and most enviable in possession”. Another famous resident was “Perdita” (Mary Robinson), the actress, referred to as “our English Sappho” who became the mistress of the Prince Regent (later King George IV). Her portrait was painted by Romney. She died in Englefield Cottage in 1800. For a number of years Paul Sandby described as “the father of modern landscape painting in watercolours” lived in Englefield Green, painting local scenes (including ‘Englefield Green, near Egham’c.1800, and ‘Tea at Englefield Green’, c.1800). A painting by him of a fair held on Englefield Green is now in Windsor Castle3.
In 1889 Mrs Margaret Oliphant published a short story collection entitled Neighbours on the Green. Eight of the nine stories take place at ‘Dinglefield Green’, which Mrs Oliphant modelled closely on the real village of Englefield Green, where she often visited friends, and which was near her home in Windsor. The fictional narrator, Mrs Mulgrave, tells the stories of various people living on or near the Green.
As well as private residences, a number of institutional buildings were erected in Englefield Green in the course of the 19th century. Included among them were the Royal Indian Engineering College, colloquially known at the time as ‘Coopers Hill College’ (opened in 1871 for the “training of candidates for the Government service in India in the engineering, telegraphic and forestry services”4), Royal Holloway College (a higher education institution for women students opened by Queen Victoria in 1886), Englefield School (inaugurated in 1827), the Cottage Hospital (opened in 1880 with accommodation for sixteen beds), and St Judes Church (built in 1858 and dedicated on the 5th July 1859).
Before rail passenger transport was developed in the 19th century it was possible, from c.1798, to travel from Englefield Green to London by fast stage coach travelling at 12 miles per hour during the summer season. Coaches left ‘The Barley Mow’ at 6.30 a.m. and returned at 3p.m, Monday to Saturday. The return fare was 8 shillings.
Joan Wintour
June 2014
On Display:
1. Royal Indian Engineering College, Cooper’s Hill.
Operating from 1871 to 1906 as a training college for engineers, this large Victorian building was later occupied for a number of years as a private residence, following which period it was mostly used for various educational purposes (apart from the years between 1938 and 1946 when it was it was used by London County Council as an administrative building). In 2007 it was sold to a developer and subsequently in 2011 to a second developer, the latter receiving planning permission to develop the site for a mix of care facilities for the elderly, new private dwellings, affordable housing and student accommodation.
2. Royal Holloway College.
Built by Thomas Holloway, manufacturer of patent medicines and philanthropist. The architect he commissioned was instructed to base his design on the 16th century Chateau at Chambord in the Loire Valley. The resulting building was opened by Queen Victoria in 1886 (sadly after Thomas Holloway had died) and is a lasting memorial to his wife Jane. It was opened to women students in 1887 (all 28 of them!) and became part of the University of London in 1900. Male undergraduates were admitted in 1965. Bedford College, another University of London college for women, merged with Royal Holloway College in 1985 and the college is now called Royal Holloway, University of London, with over 8000 students.
3. Englefield Green School.
Initially built on a modest scale in 1827 on the corner of Armstrong Road and Victoria Street, new buildings for the school were added in 1864 and enlarged in 1885, 1896, and 1899. Its existence on that site ended in 1984 when the buildings were demolished and replaced with residences, its pupils, with the exception of the infants, having been re-located in 1967 in new buildings on the Bagshot Road with the name of St. Judes School.
4. St Judes Church.
The 150th anniversary of the building of St Jude’s Church was celebrated in 2009. The Vicar of Egham, the Revd John Samuel Bewley Monsell, was the driving force behind the building of the church in Englefield Green, which was begun in 1858 and consecrated in 1859. The architect was Edward Buckton Lamb. (See also item no. 5)
5. Revd. John Samuel Bewley Monsell. (Photograph. and text in Turner’s History of Egham)
It was largely due to the energetic efforts of the Revd. Monsell that the plans for a new church in Englefield Green were implemented in 1859. It was because of the immensely influential part he played in the foundation of that church that the section of it which was reconstructed in 2014 was give the name of ‘The Monsell Room’.
6. Cottage Hospital, Englefield Green.
The Cottage Hospital (on the corner of St Judes Road and Bond Street) was built in 1879 for Benjamin Warwick, a local merchant, in memory of one of his daughters who died in childbirth. It had ceased to function as a hospital by the end of the 20th century, and as St. Judes Cottages, the name by which it became known after its demise as a hosptial, it has been used for a number of different social housing purposes. Currently its future use has still to be decided.
7. Sandby, Paul. ‘Englefield Green, near Egham’. c.1800.
8. Sandby, Paul. ‘Tea at Englefield Green’, c.1800.
9. “Perdita” (Mary Darby Robinson, 1758-1800). Painted by T. Gainsborough. 1781.
10. Aubrey, J. The Natural History and Antiquities of the County of Surrey, vol 3 (London: Printed for E. Curll, 1718; repr. in facsimile Dorking: Kohler & Coombes, 1718). Photocopy of p.50 from the book.
11. Oliphant, M. Neighbours on the Green (London: Macmillan, 1889)
During the Victorian era Margaret Oliphant’s novels were tremendously popular, many of them best sellers. In that period she was critically acclaimed and compared to Jane Austen, George Eliot, and Anthony Trollope.
12. Oliver, S. Various notes and annotations by Mr. Sidney Oliver on Mrs. Margaret Oliphant and her book Neighbours on the Green.
In this handwritten document the late Sidney Oliver (1905-1986), an enthusiastic amateur local historian, provides the names of actual people and houses on which, he believes, some of the book’s fictional characters and their residences were based. Also attached are some annotations based on information he obtained from the Harbord family about houses mentioned in Oliphant’s book.
1 This version is given in Aubrey, J. The Natural History and Antiquities of the County of Surrey, vol 3 (London: printed for E. Curll, 1718; repr. in facsimile Dorking: Kohler & Coombes, 1718), p.50 (see item 13 of the Display)
2 Turner, F. Egham, Surrey: A History of the Parish under Church and Crown (Egham: Box & Gilham, 1926), p.216
3 Ibid., 234
4 Malden, H. E., ed. A History of the County of Surrey, part 29: Godley Hundred, Victoria History of the Counties of England (London: Constable, 1920), p.421
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