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Windsor and Eton

Difficulty Leisurely

Walking time 2 hours 30 minutes

Length 8.3km / 5.2mi

Route developer: mary gough

Route checker: David Hunt

Start location Windsor & Eton Riverside Station
Route Summary A circular walk round Windsor and Eton exploring Windsor Castle and Eton College, and walking along the Long Walk and River Thames
*move mouse over graph to see points on route
Getting there

By train: Windsor & Eton Riverside Station is served by trains from Waterloo.

By bus: Buses 701 702, National bus from Victoria Station in London

Description

[1] From Windsor & Eton Riverside Station walk along Datchet Road towards the town. On the left at the road junction there is a memorial to George V. 1910-36. He changed the family name from Saxe-Coburg to Windsor during World War I.  Turn left here into Thames Street. On the left beyond Old Bank House is a memorial statue to Christian Victor, a grandson of Queen Victoria.  Follow the road as it curves right with the Castle on your left. At the top of the hill it becomes High Street.  Turn left up Castle Hill to the entrance to Windsor Castle. There is an entrance fee.

[2] Retrace steps to the High Street, the first street on the left is said to be the shortest street in Britain. Turn left along the High Street and continue past St John's Church to the junction with Park Street and Sheet Street. Turn right into Sheet Street and then after the barracks on the right bear left into Kings Road.  When you reach Edinburgh Gardens (4th turning on the right), turn left round the corner of the railings into Windsor Great Park.(A) The Royal Mausoleum, with green roof  is where Queen Victoria and Prince Albert are buried  Turn left on to the Long walk. A good view of Windsor Castle ahead. At the end of the Long Walk turn left into Park Street.

[3]Turn right up St Alban's Street, Half way along is the Royal Mews. (B) The Royal Mews where royal coaches and some of the presents the Queen received on her Silver Jubliee are displayed.  At the back of St John's Church turn left into Church Lane.  Take first turning on the right into Church Street, where Charles II's mistress Nell Gwyn is said to have lived, and then turn left along Castle Hill and walk back to Queen Victoria's statue. 

Cross the road and turn right into Thames Street and left into Windsor & Eton Central Station, built in 1897 to mark Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. Follow the main route through the buildings as it curves gently right, then go left down broad steps towards the Waitrose Store. At the bottom of the steps, immediately turn right then down a staircase on the right to Goswell Hill. Walk along this road past shops until you reach the main road. Turn right under the viaduct. You can either follow the road ahead to the riverside or go left across the corner of Alexandra Gardens.  Turn right along the river bank.

[4]Cross  the bridge into Eton and turn left along Brocas Street.  Turn left along Brocas Street behind the boathouses.  Keep to left of pub and go through the barrier into Brocas meadow for another riverside walk.  Half way along this meadow look back for another fine view of the castle. When you get to the railway viaduct go underneath and in a few yards turn right.  At the gate leading onto another track turn right under the viaduct and then left.  Walk 100 yards and take the path to the right cutting though the corner of a hedge into the corner of a playing field. Go along the left edge of the playing field then in the corner turn right along a tarmac path towards the white pavilion in the next corner.  Turn left into South Meadow Lane which leads into  Keats lane and Eton College.

(C) Eton College was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI to provide free education for 70 poor scholars who would then go on to further their education at King’s College, Cambridge. Life in the early days was harsh: the boys had to wash outside using only cold water. From these 70 scholars, the school has expanded to about 1,311 boys aged from 13 to 18 who are admitted by competitive examination, and has become one of the most well known schools in the world. Eton has educated 19 former British Prime Ministers including the Duke of Wellington, Walpole, Pitt the Elder, MacMillan and Douglas-Home. The School Dress, which dates from the 1850s, still consists of a black tailcoat and waistcoat and pin-striped trousers.

[5] At Eton Wick Road turn left past telephone box. Cross over and turn left.  Turn right down the footpath between Westbury and Cotton Hall.  Continue to Common Lane.  Turn left and immediately right to soon reach a courtyard with the drawing school at the end. Go through archway about two thirds the way along on the right hand side and turn left beside the Eton fives courts.

Eton boys invented the game of "fives" by hitting  a ball against the chapel wall while waiting for roll call.  All Eton fives courts now reproduce the features of the original court, including the ledge and buttress in the chapel wall and the low step in the old quadrangle floor.

At the end of the buildings, just before a small footbridge turn right to follow a path beside the stream. Continue to Fifteen Arch Bridge. Pass under the bridge and turn left to the pavilion. (Upper Lodge Club) . Pass to the right of the pavilion and just beyond it turn left on a footpath to reach the main road. Turn left into Windsor Road and over the bridge back towards Eton.  

The High Wall on the left is the main feature of the Eton wall game, one of the oldest forms of football in existence. Played only at Eton, it dates from 18th century and involves this wall, a door, an old elm tree and a lot of scrummage in the mud by two 10 aside teams.  Main game of season played on nearest Saturday to St Andrews Day, 30 November.

Walk along High Street towards the river and cross the bridge back into Windsor. Turn left into Datchet Road to return to Riverside station, or keep ahead to go back to the castle and town centre.

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POI information

Windsor Castle. is the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world.  It was built by William the Conqueror after the Battle of Hastings on the edge of a Saxon hunting ground. In the 1930's Edward III created St George's Hall for use of the Knights of his newly founded Order of the Garter.  St George's Chapel was begun by Edward IV (r. 1461-70 and 1471-83) and completed by Henry VIII. Ten British monarchs lie buried in the chapel: Edward IV, Henry VI, Henry VIII, Charles I, George III, George IV, William IV, Edward VII, George V and George VI. Oliver Cromwell captured Windsor Castle after the Battle of Edgehill in 1642, and for the rest of the Civil War it became a prison as well as the headquarters of the parliamentary forces. 

In 1648 Charles I was held there before his trial and execution in London; his body was brought back for burial in St. George's Chapel during a snowstorm. Following the Restoration, Charles II was determined to make the Castle as splendid as possible. He created a new set of State Apartments in the 1670s, using the skills of the architect Hugh May, the artist Antonio Verrio for murals and ceiling paintings, and the famous wood-carver Grinling Gibbons. He also laid out the Long Walk.

It has three wards.  The lower one includes St George's Chapel and the middle ward contains the Royal Tower (where royal archives are stored) and the upper ward contains the State Appartments and the Queen's private quarters.

Prince Albert died of typhoid at Windsor in 1861 and was buried in a spectacular mausoleum that Queen Victoria constructed at Frogmore in the Windsor Home Park. During the Second World War, Windsor Castle was home to the young Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret Rose while their parents supported the war effort in London and around the country. Today The Queen uses the Castle regularly, spending most of her weekends there.

The twentieth-century history of the Castle is dominated by the major fire that started on 20 November 1992. It began in the Private Chapel, when a spotlight came into contact with a curtain and ignited the material. It took 15 hours and one-and-a-half million gallons of water to put out the blaze. Nine principal rooms and over 100 other rooms over an area of 9,000 square metres were damaged or destroyed by the fire, approximately one-fifth of the Castle area. The next five years were spent restoring Windsor Castle to its former glory. It resulted in the greatest historic building project to have been undertaken in this country in the twentieth century, reviving many traditional crafts. To mark the completion, The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh held a 'thank you' reception in the restored rooms on 14 November 1997 for 1,500 contractors. On 20 November that year they celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary with a ball also held at Windsor Castle.

 

Notes

Toilets: available near coach car park, River Street car park & Eton High Street

Refreshments: pubs and restaurants: 

Tourist Information Office: Windsor Royal Station http://www.windsor.gov.uk/

 

Acknowledgements
Photo - Windsor Castle© (Paul Gillett) / CC BY-SA 2.0
Photo - Windsor Royal Station © ((Stephen McKay) / CC BY-SA 2.0
Photo - Eton College entrance © (Graham Horn) / CC BY-SA 2.0

 

  • Windsor Castle
    Windsor Castle
    By - Paul Gillett
  • Windsor Royal Station
    Windsor Royal Station
    By - Stephen McKay
  • Eton College Entrance
    Eton College Entrance
    By - Graham Horn
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