Windsor Berkshire

Body found in Windsor Forest.

2009-06-29T19:06:00.002+01:00

Sky news reported that the body of high-flying banker Huibert Boumeester has been found in Winkfield. Mr Boumeester (49) Appeared to have died from gunshot wounds. He was formerly the chief financial officer at ABN Amro , the takeover of which plunged the Royal Bank of Scotland into record losses last year.

Eton College closes due to Swine Flu

2009-05-28T18:58:00.005+01:00

The master of Eton College has decided to close the school for an additional week following half term. One of the boys was been tested positive for the H1N1 swine flu virus on Wednesday and the college has been shut to avoid spreading the potentially lethal disease.

The student, who has not been named, is thankfully described as only mildly unwell and is recovering at home.

Eton College, whose old boys include princes William and Harry, is one of the country's most expensive private schools with annual fees of around £20,000.

Royal Tattoo - May 2009

2009-03-20T13:49:00.002Z

This year's Windsor Royal Tattoo will be held on 13th to the 16th May 2009 in Windsor Home Park. The Tattoo will feature the largest ever massed military bands, pipes and drums, with over 500 musicians together.

Tickets for the Royal Tattoo are priced at £15, £25, £35, £45 and £60. They can be purchased from the box office on 0871 230 5570, or can be booked online via the website at www.windsortattoo.com. Local residents who hold an advantage card are entitled to a discounted rate.

Windsor property price crash - 21% down since September

2009-03-13T09:29:00.003Z

The Press Association yesterday reported that property values in Windsor have seen a fall of at least 21% since September 2008, with average prices dropping in the last six months by £80,000. The average house in Windsor now costs £299,950.

Victor Marchant RIP

2009-02-04T14:21:00.003Z

Victor Marchant, MBE, FSA sadly died on Thursday 8th January 2009.

Victor ran the Windsor Archaeology society for more than thirty years. He was a renown archaeologist and from 1984 was Hon Secretary of the Council for British Archaeology (CBA) British Archaeological Awards.

His legacy to Windsor was the long running dig at Wraysbury which has yeilded many of the Anglo Saxon artifacts held by the Royal Borough Museum Collection. Victor strongly believed in ensuring that the information gained from archaeological digs should reach a wide audience. He would have been particularly gratified to see that many of the objects he and his team unearthed are currently on prominent display upstairs in the Library.

Victor will be sadly missed.

Born in Windsor - been everywhere else since

2009-01-23T11:26:00.002Z

Ranulph Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes was born in Windsor in 1944 and was the first man to completely cross Antarctica on foot. Among many adventures, his Transglobe Expedition of 1979 lasted more than 2 years and entailed travelling around the world on its polar axis covering 52,000 miles.

Windsor's famous residents of the past.

2009-01-23T11:17:00.003Z

Laura Constance Hardie was born in Windsor in 1878 and joined the theatre at an early age. Taking the stage name Constance Collier, in 1906 she played opposite the legendary Berbohm Tree in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra at His Majesty's Theatre in London's West End. Constance later moved to America and became a star, appearing in Alfred Hitchcock's "Rope" (1948), and Otto Preminger's "Whirlpool" (1949). She became a noted acting coach and trained Katharine Hepburn to play Shakespeare in the 1950's. Constance Collier died in 1955.

Peter Jones Awarded CBE

2009-01-01T10:21:00.003Z

Entrepeneur and Dragon's Den TV Star Peter Jones has been awarded a CBE in the new year Honour's list. Peter's relationship with Windsor is that his father owned a business in town and Jones says that as a boy he would sit in the leather chair of his father's Windsor office dreaming of being an important boss someday.

Windsor Castle News

2008-11-30T12:13:00.002Z

The Christmas Tree arrives in St George's Hall on 8 December. Another treat from 9th December onwards will be the display of Queen Victoria's winter sleigh which is being shown to the public for the first time at Windsor.

Hurricane for Alexandra Park

2008-11-30T12:06:00.003Z

Go ahead has been given for a life size WW2 Hawker Hurricane to be placed in Alexandra Park as a permanent memorial to Sir Sidney Camm, the designer of this astounding aeroplane. Sidney Camm was born in Windsor and the planes were produced in vast numbers at a factory in langley during the Second World War. If you would like to donate anything towards the £50,000 needed to get the replica plane, please contact Stuart Leigh-Davies of the Camm Memorial Trust on 07760 315505

Sad to see the closure of the Jornin Thai Restaurant

2008-10-31T13:07:00.001Z

Jornin Thai Restaurant on St Leonards Rd has shut. They did great food at great prices, but the location was wrong and the decor didn't inspire.

Windsor airman's relatives sought

2008-09-24T18:36:00.000+01:00

An Appeal to find a Windsor airman's relatives is underway in preparation for a funeral in Berlin.

Pilot Officer Eric Church was born in Windsor in 1919 and was just 24 when he was shot down over Berlin during the Second World War.

He was buried in the Berlin war cemetry but recent excavations at the crash site have only just revealed the remains of another member of his crew, Flt Lt John Bremner.

Bremner is now to be buried alongside his former crewmate and surviving relatives of all the crewmembers are being sought to attend the ceremony in October.

Eric Church moved from Windsor and lived in the East Yorkshire village of Pocklington before setting out on his last fateful mission.

Nuclear Explosion in Windsor - HOAX

2008-09-21T09:17:00.002+01:00

There were a few emails in my inbox saying a nuclear explosion had occured in the area and was being hushed up. There is a picture attached which is actually a virus program, so if you get one of these, please just dump it and do not open the thing. Remember that most often, when people you have never heard of send you emails, they want money or are out to cause mischeif.

Beefy Botham walks in Windsor

2008-09-02T10:47:00.001+01:00

Windsor will be proud to welcome Sir Ian Botham on 11th September when he will lead an eight mile walk around the great park in aid of Leukaemia Research.

Why not turn up and show your support for Beefy and the walkers.

Relief Road temporary closures

2008-08-26T16:50:00.002+01:00

The A332 to Slough and Eton (The Relief Road) will be closed for four nights next week to allow contractors to carry out essential road safety and speed reduction measures.

Dates and times are listed as
Closed 10pm to 6am Tuesday August 26th
Closed 10pm to 6am Wednesday August 27th
Closed 10pm to 6am Thursday August 28th
Closed 11pm to 7am Friday August 29th
Closed 11pm to 7am on Saturday August 30th.

Judicial Review for Fire Station closure plan

2008-08-26T16:46:00.002+01:00

The council's application for a judicial review of Berkshire Fire Authority's plan to close our fire station on the grounds that the fire authority's consultation process was flawed has been approved. A judicial review at the High Court in London has been set for 29th January 2009.

Security van robbery in Dedworth, Windsor

2008-08-07T12:58:00.006+01:00

Local police report that two security guards delivering cash to the ATM in Tesco's supermarket in Dedworth Road were robbed on Monday 4th August 2008 at around 11am.

They were approached by a white man, 5ft 6ins to 5ft 7ins, of slim build. He was wearing a blue cagoule jacket, jeans and boots and a balaclava. The man threatened them with what is believed to be a handgun and demanded money. No-one was injured in the incident. and the robber drove off in a silver Mercedes convertible.

If you have any information about this incident please contact DC Sarah Houghton on 0845 8 505 505. If you don't want to speak to police then please call the Crimestoppers charity on 0800 555 111.

Swan Upping 2008

2008-07-14T13:19:00.002+01:00

Tomorrow Tuesday 15th July 2008 the Swan uppers will depart from Eton Bridge at about 09.00 am. Again this has been a poor year for the cygnets due to weather and the conservation role of ringing the birds will help future plans to aid the swan population on the thames.
http://www.windsor-berkshire.co.uk/swanupping.php

Leopard Moth

2008-06-20T17:44:00.000+01:00

A lovely visitor to my garden this morning. This striking 'Leopard Moth' Zeuzera pyrina spent all day on a sunshade. He looked to have a wingspan of about 5cm and as you can see, is beautifully marked.

Red Kites Return to Windsor

2008-06-16T21:03:00.002+01:00

After an absense of several hundred years Red Kites are back. At 1.30 pm today Windsor resident Nicola Brown reported a large bird of prey with the familiar forked tail and wingspan close to 2 metres circling over the Dedworth Road.

Red Kites were once regarded as vermin and were persecuted from the late middle ages until the nineteenth century when the last English Red Kites were killed by humans. However a small colony survived in Wales and a breeding program and reintroduction sceme has proved amazingly successful.

The bird seen of Windsor today was almost certainly from the Chiltern hills where there is now a large and ever growing population of these stately birds, taking advantage of the thermal currents coming off the hillsides.

Although large and impressive, Kites mainly scavenge on dead animals, small mammals and invertebrates such as beetles and earthworms.

Windsor Boys' School in partnership with Eton College

2008-05-27T10:35:00.002+01:00

Windsor Boys' School will be involved in a four-year partnership with Eton College.

According to the BBC, Schools Minister Andrew Adonis announced partnerships as a "new era for independent/state schools partnerships. " The purpose is to share sixth form expertise, including "raising aspirations" about university applications.

Eton has recently come under fire over its charitable status designation and is actively pursuing policies such as this that demonstrate how it helps a wider community and why it should retain that status.

Old Windsor Pub frozen out by British Gas

2008-05-14T08:41:00.003+01:00

For the past 18 months the gas meter meter at the Jolly Gardeners pub in Old Windsor, Berkshire has wrongly been measuring consumption in feet rather than metres. This led to bills of close to £2,000 per month in winter and the Landlord had to turn off the heating, resulting in loss of business. British Gas now admit the mistake and have offered £500 compensation. However the pub Landlord has asked them to rethink that offer which he does not believe represents a fair settlement of the matter. Didn't we go metric in the early seventies? You might think the gas people could have sorted things out after close to 40 years.

Dates for the Windsor Wheel

2008-05-14T08:22:00.001+01:00

This year (2008) the giant Ferris Wheel will once again stand in Alexanrdra Gardens from 28 June to Sunday 2 November.

Apprentice in Windsor

2008-05-07T09:22:00.003+01:00

According to The Sun newspaper (sic), one of this season's characters appearing on the tv show "The Apprentice" has been allegedly behaving badly with a young lady in a back alley in Windsor.

What the Sun fails to ask is why the soldiers weren't called out from the barracks to march this young man off to Slough straight away?

Alright, having an occassional fumble down the Goswells is something we may all regret in our pasts, but ... appearing on The Apprentice? Oh, the shame of it!

William is 1000th Knight of the Garter

2008-05-04T09:20:00.002+01:00

A couple of weeks ago Prince William was appointed to the Order of the Garter. He is the 1000th member of the order which was founded here in Windsor by King Edward III, 660 years ago in 1348