Windsor Street Names

Many streets in Royal Windsor (plus Eton, Clewer and Dedworth) have names with quite a bit of history to them. Researching the stories behind the names is a great way to learn more about the history of the town where you live. (Updated August 2023)

Albert Street

Named after Prince Albert, the street which forms a westerly extension to Bexley Street comprises mostly Victorian era terraced workers cottages.

Arthur Road

Arthur Road is simply named after the Prince Arthur. There are plenty of Windsor street names that refer to royalty for obvious reasons. The Prince Arthur pub has some lovely green tiles on the doorway. The Duke of Connaught pub on the Maidenhead Road is named after the same person.

Barry Avenue

Sir Francis Tress Barry, 1st Baronet (1825 – 28 February 1907) made his fortune from a copper mine in Portugal. He lived on St Leonard’s Hill and was MP for Windsor  from 1890 to 1906.

Bexley Street

It is appropriate that opposite the Bexley Arms is the Vansittart Pub. Both of these and the streets that bear their names relate to The Vansittart family (Nicholas Vansittart, 1st Baron Bexley was  one of the longest-serving Chancellors of the Exchequer in history).

Bexley Street Front Gardens Summer 2021

Bolton Road

The film Carry on Cabby (1963) was filmed around Windsor and the King Edward VII Hospital, Bolton Road was featured.

Bourne Avenue

This crescent is named after the nearby ditch known as the Battle Bourne that flows through the great park. You can follow quite a bit of the route of the Battle Bourne from the Village in the Great Park where it feeds the ponds, down toward Windsor. The bourne actually crosses beneath the Long Walk at a point just a little way before you pass through the gates out of the deer park. from there it heads toward Old Windsor, leaving the castle grounds close to the royal farm shop and joining the thames a little way downstream from Albert Bridge.

Bridgewater Terrace

Haven’t found out anything about this street name yet.

Bulkeley Avenue

There is a tantalising reference to Captain Bulkeley being  unfortunately absent due to ill health at the opening of the Royal Albert Institute in Sheet Street on 10th January 1880. He was a comittee member who raised the subscription for the founding of the Institute. 38 years earlier a Captain Bulkeley paid £25 toward the new Garrison Church in Trinity Place.  Best of all Captain Bulkeley of Clewer Lodge, Windsor is listed in 1861 as being on the board of directors of the Great Western Railway.

Camm Avenue

Sidney Camm was born in a small house in Alma Road. He went on to become an aeroplane designer and was the man who designed the Hawker Hurricane. The hurricane by the river at the end of Barry Avenue is a good memorial to him and worth coming to see.

Carter Close

The big board upstairs at the Guildhall shows that Sir William Carter was elected Mayor of Windsor thirteen times. His portrait hangs in the Mayor’s parlor. He got his knighthood in 1920.

Charlton

Edward Charlton of the Irish Guards was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross in 1945. He was the last soldier of the Second World War to be so honoured.

Church Street

The pedestrianised route from the Castle gate toward the parish church has an obvious name these days, but in former years this was ‘Fish Street’ where the fishmongers of Windsor sold their wares.

Church Street and Castle Hill

Clarence Crescent

Simply named after the Duke of Clarence who later became King William IV (and is also commemorated in the name ‘William Street’). Lots of Windsor street names refer to royalty. Clarence Crescent was built by James Thomas Bedborough who also did lots of rebuilding of the Castle in the 1820s and built Upton Park near Slough. He was a Mayor of Windsor and his commemoration stone  is around the back of the Parish Church on St Alban’s Street.

Clarence Crescent

Clewer Fields

Clewer is the old name for the whole area. It predates ‘Windsor’ and Clewer church is the oldest building in town. In fact the Monarch used to pay rent to Clewer church for the use of the land where Windsor Castle stands. The name Clewer is probably of Saxon origin and means cliffs or cliff dwellers. If you imagine the days before the castle and trees were there, then from the river, the most impressive and memorable aspect of the area would be the big chalk cliff rising up from the flood plain.

Dagmar Road

Louise Victoria Alexandra Dagmar, Princess Royal , was born 20 February 1867  to prince Edward (later Kind Edward VII) and Alexandra.

Dedworth Road

The road is named after the village of course, but did you know the name Dedworth has Saxon origins. It comes from “Dydda’s Worthy” meaning Dydda’s Farm. According to David Nash Ford’s Royal Berkshire History By 1800, there were only thirteen dwellings in Dedworth. How times change.

Bell Pub corner of Dedworth Road and Parsonage Lane
The Bell Pub on the corner of Dedworth Road and Parsonage Lane photographed shortly before its conversion into flats

Devereux Road

Sir Joseph Devereux was Mayor of Windsor in the 1880s.

Sir Joseph Devereux

Duke Street

The ‘Duke of Connaught’ pub on the corner of this Victorian Street gives us a big clue that the street was named after Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn. He was the third son of Queen Victoria. Born at Buckingham Palace in 1850 he had a long military career and died in 1940 at his home of Bagshot Park at the southern end of the Windsor Great Park estate. I have read that in earlier times the street was formerly named St Andrew’s Road.

Filmer Road

Henry Filmer was one of the Windsor Martyrs, burned to death in 1543.

Furness

There are seven streets on Dedworth’s Broom Farm Estate the are just named with a single surname. Each commemorate a recipient of the Victoria Cross. Christopher Furness was 28 years old, and a lieutenant in the 1st Battalion, Welsh Guards was killed in hand to hand combat at Arras while covering the retreat toward Dunkirk in 1940. As a youngster, Furness had attended Eton College.

Gallys Road

Gallys was Mayor of Windsor in Shakespeare’s day. He was also the owner of a local pub and some historians believe that galleys is the landlord who appears in Shakespeare’s the Merry wives of Windsor.

Gordon Road

This one might have been difficult to pin down, except that it joins Nelson Road. It is a fair bet that this road also refers to a  national military hero. General Gordon of Khartoum became a famous military leader in the mid 1800s.

Goslar Way

Goslar is one of Windsor’s twin towns. A very pretty medieval German town in Lower Saxony.

Goswell Road

Goswell is one of Windsors really old roads. The small park known as the Goswells which this road crosses came about through Victorian slum clearance.

Helena Road

Princess Helena (1846 – 1923) was the  third daughter and fifth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. She married  Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein and the couple lived for much of their lives at Cumberland Lodge in the Great Park. Helena’s favourite son Prince Christian Victor is commemorated in a statue at the foot of Thames Street.

Hanover Way

Along with neighboring Stuart Way and Tudor Way these street names celebrate British Royal Families.

Kenneally

In 1943 Lance Corporal John Kenneally of the Irish Guards single-handedly charged and repelled a group of German soldiers who were about to attack his division in the Battle for Tunisia. For his heroism he was awarded the Victoria Cross and was later mentioned in a famous speech by Prime Minister Churchill. The street named after him in Dedworth is among a collection of streets all named after Victoria Cross recipients.

Keppel Street

Augustus Keppel was MP for the town in the 1760s and 70s.

Knights Place

Plenty of Knights of the Realm  in Windsor but also Charles Knight the bookseller and founder of the Windsor and Eton Express.

Liddell

Not, Liddell Street, Liddell Road, Liddell Close or anything fancy; just Liddell. The simplicity hides an amazing tale of heroism. On 3rd April 1945 Captain Ian Liddell of the Coldstream Guards took actions that allowed his batallion to take the bridge over the Ems river near Lingen, Germany intact. He faced over 150 guns constantly firing at him from a fortified position, and yet alone, he managed to cross the bridge a number of times and sucessfully disarmed the explosive charges the Germans had set to destroy this vital river crossing. He was awarded the Victoria Cross.

Longmead

Mead is an old name for meadow and the name comes from the field of the same name that was here before it all got built on.

Loring Road

Dedworth Loring was the name of one of two Manor houses west of Windsor.   the De Loring (or Loryng) family were almost certainly descended from Albert Lothingaria, the Royal  physician who owned Dedworth at the time of the Domesday Book.

Lyell

The small street in Dedworth is named after Captain Charles Lyell (2nd Baron Lyell) of the Scots Guards. He was educated at Eton, and In 1943 in Tunisia he led an attack on an enemy emplacement of an 88 millimetre gun and a heavy machine-gun in two separate pits. Both guns were silenced by his actions though Lyell himself was eventually killed in the assault. He was award the Victoria Cross, the nation’s highest possible award for valour in the face of the enemy.

Marbeck Close

John Marbeck 1541 Became an organist at St. George’s chapel. He was later accused of uttering sacrilegious words against the mass. He was found guilty at the trial of “the Windsor martyrs’ and sentenced to death. However he was pardoned unlike his three fellow accused, Filmer, Pierson and Testwood who all were executed by burning at the stake.

Nelson Road

Althhough Admirial Nelson doesn’t have  much of a link with Windsor it was almost inevitable that a street here would be named after him. The duke of Clarence ( later King William IV) did actually serve with Nelson in the West Indies when he was a young man.

Park Street

One of the obvious names, Park Street leads to the park and the top of the Long Walk.

Pierson Road

Pierson was on of the three Windsor Martyrs burned at the stake during the reign of Henry VIII

Peascod Street

Probably the oldest street in Windsor, Peascod is an old name for a pea pod. in 1308 the name was recorded as Pesecroftestrete.

Peascod Street Windsor
Peascod Street empty of visitors and shoppers during the lockdown of 2020

Poolmans Road

Poolmans Farm once stood here, so this is a street named after a local family.

Ruddlesway

The street takes its name from the bens in the river known as Ruddle’s pool which sits behind the houses at the north end of the road.

Sheepcote Road

A sheepcote is a small structure for holding sheep in. Many parishes had permanent and often roofed cotes, so that the farmers bringing their sheep to market could have somewhere to keep their flock together when stopping on route.

Sheet Street

The sheet was a medieval common field.

Sidney

William Sidney, 1st Viscount De L’Isle was educated at Eton and was later in life a Member of Parliament, Secretary of State for Air under Churchill and was the fifteenth Governor General of Australia. However, his Dedworth street name was conferred for a different reason. In 1944 in Italy he led a handful of men in defending the Anzio beachhead. After two displays of heroism in short succession, Sidney was badly wounded in a German attack, but continued to inspire his men and refused medical treatment until the Germans had been beaten back. He was awarded the VC and this is why he is commemorated with a Windsor street name.

St Albans Street

Named after the actress Nell Gwynn’s son! King Charles II and Nell had two illegitimate sons together. The eldest named Charles, was given the title Duke of St Albans. The family lived close to the Castle near the Long Walk in Burford House.

St Leonard’s Road

This old road leads toward St Leonard’s Hill. The name itself comes from the chapel of St. Leonard of Losfield in Windsor Forest which was established sometime in the thirteen hundreds. The hill itself appears to have had some degree of Roman occupation.

Stuart Way

The Haonoverians, Tudors and Stuarts are remembered by three streets in West Windsor.

Stovell Road

Stovel became lord of the manor of Clewer after the third Arthur Vannsittart died in 1859.

Surly Hall Walk

This is a strange name for a short road to the west of town. The road leads up towards the park and then to the Maidenhead Road and it was here that the Surly Hall Hotel once stood. According to Dickens ‘book of the river’ Surly Hall  was a “tavern well known to all oarsmen, and especially dear to every Etonian. It is on the Berks bank, about half a mile above Boveney Lock. The house has recently been renovated, and affords reasonably good accommodation. During the summer season the Eights of the Eton Boat Club pay periodical visits to Surly, on which occasions great havoc is wrought amongst the ducks and green peas. In a meadow opposite are laid out the tables for the feast at the annual celebration of the birthday of George III, the 4th of June, the great event … in the Eton boy’s year.”

In 1851 the Landlord was a Mr Henry Hall. The hotel or inn was pulled down around 1900. The Maidenhead Road used to have a different name. It was still listed as Surly Hall Road in the 1910 Ordinance Survey map.  Surley Hall located near the present day ‘Squires’roundabout where theMaidenhead road meets Ruddlesway. (A note to future historians. This roundabout is locally known as Squires after the garden centre that can currently be found there.

Testwood Road

Testwood was on of the three Windsor Martyrs burned at the sake during the reign of Henry VIII. Their execution took place close to where Thames St crosses the Datchet Road.

Thames Street

Old street names were often practical. It’s the street that leads down to the River Thames.

Tinkers Lane

Tinker is an old name for a traveling mender of metal household utensils, but general travellers of any sort used to be called Tinkers by the general public. 

Trevelyan Court

The Rt. Hon. Sir Charles Trevelyan M.P. was President of the Board of Education in 1930 when he opened the new Windsor Council School (renamed in 1954 as Trevelyan School)

Trinity Place

Trinity church can be found here, so the naming seems obvious but Windsor has a Trinity connection that you  may not know about. The Guildhall was built by the members of the Trinity Guild. This was the Guild of merchants who effectively ran Windsor for many hundreds of years.

Tudor Way

Along with Stuart Way and Hanover Way, these names simply commemorate former royal dynasties.

Vale Road

Vale Farm stood about half way along the path that was turned into a residential street in the 1930s and the road was named after the farm.

Vansittart Road

Arthur Vansittart became Lord of The Manor of Clewer in 1720. It then passed to his son (another Arthur) and then Grandson (Arthur again) who died in 1859.

William Street

Named after King William IV who reigned from June 1830 for seven years and was succeeded by his niece Victoria

Wolf Lane

I read online that the last wild wolf in Berkshire was killed in Dedworth, and the street name commemorates this, but when I asked for a reference there was no response. For now, we will withhold judgement on this etymology.

Wright

Wright is the name of a small close at the top of Guard’s Road in Dedworth, Windsor. Peter Wright was a 27 year old Sergeant Major in the Third Battalion of the Coldstream Guards in 1943 in Salerno, Italy. When attacking a steep hillside Wrights company found themselves pinned down with most of their officers killed or out of action. Wright took charge and single-handedly took out three German machine gun posts, led his men in beating off a counter attack and secured their objective. He was initially awarded a Distinguished Conduct Medal but this was later upgraded to the Victoria Cross on the instruction of King George. Along with other VC recipients Charlton, Furness, Kenneally, Liddell, Lyell and Sidney the Guard’s Road area is a great place for their names to be remembered as many military families live in the area.

Wyatt Road

Theoretically this could be named after Wyatt who remodelled the Castle in the reign of George IV but its location close to Broom Farm leads us to believe it related to Victoria Cross recipient George Wyatt of the Coldstream Guards. On 25/26 August 1914 at Landrecies, France, he extinguished burning sacks of straw whilst under heavy fire in order to be able to hold his position.

There are plenty of streets that I haven’t discovered the names of so if you have more to add on this subject please do get in touch.