page_title: Datchet
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Datchet / History
caption_attribution_description: Bend in London Road
context_page_description: Datchet is a village and civil parish in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England, located on the north bank of the River Thames. Historically part of Buckinghamshire, the village was eventually transferred to Berkshire, under the Local Government Act of 1972.
  The village developed because of its close proximity to Windsor and the ferry service which connected it to the main London road across the River Thames. The ferry was later replaced by a road bridge at the foot of High Street, rebuilt three times, a rail bridge approaching Windsor across the river, and two road bridges above and below the village.
  The name "Datchet" is thought to be Celtic in origin, and the last part may be related to cet. In Domesday Book it is called "Daceta".
context_section_description: There is evidence of people living in the area which become Datchet shortly after the end of the last ice age, between 10,000 and 6,500 years ago, and of a multi-period settlement at Southlea from the Neolithic to late Roman periods (Datchet Village Society report: plus Vol II) An excavation at Riding Court, a Manorial sub-division of Datchet, has revealed a monument complex that included a cursus, ring ditches, oval barrows and causewayed enclosures. The monuments had developed alongside the Thames, one of the great rivers of Britain that acted as both a barrier, gateway and routeway to other regions. The 2017 investigations at Riding Court Farm have provided evidence for Early Neolithic activity (4000–3350 BC) with the discovery of a previously unknown causewayed enclosure.
  
  Datchet is first mentioned between 990 and 994, when King Ethelred made small grants of land here. Datchet Manor is in Domesday Book (1085–86) when it was held by Giles de Pinkney. In 1150, the church already existed in Datchet and the Pinkney family sold it to the abbey of St Albans, Hertfordshire. As such the Abbot became rector as improprietor of the parish and had the right to appoint vicars. 
  There was a ferry at Datchet Ferry which provided a shorter route from London to Windsor Castle and was frequently used by royalty. In 1249, Henry III gave a great oak from his Windsor forest to make a barge for passage from Windsor to Datchet. In 1350, Edward III gave Datchet Church as part of the endowment of his new church and college of St George at Windsor Castle. On the Dissolution of the monasteries, the Crown confiscated the rectory, which was sold by Parliament in 1659 to William Stanbridge and Thomas Roberts. In 1641, Charles I sold the manorial house and estate of Riding Court to William Wheeler, then it was sold out of the Wheeler estates, and, after passing through various hands, was finally conveyed to John, Second Duke of Montagu in 1742, and therefore once more came under the same ownership as Datchet Manor. After the death in 1790 of his son-in-law, George Earl of Cardigan, created Duke of Montagu in 1766, the Manors passed to the latter's daughter Elizabeth wife of Henry third Duke of Buccleugh. From 1802 title followed the same descent as Datchet and Ditton in Stoke Poges, and the manorial rights were vested in John Walter Edward, second Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, until recently transferred to David Mapley, the current owner.
  
  In the 17th century, traffic went to London via Horton. Horton Road began to be built up and extended by the wealthy next to the hovels of the poor. There were isolated cases of plague in Datchet before and after the great plague of London. An unsubstantiated story is that Charles II kept his mistress Nell Gwynne at Old Bridge House in Datchet. (There is absolutely no evidence for this story.)
  In 1706, the ferry that carried traffic across the Thames through Datchet was replaced by Datchet Bridge. The crossing was replaced three times until it was finally demolished in 1851 as part of re-routing roads and bridges when the LSWR Company's line was built from Richmond to Windsor. Traffic between Old Windsor and Datchet now uses a southerly route along Southlea Road and crossing Albert Bridge, while a new Windsor Road was built from Datchet riverside and crossing the new Victoria Bridge.
  In 1742, John Montagu, 2nd Duke of Montagu bought Datchet manor, and his family owned it until at least 1925; at one point it was owned by the head of the influential Montagu-Douglas-Scott family, Henry Scott, 3rd Duke of Buccleuch.
  In 1790, a workhouse was built in Holmlea Road and in 1820 an almshouse belonging to the workhouse was turned into a shop. In 1848, the first train went through Datchet to Windsor and by 1860 Datchet Common's beer house, The Plough, was in existence. In 1886, Datchet was described as having been known as Black Datchet in the early 1800s because of a large number of bad characters living there, and that Aylesbury County Jail had one building known as the 'Datchet Wing' filled mostly with poachers, for which 
caption: St Mary the Virgin, Datchet
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