History of Tun Cottage

Tun Cottage was an inn for around 300 years - The One Tun or simply The Tun, on Cheape Green - and it serviced the local area, pre-dating the Thatched Tavern. The last innkeeper closed it down in 1908 and for many years now it has been a well loved family home. Over the years the house has been extended so it doesn't look quite the same as the original Tun Inn.

Tun Inn 1900

Cheapside is a small village within the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead at the eastern end of Berkshire. Now a part of Ascot, it lies to the east of the racecourse and south-west of Windsor Great Park. The name (Cheapside) may derive either simply from being a poorer part of the manor or from "cheape" meaning trader or peddler. The latter is unlikely since there is no evidence for a market here, though it is possible that "chapmen" or peddlers would call on their way from Windsor to Bagshot or Egham. However, the word "cheape" also meant an inn-keeper and there was certainly an old inn called "The Tun" (also latterly known as the One Tun Inn) on "Cheape Green". So the origin of the name still remains a mystery. Although not recorded until the end of the seventeenth century, The Tun Inn was probably the oldest pub in all Sunninghill, Ascot and Sunningdale and this is now where Tun Cottage stands.

Cheape Green was a well known place and was often used to identify pieces of land when they were sold or leased. By 1818 the whole of Cheapside including the old Cheape Green had been allotted to landowners. Some of the green was enclosed but a large piece of it outside the Tun Inn was left unfenced until the early 20th century. Indeed the front garden of Tun Cottage was probably only enclosed in the 1950s.

Much of The Tun Inn's history is connected to that of Buckhurst Park. Sir Joseph Savory (1843-1921), the owner of Buckhurst Park, was very devout and as well as being a member of five liveries and Lord Mayor of London (1890-1891), he was also a lay preacher and took morning services at Chavey Down and preached in South Ascot. He was a man with some authority and sway, as in 1892 he was elected MP for North Westmorland and became a JP. Savory made many improvements to the Buckhurst Park estate in the 1870s and 80s and the landscape was improved by the addition of many trees including the large redwoods along today's Buckhurst Road. He features less favourably in some of the local records and local memories. There were complaints to the parish and district councils about his encroachment on the Green outside the Tun Inn. It was claimed that ancient village fairs used to be held there (although there is no evidence of this). He is very probably also responsible for the eventual demise of the Tun / One Tun Inn.

The One Tun Inn had quite a turnover of landlords and it took in lodgers and paying guests. In 1847 Robert Batchelor was the innkeeper and his wife Elizabeth had taken over by 1863. She was followed by Henry Cox and then Alfred Hitchcock who was also a poor-rate collector. The 1881 census shows that 60 year old Alfred Hitchcock, from Cliffe Pypard, Wiltshire, had a 36 year old wife and 7 children ranging from 1 to 15 years. Also occupying the property at this time was a young 19 year old female servant by the name of Tryphena Hawthorn. Frederick Stevens was here in the late 1880s and he was followed by 2 innkeepers in the 1890s, Benjamin Westlake and William Roach.

The last innkeeper was W. Collins and in 1908, the period when Savory was the owner of Buckhurst Park, the old Tun Inn which had been in business for about 300 years, was closed down. Many pubs ceased business at this time since an Act of Parliament encouraged closures by giving compensation to the landlords who went out of business. The fact that it was on Joseph Savory's land and he was an eager religious reformer may have been the main reason for the closure. The notebook of an unknown policeman, our first local Bobby, was found in the attic of a house in Pump Lane. This notebook covers 2 months in the spring of 1841. The Tun, as can been seen from the Bobby's notebook, was always a scene of more rowdiness than the Thatch and it is highly likely that Savory disapproved of the goings on here.

After it ceased trading as a public house, and as it had become part of the Buckhurst estate, it was used as a bothy or lodging house for the servants and workmen of the estate.

It appears that it was leased out for a period after this and then it was probably separated from the Buckhurst Park estate after the Second World War when Rudolf Palumbo bought the estate and sold off what is now Ribblesdale and the adjoining properties. It was at this time that it became a private house and has remained so.

Much of this information was taken from the book 'Cheapside in the Forest of Windsor' written by Christine Weightman. She has written a number of books on the area and gave kind permission for extracts to be included on this site. You can get hold of a copy by contacting 'Cheapside Publications', Heronsbrook Cottage, Ascot, Berkshire, SL5 7QG. Tel: 01344 623820.