Walk Through Winslow’s Story

The Heritage Trail leads you on foot around Winslow’s historic centre, from thatched cottages to grand listed buildings. At each numbered stop, look for the QR code and scan it with your phone camera to jump straight to that location’s story below.

Prefer paper? Printed trail leaflets are available from the railway station and along the route.

The house which stands now, not quite visible from the Station, was built in 1886 by Henry Lambton, a banker and mineowner who previously rented Winslow Hall. It incorporated a more modest (only 12 bedrooms) house of the 1840s called Selby Lodge, visible at the rear in the photo. The attraction of the area for rich people like the Lambtons was hunting. They could reach Winslow by railway from London in about 90 minutes and join hunts like the Whaddon Chase and Lord Rothschild’s Staghounds. Redfield had extensive stables and plenty of fields where horses could graze. About eight grooms were usually employed.

The road which is now the A413 was part of the Wendover to Buckingham Turnpike, created in 1721 and re-routed through Winslow in the 1730s. You will follow it into Winslow from the Station, coming from the bottom of the photo. Turnpikes were main roads which were improved by private contractors, who made a profit by charging tolls. It became possible to travel from Winslow to London in one day by stage-coaches like the “Banbury, Buckingham and Winslow Machine” which left Banbury at 3 a.m. three times a week. There were also carriers such as the Buckingham and Winslow Butter Waggons who took goods to London. Dairy-farming to produce butter for the London market became the main form of agriculture in Winslow until the railway allowed fresh milk to be sent instead.

The houses on the east side, shown in the photo, were mostly built in the 1870s. Numbers 10-16 in the centre were originally called Nevada Villas. George Pass, headmaster of Winslow school for over 30 years and the man after whom the road outside the Station is named, lived at no.16. The largest house, no.8 (Alwyn House), was occupied by several doctors. The Swan was built in 1850 along with the cottages adjoining it. On the west side, the oldest house is Gubblesgore, built in the 1920s and named after a nearby field. The petrol station began life in the 1920s as Winslow Motor Works.

The Buckinghamshire Railway Company acquired land in 1847-48 for a line from Bletchley to Oxford and Banbury. The most suitable site for a station in Winslow was well outside the existing town, and Station Road had to be built to link it to the main road. It was gradually lined with houses, starting (on the left in the photo as you look down the road) with Station Road Villas, four large properties with stables and coach-houses. The site of the original station at the end of the road has now been been converted into a small housing estate, but if you walk to the bottom of the road you can still see the huge Cappadocian maple and horse chestnut trees which must have been planted in 1850 when the railway opened, and the former Station Inn (now divided into private houses).

The Baptists differ from the Church of England primarily in rejecting infant baptism. During the 1650s they were able to worship freely and established a strong presence in Winslow. This continued despite persecution in the 1660s, and after the Act of Toleration of 1689 they were able to establish their own chapel, Keach’s Meeting House (1695), which you can visit when you reach the Market Square. A revival of the Baptist cause led to a desire for a larger and more convenient building, and the Tabernacle was built in 1864. The Centenary Hall was added at the rear in 1880. It was intended as a Sunday School but also served as the Liberal headquarters during the hotly contested elections of the time. The photo shows the Sunday School in 1921.

The Winslow Union Workhouse was established under the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834. It was designed by George Gilbert Scott, later the architect of the Midland Hotel at St Pancras Station and the Albert Memorial. All that is left of the original building is the Master’s House (now divided into flats), which as you can see in the photo was the centre of a T-shaped structure with separate wards for men, women and children. The Workhouse was originally intended to deter people from claiming poor relief, but gradually changed into an institution for those who couldn’t look after themselves, and in 1946 it was reinvented as Winslow Hospital. The tradition of providing care on the site continues at Shaftesbury Court and Swan House, which were built when the Hospital was demolished in the 1970s.

This was the first road in Winslow designed specifically for houses. Building plots were sold off in 1890 and 28 houses were eventually built, mainly in twos and threes. The road really was an avenue lined with trees, as you can see in the photo, but most of them died within a few years. The existing drainage system couldn’t cope with the new houses, which flooded intermittently until at least 1915. Norden House was built separately for Dr Thomas Vaisey. The surgery was originally one room with a separate entrance, but the whole building now provides medical services.

The Chandos Arms on the east side of the High Street was built in 1839 along with six adjoining houses. Four more houses known as Rose Cottages were added at the rear in the 1870s. In the early hours of 7 August 1943 a Wellington bomber attempting to land on Little Horwood Airfield crashed on these buildings. Thirteen civilians were killed, including a family which had been evacuated from London. Four members of the plane’s crew also died. It was the biggest loss of life in one day in Winslow’s recorded history. There is a memorial plaque on the Royal British Legion Hall in Elmfields Gate, which was built on the site.

Winslow has had a fire engine since at least 1781. That must be one of the reasons why, despite many serious fires, there has never been one as devastating as those which destroyed large parts of Buckingham and Stony Stratford. Winslow has very varied building styles and rooflines because there was no general rebuilding at one date. The parish provided an “engine house” near the Market Square and an official Volunteer Fire Brigade was formed in 1869. The photo shows the Brigade outside their headquarters in 1935. The fire engines became too big and had to be moved to the site of the present Fire Station, built in 1960.

Most of the buildings in the High Street have been inns at some point in their history. 26 High Street, on the far right in the photo, is a timber-framed building with a late Georgian façade. It was an inn called The Sow and Pigs by the 1750s, and changed its name to The King’s Head around 1832, probably because its owner got the vote under the Reform Act that year and wanted to acknowledge William IV’s role. Most innkeepers in Winslow needed another trade, and the King’s Head also had an extensive bakery (now forming a large annex at the rear of the building). It became a private house in about 1920. To its left in the photo is 28 High Street, now the headquarters of Winslow Town Council. Further left are two large buildings which have been demolished: The Elms and (on the corner of Vicarage Road) Arundel House, once the Winslow Classical and Commercial School.

The Windmill Inn probably got its name from the fact that it was the nearest inn to the actual windmill, located north of the original town centre. It was trading under that name from at least 1709, probably earlier, but the original building has been lost. To the left of the man on the horse you can see a low, thatched building and a 3-storey Victorian one which together formed the pub. It belonged to the Gibbs family in the 18th century; they were prominent tradesmen and bellringers in the town. There was a separate workshop at the back (where the car park is now) which was used by a wheelwright and then a blacksmith. The present building dates from the 1920s, and was converted to a veterinary surgery in 1995.

This building, in the centre of the photo, had a very smart Georgian front, with a balcony whose railings matched those on The George. There was a local story that it was designed by Christopher Wren. It was converted into a draper’s shop in 1853, and it was also the post office until 1870, with a special window at the side for selling stamps. It acquired the name Market House in the 1880s. During World War Two it became an evacuees’ club and was visited by Clement Attlee. Attempts to find a new use for it failed and it was demolished in 1946, leaving a very wide pavement.

The Bell was run by four generations of the Neal family from 1814 to 1975. It was already Winslow’s biggest inn by 1591 when it had 27 beds and 35 pairs of sheets. It became the place where stagecoaches stopped, and also provided a service to collect passengers from the railway stations. Later it had its own garage. It was the venue for hunt balls, magistrates’ meetings, auctions and farmers’ dinners. The Assembly Roomsbuilt by the Neals was the largest indoor venue in Winslow, and The Bell became Conservative headquarters at election time.

The George was at one time known by the apparently unique name of The George and Horseshoe (to differentiate it from The Old George, later incorporated in The Bell). The building is timber-framed, and the side facing Horn Street seems to have had a jettied upper storey. It was probably refronted when the ornate iron railing on the balcony was acquired, most likely in 1784 when some of the contents of Claydon House were sold at The Bell. According to one theory the ironwork was previously at Salden House near Mursley, which was demolished c.1740.

Along with The George, this building (in the centre of the photo) is part of an early encroachment into the Market Square. The main part has an 18th-century exterior which has been altered to accommodate various types of shop. It was a hairdresser’s and stationer’s until 1882, then a confectioner’s shop. The photo shows how the roof was adapted to accommodate the photograpic studio of J.H. Turnham. The 4-storey building to the right which is connected to it (no.14C) isn’t as old as it looks: it was built c.1870 in a Georgian style which would have been in keeping with the rest of the Square at the time.

The gabled building with an unusual grey tiled roof (on the right in the photo) is about 60% of a medieval house which would have included no.13 to the right. The original Crown Inn might have extended along the whole of that side of the Square. Inside, timber frames and wattle-and-daub walls survive from the 16th century. The Old Crown closed as an inn in 1895, when it was recommended for demolition, but the builder Thomas Walker converted it into a private dwelling called Perseverance House. Renovations in the 1970s revealed two stone-framed Tudor fireplaces.