- Colnbrook
-
Coordinates: 51°29′01″N 0°31′20″W / 51.4835°N 0.5221°W
Colnbrook 
Colnbrook
Colnbrook shown within BerkshireOS grid reference SU945805 Parish Colnbrook with Poyle Unitary authority Slough Ceremonial county Berkshire Region South East Country England Sovereign state United Kingdom Post town SLOUGH Postcode district SL3 Police Thames Valley Fire Royal Berkshire Ambulance South Central EU Parliament South East England UK Parliament Windsor List of places: UK • England • Berkshire Colnbrook is a large village in the unitary authority of Slough, in Berkshire, England. It is situated 3.5 miles (5.6 km) southeast of central Slough, 9 km (5.6 mi) east of Windsor and 19 miles (31 km) west of central London.
Colnbrook is in the Windsor constituency and its Member of Parliament is Adam Afriyie (Conservative). The Town's Mayor is Warren Johnson.
Contents
History
Mentioned in William the Conqueror's Domesday Book, Colnbrook is on the Colne Brook, a tributary to the river Colne, hence Colnbrook.[1] Coaching inns were the village's main industry. In 1106 the first one was founded by Milo Crispin, named The Hospice (now the Ostrich Inn). By 1577 Colnbrook had no fewer than ten coaching inns. Colnbrook's High Street was on the main London to Bath road and turn off point for Windsor and was used as a resting point for travellers.
One 17th century landlord, Jarman of the Ostrich Inn, installed a large trap door under the bed in the best bedroom located immediately above the inn's kitchen. The bed was fixed to the trap door and the mattress securely attached to the bedstead, so that when two retaining iron pins were removed from below in the small hours of the morning, the sleeping guest was neatly decanted into a boiling cauldron. In this way more than 60 of his richer guests were murdered silently and with no bloodshed. Their bodies were then disposed of in the Colne River. The murder of a wealthy clothier, Olde Cole, or Thomas of Reading, proved to be Jarman's undoing, in that they failed to get rid of Cole's horse, leading to their confessing. Jarman and his wife were hanged for robbery and murder.[2][3][4] The inn is reportedly haunted and has been subject to investigations by the Sussex Paranormal Research Group and Most Haunted.[5] On an episode of "Ghosthunters International" that aired on July 21, 2010, it is mentioned that the Jarman murders at the Ostrich Inn were the inspiration for the story of "Sweeney Todd".
Colnbrook is also the place where Cox (a retired brewer) first grafted the Cox's Orange Pippin at his orchard named The Lawns.
Colnbrook was transferred to Berkshire from Buckinghamshire on 1 April 1995.[6]
Transport
Colnbrook was in earlier times on the main road to Windsor by way of Slough, and had been a convenient halting-place for travellers before the introduction of railways.[2] Colnbrook has a railway line running into West Drayton, formerly carrying passenger traffic, today only carrying goods desired for the Heathrow airport extension (Terminal 5). This railway line formerly continued to Staines and there are plans to re-use the southern part of it for the Heathrow Airtrack rail link from Staines to Heathrow Airport.
See Colnbrook railway station for the former rail connection that closed in 1965.
Local bus services are operated by London United and First Berkshire & The Thames Valley.
References
- ^ History of the Parish of Wraysbury, Ankerwycke Priory, and Magna Charta Island; with the History of Horton, and the town of Colnbrook, Bucks., G.W.J. Gyll, 1862, London: H. G. Bohn. Online version at Google Books OCLC: 5001532
- ^ a b The hundred of Stoke: Colnbrook, A History of the County of Buckingham: Volume 3. William Page (editor), 1925, pp. 246-249.
- ^ Sweet Thames Run Softly - Robert Gibbings
- ^ How Thomas of Reading was Murdered - Thomas Deloney
- ^ Sussex Paranormal Research Group
- ^ Hunter, Judith (1995). A History of Berkshire. Chichester: Phillimore. p. 11. ISBN 0 85033 729 1.
External links
- Colnbrook with Poyle Parish Council
- Colnbrook Village Website
- The horrible history of the Ostrich Inn
Within the borough Outside the borough
[Categories:- Villages in Berkshire
- Suburbs of Slough
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
