A local guide to Datchet
The village boasts its own railway station, which offers a regular service to London Waterloo and the Windsor and Eton Riverside Station, and the village itself is literally on the doorstep of the M4.
The village is a mere stone’s throwaway from the River Thames, with the properties lining its banks proving extremely popular with house buyers.
These providing a reminder of the village’s heyday when it was a fashionable location for riverside pleasure trips, regattas and parties in the late 1880s. As a result, the demand for high-class new houses with a river view soared.
The main focal point of the village is the Manor House that dates back to the 1500s and today is the site of a popular hotel and restaurant.
Out the front of the building is the village green, which back in the 1500s was actually the end point of a stream that ran through the centre of the village.
The stream, however, was got rid of in the 1840s as one of a number of alterations bought about by a period of rapid growth and development in the village around this time.
This was kick started by the arrival of the railway running from Staines to Windsor in 1848, which in turn led to the roads running through the village being extended to cater for the areas rapidly increasing population.
As a result, new terraced houses and semi-detached homes were built, along with shops and pubs in order to serve the burgeoning community – evidence of which is still visible today.
Many of the homes built around this time boast a Victorian ‘mock Tudor’ frontage that is still today the village’s dominant housing style.
The village is home to a good array of services, including opportunities for both primary and secondary education, a health club, and a busy parade of shops catering to most of its residents’ needs. These include a building society, newsagents and a pharmacy.
In addition, the village is also home to a couple of pubs, restaurants and cafés, too.
However, if there is anything that villagers find themselves lacking, these can be easily got hold of through a trip to nearby Slough or Windsor.