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And we had to take care to close the curtains when
getting undressed. Sometimes we were woken up at
night when thieves threw a brick through the window
of the nearby jewellers’ shop.
Windsor Castle, perched majestically above the
Thames, formed part of my daily view and I began a
love affair with the Castle which has lasted throughout
my life. It inspired me to gain a Honours Degree in
History and to teach History for 15 years in a local
girls’ grammar school before training as a Blue Badge
Guide. For the past 20 years I have been the Site
Liaison Representative for Windsor Castle for the
Guild of Registered Tourist Guides and I am the
Course Director of the Windsor and Eton
Endorsement Course for Blue Badge Guides, and
I lecture on Windsor for the National Association
of Decorative and Fine Arts Societies.
Blue Badge Guide Barbara on A Guide’s Eye View of
Growing Up Beside The Thames
I was 12 years old when my family moved down
from Yorkshire to the Thames-side town of Eton
where my father had been appointed headmaster of
the Eton Porny School (below). The School is named
after its founder, Marc Antoine Pyron du Martré,
a Frenchman who came to this country in 1754
and taught French to the boys at Eton College for 33
years. He became very fond of his adopted country,
where, he said, so many people had been good to
him; and he anglicised his name to Mark Anthony
Porny. He lived a frugal life and in old age became
a Poor Knight of St. George’s Chapel at Windsor
Castle. He left a large sum of money in his will to
found a charity school in Eton for up to 60 boys
and 30 girls which opened at number 29, Eton High
Street in 1813. To be considered for the school a
child had to have attended Sunday school for at least
a year, to be the offspring of Eton parishioners and
to be born in wedlock! Each child who left the
school with good character was given a prayer
book and a Bible.
The present school and the Headmaster’s house date
from 1863 and were designed by the renowned
architect G.E. Street, who also designed the Law
Courts in The Strand. My family had to adjust to life
on the busy, and in those days traffic-filled, Eton
High Street. Passengers sitting on top of double-
decker buses could see straight into our bedrooms