This first column shows the coat of arms of Eton College and has the following wording:
The Eton Walkway
Eton has been a settlement since at least Saxon times, though Roman and Celtic urns suggest an earlier origin. Its name derives from Eyot-tun, meaning ‘settlement on an island’. It was originally bounded by the Thames and several streams and thus relatively safe from attack. Traces of the Saxon settlement survive. There are large commons and areas of Lammas lands where householders were allowed to graze two beasts between August and October.
At the time of Domesday (1086), ‘Ettone’ was listed as having two mills, a meadow, woodland and fisheries. The settlement first concentrated on the higher land and quickly spread along the present High Street during the Middle Ages in response to the growth of Windsor.
In 1826 the decision was taken to reject a plan to enclose the parish land. This parish is one of the few still containing Lammas land, one reason why a rail connection to the town was delayed. However, the Windsor Branch rail viaduct was completed in 1849, running through the meadows and crossing the river on Brunel’s bridge which is now the world’s oldest wrought iron railway bridge still in regular service.
The Thames has always been more of a link than a barrier. The stones used to build Eton College Chapel were conveyed here by barge. The first bridge was built in about 1170, while the present bridge opened in 1822. It was freed from tolls in 1898, and closed to motor vehicles in 1970.
Eton High Street leads from the bridge through the town to the College. Henry VI founded Eton College in 1440. He was a shy and peace-loving man, then aged 18. He loved Windsor and so converted the parish church on the other side of the Thames into a Collegiate Church. Eton College was endowed with considerable estates spread across England.
The Founder decreed that there were to be 70 King’s Scholars, who were educated for free and housed in College. Outside College itself, so-called Oppidans were lodged in houses in the town and received the same education. Originally these houses were run by Dames, but more recently by House Masters. Today there are 24 boarding houses for Oppidans and over 1,300 boys in all.