Maidenhead Leasing

Did You Know?

Lying adjacent to the River Thames’ flow – Maidenhead is yet another famous market town of England with enriched English heritage and beautiful culture. It is currently situated in the county of Berkshire.

Maidenhead's name stems from the riverside area where the first "New wharf" or "Maiden Hythe" was built, as early as Saxon times. In the year 870, an army of Danes invaded the kingdom of Wessex. They disembarked from their longboats by the wharf and ferry crossing at Maidenhead and fought their way overland to Reading where they set up camp and made it their regional power base.

The history of Maidenhead started from the 100 A.D when it was populated with Romans. One the things that make this century a historical one is the presence of a Roman Villa in Cox Green, near Maidenhead. This villa was discovered in the 1950s through aerial photography and excavated in 1959. It is one of the highly advanced and oldest villas of its times ever built in the world.

Being situated near to the River Thames – Maidenhead had been a victim of several record-breaking floods, one which occurred in 1894 when River Thames was flooded and destroyed the meadows and villages in its surrounding. It was the most significant flood in the history till 1947.

in 1838 Isambard Kingdom Brunel built Maidenhead Railway Bridge it had the widest and flattest brick arches in the world? Such were the doubts of the mere mortals heading the Great Western Railway that they had him retain the wooden framework used in constructing it, fearing the graceful design would collapse. The wood soon washed away in floods; the bridge still carries railway traffic today.

It was also during the Civil War that Maidenhead had become the scene of an event of National importance. After King Charles I's capture by Parliament, he was held prisoner at Caversham Park. He met his children for the last time before his execution in 1649 at the Greyhound Inn on the High Street, the site of which is now a branch of the NatWest Bank. A plaque commemorates their meeting. 

Maidenhead had numerous inns and, in the 18th century, it was just about the busiest coaching stop in the country. Ninety coaches a day passed through the town. The coaching inns were, naturally, highly popular, especially at dusk when coachmen refused to carry-on over the infamous Maidenhead Thicket, for fear of being held-up by highwaymen.