Windsor is dominated by the amazing view of Windsor Castle, which helps to provide the town with its main source of revenue “tourism”. The town provides over four million visitors a year with a fantastic day out. With views to some very famous landmarks such as Sir Christopher Wrens town house, the Guild Hall and the monumental statue of George III known locally as the Copper Horse. The town, situated on the banks of the River Thames offers many superb views and walks. Surrounding the Castle there are numerous buildings, many of which are historical land marks in their own right. A number of these have now been converted into shops, restaurants and public houses. The town caters very well for both residents and visitors and has many traditional and modern establishments blending beautifully together, making Windsor an interesting and memorable place to visit. Away from the town centre Windsor hosts many other attractions these include the Long Walk, Windsor Great Park, boating on the river, Windsor Race Course and last but not least the world famous Legoland.

The Royal Borough of Windsor is mainly rural and contains 1,000 acres of land held by the National Trust in the north, and almost 5,000 acres of Crown land to the south.
"Windlesora" stood on the present site of the village of Old Windsor and is where Windsor owes its origin. It is thought to have been founded in the 7th Century. Its Saxon name probably means the bank (ora) with winding gear (windles).

Old Windsor was a royal manor during the Saxon period and in the 11th Century the Great Councils of England met there. William I built a motte and bailey castle on high ground some two miles north of the Saxon town following the Norman Conquest in 1066. The castle was being used as a royal residence by the reign of Henry I.

Over 900 years ago, William the Conqueror, with the help of his victorious army, commenced the construction of Windsor Castle. The site was chosen with typical care: high above the River Thames, on the edge of a Saxon hunting ground, the Castle was a day's march from the Tower of London and was designed to guard the western approaches to the capital.

Since those early days, Windsor Castle has been inhabited continuously and improved and restored by successive monarchs according to their taste and style. Some were great builders, strengthening the Castle against uprising and rebellion, others, living in more peaceful times, created a palace within the apartments of their ancestors.

The first Monarch to assume the surname "Windsor " was King George V in 1917.

Not until the 19th & 20th Centuries have new industries of high-tech and tourism appeared in Windsor.

The town itself, located to the west of the castle walls, retains a Georgian character. The Savill Garden, set in Windsor Great Park, is splendid in early summer when the rhododendrons are in flower. A footbridge across the Thames connects Windsor with Eton and its famous school, and downstream is the meadow at Runnymede where King John signed the Magna Carta in 1215.  

Windsor Station.

The station was built by the Great Western Railway in 1849, extending its line from Slough to Windsor. This gave Queen Victoria and the general public easy access when visiting Windsor, although if some of the leading citizens of the day had had their way, Windsor would have had a railway even before Victoria came to the throne.

A Great Western Act in 1835 authorised a line west through Slough with no branch to Windsor, although it was not until 1840 that a station was permitted at Slough because of fears of corruption by the pupils at Eton College.

By the end of 1849 Windsor had two branch lines and by 1851, two railway stations, one opposite the Castle and the other on the riverside. These were crucial to Windsor. Residents could travel to Paddington or Waterloo in an hour, thus they could work and shop, as well as visit concerts and other events in London, returning to their homes in Windsor. The tourist trade also flourished in that trains could bring hundreds of visitors for a day out, as opposed to the small numbers coming by coach. Members of the royal household used the train from Windsor for the first time, after which monarchs and cabinet ministers frequently made use of the two Windsor railway lines. Queen Victoria who died in Osborne House on the Isle of Wight on 22nd January 1901 was taken by gun carriage from the Central Station to the grounds of Frogmore where she was buried in the Royal Mausoleum, next to her beloved husband Prince Albert.

Today the station is a thriving area linked to the main shopping streets, with a number of cafe bars and boutiques. One exit from Central Station opens out onto Thames Street opposite the Curfew Tower of the Castle. From here there is a pleasant walk past many inns and eating places down the hill past the Theatre Royal to Windsor Bridge - a pedestrian bridge which crosses the Thames into Eton.

Daniel Gooch, one of the great railway engineers of the century, was appointed Superintendent of the Great Western Railway. He lived in the village of Clewer and is buried in the churchyard there.

Cookham
The painter Stanley Spencer (1891–1959) lived and worked in this picturesque Thames-side village, using it as a background to many of his works. Some of his paintings and belongings are on display in his former studio, the Stanley Spencer Gallery. East, across the river, is Cliveden, a Victorian mansion that gave its name in the 1930s to the Cliveden Set, political house guests of Nancy Astor, the first woman MP. It is now a luxury hotel, but the extensive garden is open to the public and commands magnificent river views.

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