Windsor Leasing

Did You Know?

Windsor had previously been known as the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha by virtue of descent from Albert, husband of Queen Victoria.

The Merry Wives Of Windsor is the only play by Shakespeare that includes the word ‘cabbage’

Windsor Castle – one of the residences of the royal family – is the oldest and largest inhabited castle in the world. Occupied since the times of Henry I in the 10th century – that means it has been home to Britain’s kings and queens for almost 1,000 years. Forty monarchs have called the castle ‘home’ to date. It’s a big home at that – the castle’s grounds cover the equivalent area of 269 tennis courts.

The original castle was built in the 11th century after the Norman invasion of England by William the Conqueror.

At the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, Charles II rebuilt much of Windsor Castle with the help of the architect Hugh May, creating a set of extravagant Baroque interiors that are still admired.

In 2012 Chris Brown was appointed as town crier of Windsor. The previous town crier retired in 1892. The post had been vacant for 110 years.

Windsor Great Park is a popular place for a walk in open greenery nowadays. You wouldn’t know it today, but in the past, the park has been used to supply Windsor Castle with boar and as a location for medieval jousts.

As well as royalty, Windsor has been a popular place for the rich and famous to live. Former Windsor residents include actor Michael Caine, explorer Ranulph Fiennes, musician Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin, comedian Billy Connolly and singer Natalie Imbruglia.

Windsor Castle has an astounding 450 clocks. When the clocks have to be changed before and after British Summer Time twice a year, it takes the Queen’s clockmaker between 16 and 18 hours to adjust the time on all the castle’s clocks.

Red letterboxes are a common sight in England, but Windsor is said to be home to the only blue letterbox in the country. Blue letterboxes were originally created especially for air mail, but they were quickly phased out since airmail could be just as easily sorted from red letterboxes!

In 2016, an altarpiece designed by Thomas Hardy was discovered in All Saints Church in Windsor. Although Hardy is most famous for his novels such as Tess of the d’Urbervilles, he originally trained as an architect and designed a number of churches.