Fond farewell to Windsor and its wonderful people

When I shared the news that our family was moving to Windsor from a small village on the east coast of South Africa, the response was:

“It must be super posh and privileged, full of cliques and cachet. There’s a reason the Queen of England lives there.”

This was just shy of nine years ago, and we’ve been weaving our family into the fabric of local life in this royal town ever since.

Windsor is a visually spectacular place, steeped in history and culture at every turn.

We’ve explored its (Great) park, (Bachelors) acre and (Long) walk.

We’ve meandered the (Thames) river path and my husband has run up considerable mileage on the trails from Eton and Dorney to Burnham, Virginia Water – all the way to Marlow.

Windsor is breathtakingly beautiful. This we know.

What we didn’t know was just how warm the Windsor community is.

And this perhaps is where its true beauty lies. Hilltop First School, led by Lynn Bima and her nurturing team, is a child-led school on Clewer Hill Road that has become such an integral part of our family and through it, we’ve cultivated lifelong friendships.

This is not your average first school, it’s outstanding in every way.

Nina Adamson, Jamie Miles, Jo Bruce-Carter and the staff at St Edward's Royal Free Ecumenical Middle School foster a positive and caring ethos to learning that has made all the difference for our children.

We’ve swum our hearts out with Aquazone at The Windsor Leisure Centre, my daughter has danced with joy at Hawthorne School of Dance under the tutelage of the lovely ‘Miss’ Lucy, we’ve kicked a ball about with Windsor FC and we’ve enjoyed many innings with the Windsor Cricket Club at Home Park with the stately

Castle as the most magnificent backdrop.

I’ve loaned hundreds of books from the Windsor Library and read many in the garden under a plane tracked sky.

Nick and Ian and the team at Cinnamon Cafe have played host to countless coffee get togethers with their infectious energy and commitment to serving and celebrating the best of local.

The inimitable Simon, Sue and ‘the boys’ from Gennaro on St Leonards have looked after our brood’s locks and tolerated my penchant for inane chit chat with medal-worthy grace.

The Windsor Farm Shop has sourced locallygrown fare for our family and offered me generous deals on (literally) hundreds of burgers for umpteen school fundraising events.

Very shortly, we'll be relocating to the hamlet of Bowden, just outside of Dartmouth in Devon.

We’re heading to a little house on a hill where our neighbour farms cows and Blackpool Sands is a winding stroll away, via the hedgerows.

We’d like to bid a fond farewell to Windsor and its warm-hearted community.

We’d like to thank you for taking a South African family under your wing and making us feel warm and welcome as we built a home away from our homeland. It has been a privilege and a pleasure.

And to those naysayers who couldn’t have been more wrong all those years ago, I’d like to say… Of course the Queen of England would choose to live in Windsor.

It’s a magical, majestic town – rich in heritage, richer in kindness.

Thank you for the memories, Windsor.

TIM, SALLY, OLIVER, GABRIELLA AND ALEXANDER COOK

Windsor (for now)

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