Robert Barker was a resident of Datchet and man of means, who had the misfortune to lose his wealth and end his days in a debtors' prison. Before his death he set up a trust to assist in the upkeep of a footbridge which allowed pedestrians to pass from one side of the village to another over "watery" ground. When the last of the original trustees died it was discovered that he had in his possessions over £128 in a bag marked "Datchet Bagg". The Court of Law was asked to establish the purposes for which this sum and all future money was to be used. Recognising that Robert Barker had intended a bridge be built in his 1644 deed, it was assumed that the bridge had indeed been built through his gift. The Court set up a more effective system for appointing trustees. and from this date the Trust's minutes exist in an almost unbroken sequence and provide a great deal of information about the village in a period before any other parish records for Datchet survive.
Many changes occurred during the lifetime of this trust, but always the money has been used within Datchet and often to help the poor of the district. However, it was not all plain sailing. By 1730 the first quarrel broke out when Trust money was spent by one trustee without the consent of all the trustees; the Trust declined to pay the bills as they were "a manifest violation and abuse of the trust". Later the same year the trustees were back in court over the case of the vicarage trees. The vicar went to court complaining that the trustees had refused to replace a fence, thus allowing cattle and hogs to invade his orchard, while the trustees refused to reinstate the fence unless he allowed them to also fence in a row of elm trees which he claimed as belonging to the vicarage and not to the Trust. It appears that the 18th century was a litigious era.
The main asset of the trust was, and still is, the Royal Stag which is reputed to be haunted by various apparitions. A ghostly handprint of a child is said to appear on one of the downstairs window panes on the churchyard side; the tale is of a child dying in the churchyard waiting for her father to come out of the pub. Unless this is a continuing hoax there is no rational explanation, but nor is there any evidence to confirm the tale.
In 1837 the BBHT trustees decided to spend money on a permanent solution to the flooding of central Datchet. They arranged for a drainage arch to be built through the village, and it is said the bricks used for the culvert came from a wall built by William IV along the Windsor side of the river bank. The original arch left quite a large pond at the foot of Slough Road and this became rather smelly stagnant water, so following complaints the trustees decided to lengthen the culvert and filled in the pond. In this way the BBHT created dry land and is thus responsible for the village greens that we now enjoy, and the Trust's brick vaulted culvert still channels surface water from the village centre out to the ditch on the recreation ground.
Although they enjoyed success with creating a dry village centre, the trustees were fighting a losing battle with the river flooding. In times of flood the BBHT paid watchmen to observe the river banks all night, providing beer and mending the lanterns but could do little else. However, they made more improvement to the centre with the provision of oil lamps in the main street and providing hydrant points when the water mains were laid in 1884. The upkeep of a fire engine owed much to the BBHT, who paid the rent of the shed by the station where the engine and road watering cart were kept.
With the establishment of a Parish Council in 1894 a lot of the functions supported by BBHT were taken over by the Council, with the Trust contributing about two-thirds of its income towards these general expenses. But by 1947 there was a great deal of animosity between the Trust and the Parish Council as neither body were represented on the other, but each wanted a say in the other's business and finances. Acrimonious arguments, angry letters, refusals to attend meetings and general obstruction on all sides continued until a new Charity Commission Scheme was drawn up in 1960 to resolve the situation. It ensured the Parish Council could no longer divert Trust funds into its own general funds by establishing the three branches of the Trust, as described on "What is BBHT?" page.
From information given by Janet Kennish - see http://www.datchethistory.org.uk
Many changes occurred during the lifetime of this trust, but always the money has been used within Datchet and often to help the poor of the district. However, it was not all plain sailing. By 1730 the first quarrel broke out when Trust money was spent by one trustee without the consent of all the trustees; the Trust declined to pay the bills as they were "a manifest violation and abuse of the trust". Later the same year the trustees were back in court over the case of the vicarage trees. The vicar went to court complaining that the trustees had refused to replace a fence, thus allowing cattle and hogs to invade his orchard, while the trustees refused to reinstate the fence unless he allowed them to also fence in a row of elm trees which he claimed as belonging to the vicarage and not to the Trust. It appears that the 18th century was a litigious era.
The main asset of the trust was, and still is, the Royal Stag which is reputed to be haunted by various apparitions. A ghostly handprint of a child is said to appear on one of the downstairs window panes on the churchyard side; the tale is of a child dying in the churchyard waiting for her father to come out of the pub. Unless this is a continuing hoax there is no rational explanation, but nor is there any evidence to confirm the tale.
In 1837 the BBHT trustees decided to spend money on a permanent solution to the flooding of central Datchet. They arranged for a drainage arch to be built through the village, and it is said the bricks used for the culvert came from a wall built by William IV along the Windsor side of the river bank. The original arch left quite a large pond at the foot of Slough Road and this became rather smelly stagnant water, so following complaints the trustees decided to lengthen the culvert and filled in the pond. In this way the BBHT created dry land and is thus responsible for the village greens that we now enjoy, and the Trust's brick vaulted culvert still channels surface water from the village centre out to the ditch on the recreation ground.
Although they enjoyed success with creating a dry village centre, the trustees were fighting a losing battle with the river flooding. In times of flood the BBHT paid watchmen to observe the river banks all night, providing beer and mending the lanterns but could do little else. However, they made more improvement to the centre with the provision of oil lamps in the main street and providing hydrant points when the water mains were laid in 1884. The upkeep of a fire engine owed much to the BBHT, who paid the rent of the shed by the station where the engine and road watering cart were kept.
With the establishment of a Parish Council in 1894 a lot of the functions supported by BBHT were taken over by the Council, with the Trust contributing about two-thirds of its income towards these general expenses. But by 1947 there was a great deal of animosity between the Trust and the Parish Council as neither body were represented on the other, but each wanted a say in the other's business and finances. Acrimonious arguments, angry letters, refusals to attend meetings and general obstruction on all sides continued until a new Charity Commission Scheme was drawn up in 1960 to resolve the situation. It ensured the Parish Council could no longer divert Trust funds into its own general funds by establishing the three branches of the Trust, as described on "What is BBHT?" page.
From information given by Janet Kennish - see http://www.datchethistory.org.uk