All Things Windsor

Now that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex moved into Frogmore Cottage and kindly ‘put Windsor on the map’ 🙂 , let’s have a look at the name ‘Windsor’. How many things do you associate with when you hear this word?

As for me, I think of two things instantly and these are:

1) Windsor, the town in the Royal County of Berkshire

2) the title of the House of Windsor.

But what else is called Windsor?

For instance a chair.

The chair on the picture is called Windsor chair, but not because they were made in Windsor, but because they were shipped to London from the market town of Windsor in 1724. However, because Windsor chairs were made in many regions which resulted in regional designs, its name refers to its style, rather than where it was made.

Important to mention that Windsor lies in the Thames Valley surrounded by the Chilterns which was rich in beech trees. Furniture making started here in the 1700s and the town of High Wycombe became the centre of chair making in the 19^th century. The towns best selling product was the Windsor chair. To put the growing business into perspective, at the beginning of the 1800s there was only a few workshops in town, by 1860 there were 150 producing 4700 chairs daily to fulfil the demands of the rapidly growing population.

How come that some of us associate the Windsor chair with American Western films?

In the 1720s English settlers introduced the Windsor chair to North America and the first American Windsor chair was made in Philadelphia in 1730. Mind you, there are differences between the American and the English Windsor chairs.

1) English Windsors typically have elm seats which are not saddled as deeply as the Americans. For the reason that the elm is quite hard to carve. In America a different type of wood is used which is easier to work with.

2) American Windsor chairs usually have stretchers connecting the front and back legs and a cross stretcher connecting the two side ones creating an ‘H’ stretcher assembly. The traditional English Windsor chair does not have stretchers as the wedged tenon joint is strong enough to prevent the legs from creeping outward.

3) Early English Windsor chairs were painted, later versions were stained and polished.

Windsor knot

The Windsor knot, or Full Windsor or Double Windsor is a method of tying a necktie. The Windsor knot produces a wide symmetrical triangular knot which was named after the Duke of Windsor, later King Edward VIII, however the knot itself was probably invented by his father, King George V.

The Windsor knot is suitable for big events and is recommended for cutaway, Italian or Windsor collar. The size of the knot is 4cm which is quite big and could detract attention from the person’s face. For this reason the Windsor knot is suitable for a square or round face or for those who wear beard or moustache. The knot must be positioned in the middle between the two parts of the collar and must hide the top button of the shirt.

The Windsor knot is only used by the Royal Air Force officially. Interesting facts: In the novel From Russia with Love James Bond meets a supposed British agent, who wears ‘the dark blue and red zigzagged tie of the Royal Artillery, tied with a Windsor knot’. Bond mistrusted anyone with a Windsor knot as it showed too much vanity, but he decided to forget his prejudice.

Font

Indeed, there is a font type called Windsor created by Eleisha Pechey. This font type is primarily used as display and in headings rather than for body text.

Capitals M and W are widely splayed, P and R have very large upper bowls. The lowercase a, h, m and n of the Windsor font have angled right hand stems, e has an angled cross-stroke.

Cheese

I must admit the Windsor cheese looks a bit bizarre at first glance, it reminds me of some sort of salami… What it is basically is red wine (Bordeaux, port or brandy) given to Cheddar cheese. The wine then establishes a marble effect in the cheese.

And of course there are…

…places, surnames, battleship, automobile, bomber, submarine and an engine named Windsor. Finally there are famous actors to English Stage and TV Frank Windsor and Windsor Davies showing that it can also be a Family Name and  Given name (forename).

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