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About Maidenhead

No one knows where the name Maidenhead, which first appeared in 1296, came from but it owes its foundation to the bridge and a small chapel at a river crossing – once a ford through a much wider and shallower Thames.  The borough church of St Mary Magdalene and St Andrew is the successor of this chapel and like it, it’s close to Chapel Arches which now span a flood relief ditch.

The town traces its beginnings from that chapel and its most historic possession is its charter of incorporation from Queen Elizabeth I signed in 1582.

Edwardian Maidenhead had a risqué atmosphere as somewhere where Londoners came to let their hair down, a reputation that continued well into the 1960s and beyond. 

Today the town – the largest in the royal borough – still has the charm that earned it the name “Jewel of the Thames”, but has shed its decadent image, retaining just a touch of glamour thanks to several resident media and show business personalities.