Colnbrook - History

History

Mentioned in William the Conqueror's Domesday Book, Colnbrook is on the Colne Brook, a tributary to the River Colne, hence Colnbrook. Coaching inns were the village's main industry. In 1106 the first one was founded by Milo Crispin, named the Hospice (now the Ostrich Inn). By 1577 Colnbrook had no fewer than ten coaching inns. Colnbrook's High Street was on the main London to Bath road and turn off point for Windsor and was used as a resting point for travellers.

One 17th century landlord, Jarman of the Ostrich Inn, installed a large trap door under the bed in the best bedroom located immediately above the inn's kitchen. The bed was fixed to the trap door and the mattress securely attached to the bedstead, so that when two retaining iron pins were removed from below in the small hours of the morning, the sleeping guest was neatly decanted into a boiling cauldron. In this way more than 60 of his richer guests were murdered silently and with no bloodshed. Their bodies were then disposed of in the River Colne. The murder of a wealthy clothier, Olde Cole or Thomas of Reading, proved to be Jarman's undoing in that they failed to get rid of Cole's horse, leading to their confessing. Jarman and his wife were hanged for robbery and murder. The inn is reportedly haunted and has been subject to investigations by the Sussex Paranormal Research Group and Most Haunted. On an episode of "Ghosthunters International" that aired on July 21, 2010, it is mentioned that the Jarman murders at the Ostrich Inn were the inspiration for the story of "Sweeney Todd".

Colnbrook is also the place where Cox (a retired brewer) first grafted the Cox's Orange Pippin at his orchard named the Lawns.

Colnbrook was transferred to Berkshire from Buckinghamshire on 1 April 1995. When Berkshire County Council was abolished in April 1998, the village came under the local governance of the Slough unitary authority, together with neighbouring Poyle. The civil parish of Colnbrook with Poyle remains.