Salt Hill is a district within the

unitary authority A unitary authority is a type of local government, local authority in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Unitary authorities are responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are ...

Slough Slough () is a town in Berkshire, England, in the Thames Valley, west of central London and north-east of Reading, at the intersection of the M4, M40 and M25 motorways. It is part of the historic county of Buckinghamshire. In 2021, the ...

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...

in the south of England, close to London. Before 1974, Salt Hill was part of

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (, abbreviated ''Bucks'') is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...

. It is to the north of

Chalvey Chalvey () is a former village, which is now a suburb of Slough, in the unitary authority of Slough in Berkshire, England. It was transferred to Berkshire from Buckinghamshire in 1974. It was first recorded in 1217 by an Old English word meanin ...

and the Great West Road, surrounding Salt Hill Park. The name Salt Hill is derived from Montem Mound in Chalvey, which was also known as Salt Hill, or Salts Hill.

History

Salt Hill was originally a village approximately one mile west of Slough. Famous inns in Salt Hill included the Windmill Inn, visited by

William Pitt the Younger William Pitt (28 May 1759 – 23 January 1806) was a British statesman who served as the last prime minister of Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain from 1783 until the Acts of Union 1800, and then first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, p ...

and

Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge ( ; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets with his friend William Wordsworth ...

, and the Castle Inn, which had a view of

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a List of British royal residences, royal residence at Windsor, Berkshire, Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, about west of central London. It is strongly associated with the Kingdom of England, English and succee ...

. In 1773, several commissioners of the Colnbrook Turnpike Trust died at Castle Inn due to food poisoning. They had eaten turtle soup. In 1807, the French nobleman Antoine Philippe, Duke of Montpensier died here of tuberculosis on the way from London to Devon. In 1814, the Prince Regent hosted breakfast at the Windmill Inn for the

King of Prussia The monarchs of Prussia were members of the House of Hohenzollern who were the hereditary rulers of the former German state of Prussia from its founding in 1525 as the Duchy of Prussia. The Duchy had evolved out of the Teutonic Order, a Roman C ...

and his sons. On 1 January 1845, John Tawell, who had recently returned from Australia, murdered his lover, Sarah Hart, at Salt Hill by poisoning her with

prussic acid Hydrogen cyanide (formerly known as prussic acid) is a chemical compound with the formula HCN and structural formula . It is a highly toxic and flammable liquid that boils slightly above room temperature, at . HCN is produced on an industrial s ...

. With various officials in chase, Tawell fled to Slough railway station and boarded a train to

Paddington Paddington is an area in the City of Westminster, in central London, England. A medieval parish then a metropolitan borough of the County of London, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Paddington station, designed b ...

. The

electrical telegraph Electrical telegraphy is point-to-point distance communicating via sending electric signals over wire, a system primarily used from the 1840s until the late 20th century. It was the first electrical telecommunications system and the most wid ...

had recently been installed and so a message was sent ahead to Paddington with Tawell's details. Tawell was trailed and subsequently arrested, tried and executed for the murder at

Aylesbury Aylesbury ( ) is the county town of Buckinghamshire, England. It is home to the Roald Dahl Children's Gallery and the Aylesbury Waterside Theatre, Waterside Theatre. It is located in central Buckinghamshire, midway between High Wycombe and Milt ...

on 28 March 1845. This is believed to be the first time ever that the telegraph had been involved in the apprehension of a murderer. On 6 February 1870 William MacBean George Colebrooke K.B. died at his home here. He, along with fellow

Utilitarian In ethical philosophy, utilitarianism is a family of normative ethical theories that prescribe actions that maximize happiness and well-being for the affected individuals. In other words, utilitarian ideas encourage actions that lead to the ...

Charles Hay Cameron had been responsible for the Colebrooke-Cameron Commission Help report, which brought

constitutional government A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...

Ceylon Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

(later Sri Lanka) and marks the beginning of the modern era in that country. He had also presided over a constitutional crisis in

New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...

and had been Governor of British Guiana. Salt Hill Park once boasted great iron gates, which were subsequently smelted as part of the war effort during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

References

Suburbs of Slough {{Berkshire-geo-stub