Talk:Hubert Martineau

Private cricket ground near Maidenhead

I grew up in the village of Holyport, which is 3 miles from Maidenhead. “Mr Martineau” (as he was referred to) had the huge white-painted house that sat in private splendour behind a high brick wall on the northeast side of Holyport Green. Word was that he lived there during the summer and wintered in the South of France - no-one who didn’t work there ever saw him. I walked past the house on the way to and from the village Primary School through the 1960s. The school was then at Ascot Road, where Hearne Drive is now. In the same class as me were a son of Mr Martineau’s head gardener and the son of a cook of his.

Now I once had a copy of a book written by a woman who grew up in a house in Pamela Row, Holyport. It was a biography, of her early years. She mentions the West Indies cricket team playing on the village green. So I think that the “private cricket ground” mentioned in this article was the village green itself. There is nowhere else in the village near to Mr Martineau’s house - what better place to play than on the green, just outside his grand edifice? Further, the local cricket club played on the village green, before they shifted to a pitch by the Memorial Hall in Moneyrow Green in the late 60s, due to traffic issues. There was even a pub called ‘The Cricketers’ fronting the green, close to The George, but on the Ascot Road. It ceased to be a pub a little earlier, probably in the early 60s. Sadly, I don’t have a copy of that book and don’t even know its title or the author’s name.

Someone somewhere must know a little more about this. Would any editors responding please ping me. Thanks. Boscaswell talk 09:14, 29 March 2022 (UTC)