Records of the Windsor Estate

Records of the Windsor Estate relating to the administration of the Crown estates there.

Files of the Windsor Estate, many pre-dating the establishment of the Commissioners for Crown Estates in 1924, are in CRES 4. General establishment records relating to the Estate Office are in CRES 46. A single volume defining the boundaries of Windsor Forest and Windsor Great Park has been transferred from CRES 33 to MPZ 1/23.

For information on the appraisal and selection decisions applied to records of the Windsor Estate see Operational Selection Policy OSP2, The Crown Estate, 1975-1985.

For entry books of pre-1913 correspondence see CRES 16

Topics

Crown lands and estates

Royal Parks

There had long been established at Windsor an office to administer the Crown estates there. From the formation of the Office of the Commissioners for the Crown estate in 1924, the office was maintained in Windsor to manage the Crown estate in Windsor Great Park and in the surrounding area (principally town properties in Windsor itself, and agricultural and mixed usage estates in Ascot, Bagshot, Datchet and Swinley). While most Crown estates have local managers or agents to execute directions from the commissioners, the Windsor estate is the only one large enough to warrant its own establishment.

From 1924 until 1968 the estate office was responsible to the appropriate headquarters branches for each part of its operations (ie to Agricultural Branch, Finance Branch and Urban Branch). In 1968, when the headquarters were relocated to Bracknell, a Windsor and General Branch was established which had control of the Windsor Estate Office (which nonetheless continued as a separate entity).

The Windsor Estate Office is responsible for the day-to-day running of the Windsor Park area and Crown land adjoining it, and staff based at Windsor also have responsibility for the general administration of forestry matters in all Crown estates. The office is run by the Surveyor and Deputy Ranger, who has general direction of all common services, and management responsibility for all the estates. Beneath him is a Director of Gardens, who is responsible for managing the formal gardens in the estate, particularly Savill and Valley Gardens. Also based in the office is the Director of Forestry, who has responsibility for Crown estate forestry policy.