Black Boy Island facts for kids
Black Boy Island is a small island in the River Thames in England. It's not lived on by people. You can find it between the villages of Medmenham, Buckinghamshire and Hurley, Berkshire. The island is located near a tiny place called Frogmill. It sits on the southern side of the river, just above Hurley Lock. This island is part of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead area.
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What is Black Boy Island Like?
This island is very low to the ground. This means that when the River Thames floods, the island gets completely covered with water. Today, Black Boy Island is full of trees. However, until the 1920s, it looked very different. Back then, this island and a nearby one called Frog Mill Ait had no plants growing on them at all!
This was because of how boats used to travel on the river. Horses would walk along a path called a towpath, pulling boats with long ropes. The towpath was on the southern side of Black Boy Island. The boats needed to stay in the main part of the river, which was on the northern side. The ropes used to pull the boats had to go over the islands. Sometimes, the angle of the ropes was such that the large boats, called barges, could even be pulled onto the islands! This constant activity kept the islands clear of any trees or bushes for a long time.
How Did Black Boy Island Get Its Name?
The island is located where a road called Black Boy Lane meets the River Thames. This lane connects to a main road (the A4130) that goes from Maidenhead to Henley. At the point where Black Boy Lane meets the main road, there is an old pub called the Black Boys Inn. This inn is said to have been around since the 1500s!
The Story Behind "Black Boy"
Many inns across the country have the name "Black Boy." It's believed that this name often refers to King Charles II. When he was a child, his mother supposedly called him "Black Boy" because of his dark hair and complexion. The lane next to the inn took the same name. Since the island is right next to Black Boy Lane, it also came to be known as Black Boy Island.
A Curious Nearby Name
There's another interesting old house nearby called "Poisson Duc." Locally, people sometimes mispronounce it as "Poison Duck." The name "Poisson Duc" is in an old French language called Norman French. It means "fish keeper's cottage." This suggests that the person who looked after the fish for the local Norman Lord of the Manor lived there.
The Domesday Book, a very old record from 1086, mentions that the area of Hurley had two places for catching fish. These fisheries were quite valuable, bringing in 12 shillings each year. They would have used special fish traps or "ducts" in the river to catch fish swimming up or down the Thames.
