“The Windsor Lady that took on the council and saved the Acre from being turned into a multi story car park.”

Doris Evelyn Mellor was born at 33 St Mark’s Road, Windsor in 1894, daughter of Albert and Elizabeth Mellor. Her father Albert being a music master at Eton College and organist at Windsor Parish Church. She had one sister Berta.

Educated in Windsor she gained a degree in history at London University.

Miss Mellor taught at Queen Margaret’s School, Pitlochry before joining the Navy as a decoder working in Holyhead and Portsmouth. In 1920 she returned to teaching at Wykeham Girls School, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. She remained at the School for the next thirty years , twenty of them as Headmistress.

After her retirement in June 1950 she returned to her family home in Windsor and became actively involved in the Windsor and Eton Society a charity that aims to:

1. To preserve, protect, promote and improve features of historic or public interest in the towns of Windsor and Eton and their surrounding areas.
2. To promote high standards of planning and architecture in the towns of Windsor and Eton and their surrounding areas.
3. To advance education and to provide information to members and others supporting the work of the society

In 1966 she became the first secretary of the Landscape sub-committee of the Windsor and Eton Society, and arranged for the changing town centre appearance to be recorded in photographs. Many of the changes were not to her taste, she felt that the Council had no right to use the Acre as a car park, but their proposal to build a four-storey replacement set her on her campaign of conservation.

Doris diligently researched the history of the acre,  she began to battle to preserve it as a green lung close to the centre of Windsor. With the full support of the Windsor and Eton Soc, she registered the acre as a town green.

On November 24 1967, Miss Doris Evelyn Mellor, applied to Berkshire County Council to register the piece of land called Bachelors’ Acre.?

The registration was opposed by the council.

The borough plans were turned down by Berkshire County Council in 1969, and in 1971 the Windsor and Eton Society applied for the Acre to be registered as a Town Green under the Commons Registration Act 1965.

 The Royal Borough of New Windsor lodged an objection to that registration. It was referred to the Chief Commons Commissioner. He confirmed the registration. The borough appealed to Foster J [1974]

New Windsor Corporation v Mellor [1975] 1 Ch 380, CA

Her full story can be found on the excellent web site of The Windsor Local History Group. 

Doris Mellor and the Battle for Batchelors Acre

Following the High Court judgment in November 1972 to uphold the refusal to allow a multi-storey car park, the Council decided to appeal. The Appeal was heard on 20-23 May 1975 by Lord Denning (Master of the Rolls), Lord Justice Browne and Mr Justice Brightman. The Appeal was dismissed, and Doris Mellor became famous overnight, because of the ‘David and Goliath’ nature of the case.

In the New Year’s Honours 1977 she was awarded an MBE by the Queen, for services to the community of Windsor, namely giving Bachelors’ Acre back to the people.

Doris died on Good Friday 1981, just before her 87th birthday.

She was a far-sighted conservationist who ensured that the historic open space known as Bachelors’ Acre will be enjoyed by many generations to come.