STAYCATIONING IN THE CHILTERNS (THE FICTIONAL “MIDSOMER” COUNTY)
I have been venturing out into the wilds of Buckinghamshire - into the green and undulating countryside, where the great chalk Ridgeway dominates the villages nestled within the Chiltern Hills, over which red kites soar. It’s a perfect place to regroup your thoughts, get some fresh air into your lungs and feel re-inspired.
The aforementioned nestling villages provide no end of charming thatched, flint and brick houses and old pubs where you can bang your head to your heart’s content on low beams and even play tunes on the squeaky floorboards! There are windmills and plenty of historic places of worship, sprawling mansion houses and great deer parks, such as the one at Stonor, where you can combine a a bit of culture with a nibble by visiting the house and then delving into the delights of their tearoom afterwards!
Several towns have guildhalls supported by columns within which the old corn markets used to operate, and where lively markets still do, where you can buy local specialities for your picnic. And you can visit those artisans too - there are breweries working to 300 year old recipes, and vineyards producing local sparkling wine, splendid cheese producers, butchers and smokeries. One local winery even talked about building a ski slope alongside the vineyard - the prospect of skiing down a slope with a glass of wine in one hand and a ski pole in the other was very tempting but then I realised it was April 1st!
For the gardeners, there is plenty of scope; one especial garden close to my heart is Greys Court (National Trust) where you can gawp in their walled garden and gape at the monstrous Wisteria – before going to their scrumptious tea room in the old stables, passing by the scene of the Grantham’s picnic (yes, Greys Court appeared in “Downton Abbey”).
It would be a crying shame not to spend a little time by the river. How about a boat trip or maybe you’re just happy to sit and watch people rowing up and down stream, or drifting by in their cruisers, passenger boats and narrow boats. AND this area is only around 30 miles west of London!
No wonder the Chilterns has a magnetic attraction for film makers. Don’t forget that the famous film studios at Pinewood, Leavesden and Shepperton are not far away. Over the years they have come to film scenes for James Bond, Johnny English, The Vicar of Dibley, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Eagle has Landed, even The Land That Time Forgot! In some villages, you do almost feel that you have gone back in time. Maybe that’s why the crew of Bentley Productions have filmed most of the 140 or so episodes of “Midsomer Murders” here. “Hooray!” say I (being a Midsomer enthusiast).
A charming place to staycation, with Midsomer Murders connections (at least 4 episodes have been filmed there), is White Pond Farm, near Henley, which has three self-catering cottages. It lies well within the reach of the photogenic towns of Henley on Thames, Wallingford, Dorchester, Thame and Marlow, all oozing unique olde-world charm.
Blue Badge guides like myself can be booked for those who would like to be shown all the sights in carefree bliss, and safety, without the worry of spending hours researching.
WARTIME HIDDEN GEMS IN THE THAMES AND CHILTERNS
This blog was inspired by a visit to the Pencil Museum in Keswick!
Before Christmas, I spent a few days in the Lake District, during which I visited the eye-opening Pencil Museum in Keswick. Half-way around the museum there was a very interesting section on how the Keswick pencil factory manufactured pencils with secret compartments to contain miniature compasses and maps. These pencils were given to our forces to help the evade capture or assist their escape attempts during the war. This visit led me to buy a book: “The Secret War of Charles Fraser-Smith” all about secret wartime escape and evasion equipment, and whilst reading, I was excited to read that the Thames and Chilterns area was dotted with MI9 centres!
It seems that the author of the book was regularly receiving requests to procure “Q gadgets” from Major Clayton Hutton who was based at an MI9 centre in Wilton Park, Beaconsfield. “Q gadgets” were things like shaving brushes, ink pens, smokers’ pipes and even buttons which had been adapted to contain secret compartments for smuggling escape equipment or secret messages. The book does mention that the author’s path crossed with that of Ian Fleming, author of the famous James Bond stories. (Maybe that was where he got his inspiration for the name of “Q”, head of the Research and Development Division of the Secret Service).
Another wartime-related outing I made last year was to Bovingdon Green, near Marlow, during the Chilterns Walking Festival. The Chilterns Festival is a twice-yearly event where people can join guided walks and rambles around the Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire. I joined a small group of enthusiastic locals and a local historian, and we went on a very pleasant trundle to the woods, where our historian showed us the remains of a series of trenches, dug in order to train soldiers who were about to go and fight in Flanders.
Not far from Little Chalfont is Latimer where you’ll find Latimer House, once used by MI5 and MI6 as a holding and interrogation centre for enemy prisoners of war, amongst whom came Rudolf Hesse! Through very clever bugging devices, the conversations of around 10,000 prisoners were transcribed, which are preserved in the National Archives. A fantastic book called “Walls Have Ears” by Helen Fry describes what went on there.
In addition to its fascinating spy stories, Latimer House is a beautiful 19th century mansion and hotel, designed like an Elizabethan manor house with splendid gardens and a marvellous view across the Chiltern hills. And they do a mean cream tea!
We've touched on our spying activities. This next section relates to others spying on us. Not far from Beaconsfield lies the village of Penn, where a notorious Russian spy’s remains can be found. His name was Donald Duart Maclean and he was the privileged son of a local politician. After leaving Cambridge university, he got a job at the Foreign Office. There he met Guy Burgess, Kim Philby and Anthony Blunt, and joined the spy-ring called the Cambridge Four, who successfully managed to betray British secrets to the Soviet Union during World War 2 and the early 1950s. Eventually he moved to Russia, dying there aged 69 in 1983 but at his request, his ashes were scattered on his parents’ grave in the village of Penn.
One last outing I’d recommend is to Danesfield Hotel, on the road between Marlow and Henley-on-Thames. You can sit on the terrace and enjoy the gardens and maybe a nice lunch or cream tea, but while you are there, ask them about their association with MI6 during the second World War. During that time the building was commandeered as a Photographic Interpretation Unit (PIU) and known as RAF Medmenham. Here, aerial and ground photographs of enemy locations were received from the Photographic Reconnaissance Unit (PRU). Using the photos for reference, scale models of the landscape, including details down to ditches and telegraph wires, were built by a team of model makers. Using these models, the aircrews, paratroopers and commandos had fantastic information with which to prepare themselves for bombing or ground attacks.
ROMANCE IN HENLEY ON THAMES: FEBRUARY 14th
With the arrival of Saint Valentine’s Day, spring is coming, the sap is rising, birds are mating and we are concocting romantic activities – writing cards and poems, cooking (or in my case, burning), or booking romantic getaways – or alternatively, we’re in the garden centre buying seeds to plant in the propagator!
But who was St Valentine? It’s all a bit tenuous but seemingly he was a martyr who died in Rome in around 496AD. During his spell in gaol, he fell in love with the daughter of his gaoler and wrote her a love letter (tactics or truth? Hopefully truth!). Although there must have been plenty of other people who wrote love letters, his must have been pretty spectacular for his memory to be perpetuated till today – and not just in Italy, but across the globe!
We know his fame had spread to the British Isles by 1477 because if you go to the British Library and look in the archives, there is a letter from a lady called Margery Brews to her fiancé, which is described as the oldest surviving Valentine’s letter in the English language.
Chaucer and Shakespeare also liked the idea, as did Marlowe and Byron. Byron even went as far as swimming one hour and ten minutes across the Dardanelles, from Abydos to Sestos to act out an ancient love story! The characters were Leander and Hero and if the name Leander rings any bells, it’s probably because it’s also the name of one of the most famous rowing clubs in the world, based in Henley-on-Thames, just an hour’s drive west of London and a great choice for a Valentine’s weekend break.
The name “Leander” comes from the Greek “Leandros” which means “Lion-man”. In the love-story, he was a handsome young man who lived in the Asian town of Abydos, on the southern side of the Dardanelles Strait. At a festival dedicated to the goddess Aphrodite he met and fell in love with Hero, a virgin priestess, who was based in Sestos, a European town on the other side of the Strait. Being forbidden to see each other because of politics and social standing, they cast all cares to the wind and decided to meet in secret - but the only way they could was for Leander to swim across the Hellespont strait to Hero’s tower at night by the light of the moon and then return home at dawn. Just under a mile each way! What dedication!
In Henley, people can mimic Leander’s swim on the Sunday morning before Henley Regatta by signing up to the Henley Classic Swim, which follows the Regatta course from Temple Island to Phyllis Court upstream along the Thames. The wonderful thing about it is that it takes place as the sun is rising - around 6:30am – a rather romantic experience, even if it is an endurance swim!
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