In with a shout
THOSE long time followers of Wycombe Wanderers – like the long term supporters of any football club – know that following their team is a roller-coaster ride. Ray Bradley, a regular supporter with a group of other villagers at Adams Park, endured those games when nothing goes right with a mix of enthusiasm and frustration.
“C’mon somebody,” he would urge in that rich Brummy accent of his, willing someone – anyone – to gain possession of the ball. Ray – who was awarded an MBE for his charitable work here in Penn and Tylers Green and in the Devon village where he retired – died in March just as the Covid restrictions were being imposed, so no-one here could attend his funeral.
Now, as a memorial to him, a group of friends have chipped in to buy a special tile to be placed on the Wanderer Wall at Adams Park recalling his much-missed shout.
In the end, of course, somebody did come, in the form of a few doggedly determined players and a couple of inspirational coaches. This Saturday the Blues, for the first time in their history, will be kicking off a new season in the second tier of English football. As Del-Boy might say, “This time next year we could be in the Premiership.”
C’mon somebody.
A poignant Open Gardens
THERE were few people who enjoyed Penn and Tylers Green Open Gardens day more than Gavin and Jan Lance.
When they lived in Taplin Way, Tylers Green, Gavin would sit, beaming, pint in hand, in the centre of their beautiful garden trying to convince one and all how big a part he had played in the glorious surroundings. But everyone knew, of course, that it was Jan with the really green fingers.
When Gavin died from cancer, aged 56, in 2013, Jan continued the tradition of opening her lovely garden and when she moved to Elm Road, Penn, next to the cricket club, she relished the challenge of making that garden too a treat on Open Gardens day, an event where she was one of the organisers . Last Sunday Jan died, also from cancer, two weeks after fulfilling her wish to give away her daughter Kate at her wedding.
Her passing makes this year’s event on Sunday (13 September) particularly poignant. She was a truly lovely lady and well-loved in this community. Her family are asking for donations in her memory to Rennie Grove Hospice Care.
Dallas on our doorstep
HISTORIAN Ron Saunders has been amusing himself during lockdown rooting out some rather bizarre local stories. One such, from a long-ceased magazine Cassell’s Saturday Journal, reports on a secret mine, commissioned by the Earl Howe of the day near his Penn estate in 1913.
“Men of strange aspect, speaking a foreign tongue, are working within a screened ring-fence, and no one knows why,” says the magazine, speculating that the miners were digging for coal, of all things.
Today’s Earl Howe thinks the shaft was being drilled not for coal but for what was thought to be an oil deposit at the bottom of the dip just off Watchett Lane in Holmer Green. “Needless to say,” writes the Earl, “ none was found.”
Just think of what a different community we would be today if it had been!
Defending Penn
THE CONTINUING closure of the history and research sections of High Wycombe library means I can’t bring you the month by month account of life in the village 80 years ago…which is a pity, because the summer of 1940 was a very exciting time.
With the Battle of Britain in full flow people were living with what they thought was the very real possibility of invasion and here, as in every community in the land, preparations were made to deal with an enemy at the door. In Penn, the story goes, that meant drilling a big hole in a big wall. It’s still there near the entrance to the former Penn School in Church Road.
The thinking behind it was that if an enemy tank should come trundling up from Beaconsfield, the Penn partisans would lodge a tree trunk or telegraph pole through the hole, thereby blocking Church Road. That would stall the tank, leaving it vulnerable to attack.
Sounds implausible, even laughable, viewed from today of course…and it’s important to say there’s no written evidence to back up this version of the hole’s history. But it shows the state of mind and determination of the Penn population at the time. Our Penn hole-in-the-wall is an important piece of history, and whatever happens to Penn School it is to be hoped that the wall, and its hole, remains for many years to come.
Cherry cheer
FOR YEARS and years Tylers Green and many other villages hereabouts were famous for their cherry orchards. Old ‘uns still recall the sight of baskets of cherries left by the roadside during the cherry harvest to be collected and sold at Covent Garden the next day.
But the industry declined rapidly until, at the turn of this century, there was only one commercial cherry farm in the entire Chilterns, once known as the country’s greatest producer of chalk, cherries and chairs. Now, though, things are looking up. Copas Farms decided last year to expand its commercial cherry production and now produces cherries at its farms in Cookham and Iver.
Elsewhere, along with the rest of the country, local farms have had a disappointing grain harvest but there’s better news on the wildlife front. Some years ago a number of farmers in the area agreed to create wild areas on their farms and then monitor the numbers and species of birds they attract.
Gill Kent, from the Chiltern Conservation Board’s farmer group, reports in this month’s Chiltern magazine that so far things look encouraging. “Observations confirm what naturalists have always thought, that mixed farming of livestock and crops helps create a wide range of habitats and consequently the widest variety of bird life,” she writes.
Another murder in Penn
WE’VE HAD a murder in the kitchen of the former Penn School, a search for a body in Widmer Pond on the common and a separate murder investigation in the former Cottage Bookshop. So much for Midsomer Murders.
Now our fictional killings are about to get even more gruesome. Later this autumn the stars of the BBC’s forensic hit Silent Witness will descend on the village to film scenes for next year’s series. It’s a far cry from when the Chuckle Brothers were larking about in the village hall.
This blog is produced independently and is not associated with any group or organisation. If you would like to contact me to feature any news please email peter@pennandtylersgreen.com or onepeterbrown@gmail.com