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News Notebook

Sunday 15 November

Helping out this Christmas

THE KINDNESS of people always shines through whenever there’s a crisis, and this pandemic has been no exception. The  One Can scheme, for instance, has seen tons of food quietly donated by hundreds of people being distributed without fuss to scores of others in the area, including many families, who are genuinely struggling to make ends meet through no fault of their own.

Tomorrow the One Can Trust begins a special effort to try and make Christmas a bit special.  As well as the necessary basics they are hoping to put together some Christmas hampers that can be delivered to families for Christmas week.

There are several collection points in Penn and Tylers Green so if between tomorrow and a week Friday (27 November) you feel you can help, your donation will be greatly appreciated. The Penn and Tylers Green Together group is hoping to organise a collection later in the week. 

The One Can charity is hoping for things like mince pies, Christmas puds, chocolates, luxury biscuits, jars of pickle/chutney and bath soak and body cream (no alcohol please).  Call the Wycombe office on 01494 512277 or email them at office@onecantrust.org.uk if you can help or have any questions.

Santa’s early grotto

ONE OF the One Can collection points is David and Emma Byrne’s home at 11 Kings Ride in Tylers Green which has been something of a mini-Amazon distribution network these last few weeks because it has also been a drop off point for the shoe box collection of Christmas toys for poorer children in the world.

Emma’s been in touch to say thank you to the local churches and the community for a grand total of 79 boxes, all festively wrapped, which have now been handed over to the Samaritans organisation for distribution abroad. And here they all are…

The show must go on

IT HASN’T taken long for former Penn resident Mary Berry to get involved in local campaigns  now she has settled in at her Henley home.  She has joined other local notables in trying to save the town’s beautiful Kenton Theatre from permanent closure following the pandemic.

The Georgian theatre – the fourth oldest working theatre in the country – received £35,000 from an Arts Council Emergency Fund in May, but with high maintenance costs and next to no income, the trustees reckon they need as much again to keep the show on the road. Live streamed shows from the theatre on Facebook are being organised.

The lure of the airwaves

IN HIS day Mike Read was Britain’s top DJ, hosting Radio One’s breakfast show in the early 1980s and moving on to Saturday morning telly presenting Saturday Superstore and TV favourites like Top of the Pops. He’s 73 now, and enjoying retirement with his extensive record and art collection at his Cookham home…well, not quite. Tomorrow he starts a new breakfast show…as a volunteer DJ on his local community radio station MarlowFM.  What a pro. What an example. Never too big to return to his roots.

Mud, clay and tax returns

ARCHEOLOGISTS  searching for the remains of a Roman villa have been digging away in Ashwells Field, Tylers Green this week getting wet and muddy and apparently not finding too much (see below).  They are here for a few more days so we’ll have to wait to hear whether their ferreting has been worth while.

ashwells field

Meanwhile, over on the former Winter’s Garage site in Penn, which  the owner  wants to convert into a private house, the planners asked the council’s history people if the site has any significance.  Yes, as it turns out. Tax records show that in 1322  a couple of tile makers were paying taxes on the Penn tiles they produced on that very site. And previous digs there discovered a medieval quarry pit and medieval pottery.

Local news

Major flood closes main road – Thousands of homes had their water supply disrupted yesterday when an underground reservoir near Amersham apparently sprang a leak, closing the main Beaconsfield to Amersham road at Gore Hill near Coleshill.  The road is expected to remain closed today.

Affinity Water, who run the reservoir site, warned some homes would be without water for a couple of hours while others would experience a drop in pressure. Residents were advised not to use washing machines or dishwashers. The homes affected were in the HP8, HP9 and HP10 postcode areas, which includes Penn, Tylers Green and Hazlemere. The company said supplies returned to normal yesterday evening after engineers completed emergency work.

The cause of the leak has not yet been revealed.  The site is close to the proposed HS2 high speed tunnel and  near where HS2 engineers are carrying out ground work, but there is no suggestion at this stage the flood and the engineering works are connected.