THE number of new coronavirus cases in our immediate area has fallen to its lowest since figures were first taken in the spring. In the seven days to last weekend there were just one or two in the whole of the Penn/Holmer Green/Forty Green area compared with eight the previous week. In Tylers Green it was three, the same as the week before, while in Hazlemere the figure dropped from five to four.
The figures have risen however in the Wycombe, South Bucks and Chiltern areas as a whole as well as the rest of Buckinghamshire, making it unlikely our area will move to a less restricted tier when the tiers are reviewed next week.
Bucks Council leader Martin Tett said last night that Covid cases in the county had risen from 117 per 100,000 population to 141 per 100,000 in the space of a week. He urged people to limit their social contact this weekend to reduce the chances of having to self-isolate over Christmas.
Wexham Park Hospital has been established as our first local vaccination centre, but nearer centres will be fixed in the next few weeks as the vaccination programme rolls out. The first member of the public to receive the vaccine at Wexham on Tuesday was an 83 year old retired doctor. At Amersham Hospital a separate ward has been set aside to care for patients recovering from Covid 19.
And so this is Christmas…
- The scouts Christmas post in Penn, Tylers Green and Manor Farm estate finishes next weekend, with the final collection on Saturday 19 December (see last week’s blog). It’s free this year but you can make a donation to the scout’s selected charity, Shelter, if you want to show your appreciation. It’s on https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/penn-tylers-green-scout-group and by last night had raised £215.
- Because there was no Carols on the Common this year, as well as no Fun Run, it has meant that the charity that would have benefitted from both has been deprived of funds. To try and make up at least to some extent there’s a collection bucket for Carers Bucks by the Christmas tree on the common, which is emptied regularly. There’s also a Just Giving page you can contribute to on https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/carolsonthecommon
- Holy Trinity, Penn and St Margaret’s, Tylers Green can only have a limited congregation for the three “live” Christmas services they are holding (Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve at Holy Trinity; and 10am Christmas Day services at Holy Trinity and St Margaret’s). If you wish to attend please contact Gail in the parish office in advance so she knows the number intending to come. She is on 01494 813254 or email office@holytrinityandstmargarets.co.uk.
- Village Voice magazine and the residents’ society are promoting a ‘Light Up Penn and Tylers Green’ event next Thursday to celebrate all those who have demonstrated kindness this year. For details see the magazine or https://pennandtylersgreen.org.uk/?v=79cba1185463
- Information about waste bin collection days over the Christmas and New Year holiday can be found online at https://www.wycombe.gov.uk/pages/Recycling-and-waste/Bin-collections/My-bin-collection-day.aspx
When Dame Barbara came to the Fun Run
DAME Barbara Windsor, who died last night aged 83, is fondly remembered in the village.
In 1987, when she was running The Plough at Winchmore Hill with her second husband Stephen Hollings, we asked her if she would present the trophies for the Fun Run on the common. She said she would be happy to provided someone could collect her and take her back afterwards. I don’t think we’ve ever had so many blokes volunteer for a job.
She was the life and soul of the party, chatting to hundreds of people and signing autographs for a queue of villagers that stretched to the edge of the common. Our youngest son Matthew, who was two at the time, was having fun throwing around the wet sponges left by the runners, one of which landed with a squelch by her foot. “Whose little brat is that,” she said with a smile (at least I think it was a smile…but it was said jovially).
She later said her time at Winchmore Hill was not the happiest period of her life. An East End city girl, she was never really cut out for the life of a country pub landlady, but by the time she left a year or two later she had made a number of friends in the neighbourhood and attracted some well-known acting pals to the pub. Her stint pulling real pints may well have helped her become one of the most successful TV pub landladies of all time!
Birds – and cows – disappear from our fields
THESE are changing times in our countryside. The Buckinghamshire Birding Club has produced a depressing list of 12 species of birds that haven’t been spotted in the county in the past decade. An additional ten species haven’t been recorded in the past 20 years. This follows a report from environmentalists that in the last half century in this area farmland bird numbers have dropped by 60 per cent and woodland birds by 30 per cent .
Change isn’t limited to our trees and hedges. The sight of cattle in our fields is now a rarity. In this month’s Chiltern Society magazine local farmer Gill Kent says the economics of today’s dairy industry has forced her family to sell its dairy herd to a mega-milk producer.
“We’re led to believe the public would like their milk to be produced by contented cows grazing lush green fields,” she writes. “In fact they want their milk at the cheapest possible price, so farmers oblige by keeping their animals in huge barns where they’re always warm, dry and well-fed, but never see a field or a blade of grass.
“When our family came to the Hughenden Valley in 1960 there were at least eight dairy farms in the area. Today there’s only one.”
Incidentally, those loud and squarkish green parakeets that seem to make an annual pilgrimage here from their usual haunt in Windsor Great Park, or possibly Richmond Park, are back to raid village bird-feeders now that it’s cold and there isn’t much grub about elsewhere. They look pretty but they’re a bit of a pest to be honest. At least we don’t have to cope with them all year round…yet!
Cheers! A unique tribute
THE 80th anniversary of the de Havilland Mosquito, featured in this blog a couple of weeks ago, has resulted in a unique tribute.
One of the furniture factories that produced parts for the wartime wooden aircraft was Dancer and Hearn in Penn Street. The factory is long gone of course but today on the site stands the successful Griffiths Brothers gin distillery.
And in tribute, the distillery has produced Mosquito gin which contains among its flavourings the essence of spruce needles gathered from pine trees in Penn Wood.
Local news
Canopy refusal – The council has refused an application by the Village Shop of the Green in School Road, Tylers Green to make permanent a canopy and awning put up at the beginning of the first lockdown to enable the shop to sell a wider range of fruit and veg. Councillors said that to do so would have an adverse impact on the appearance of the area and the conservation area.
Pupils test positive – Year 11 students at Holmer Green Senior School – which includes some pupils from the village – have had to self-isolate this week after five students and two members of staff tested positive for coronavirus.
Garage objection – Penn and Tylers Green Residents’ Society has objected to plans to demolish the former Winter’s garage in Church Road, Penn, opposite Slade’s, and replace it with a house. The society says the proposed house is too big and would be harmful to the conservation area.
Crime swings – There was a surge in reported crime in the Chepping Wye area, which includes Tylers Green and Hazlemere, during October, but a significant drop in the Chalfonts area, which includes Penn. There were 121 reported crimes in Chepping Wye compared with 84 the previous month, whereas in the Chalfonts there were 87 reported crimes compared to September’s figure of 112. Figures for the lockdown month of November are not yet available.
Pub improvements – Work has started on a major refurbishment and expansion of the Horse and Jockey pub in Church Road, Tylers Green.
TV filming – Production crews and actors from the BBC’s Silent Witness series have been in Penn this week filming scenes for next year’s series.