AN OFFICIAL report last month said that within a couple of years all of us will be using and be influenced by AI (artificial intelligence).
So I thought I would have a chat with the most familiar AI tool, ChatGPT to see how reliable its info is about life here on our doorstep.
Type in “History of Penn” and it instantly and impressively produces some readable waffle… but with some glaring errors!
It says St Margaret’s Church is in Penn and dates from 13th century. Wrong. It’s in Tylers Green and it’s Victorian.
Penn’s church, it says, is the Church of St Mary the Virgin. It isn’t: it’s Holy Trinity. I suspect it’s referring to St Mary the Virgin Church in Amersham, which is seven or eight miles away. (It’s very versatile is St Mary the Virgin — it’s also named in one AI model as Hazlemere’s Church, which is also wrong.)
Although it correctly states Penn was mentioned in the 1086 Domesday Book there is no mention of Penn’s tiling industry, perhaps its most important historical milestone, which brought prosperity and regional importance to the village in the 14th century.
AI’s description of Tylers Green is produced by someone (or something!) that’s clearly never been here, saying ( my italics) the name Tyler is “potentially derived from tilers who work with roofing materials”, and “the suffix Green suggests the village had a common area or green space”. When I last checked the common was still there and there’s real evidence tilers were working around the green producing Penn tiles.
And so it goes on: Tylers Green is part of the parish of Penn which includes the “town” of Penn; the private school Akeley Wood School, which is in Buckingham, 30 miles away, serves Penn and Tylers Green; the “village green” hosts an annual fete (not for several years).
Some of the info – but none of the above – is ‘acquired’ from this blog (accredited but of course no cheque in the post – see the creative industries campaign MAKE IT FAIR) ; some from Wikipedia; some from legitimate media organisations; some from Facebook et al and some, frankly, that’s unaccredited and pure fiction. Treat with caution.
How the world of cricket is taking Ron’s prostate cancer message worldwide
WHEN Tylers Green cricketer Ron Hedley was diagnosed with prostate cancer seven years ago he determined to do all he could to make other men aware of the risk and get themselves tested.
So with a few teammates from Buckinghamshire Cricket Club’s over60s and 70s he organised a charity cricket match, a lunch and a few local sponsored walks to raise awareness and a few quid for the charity Prostate Cancer UK.
Now, spectacularly, that message and that fundraising has gone international.
This year his Prostate Cancer Awareness XI will travel to Rome to play the St Peter’s Vatican Cricket Club in a game guaranteed to raise awareness amongst the Catholic community. While later this month he and his wife Pat travel to Malta’s over-60s cricket tournament on a similar mission.
And in August at Winchmore Hill cricket ground in Penn Street there will be an over-60s international between England and the USA all aimed at raising awareness and funds. Earl and Countess Howe, who live at nearby Penn House, are supporting the event.
Ron, a former chairman of the Chilterns Cricket League, and his cricketing friends have already raised over £60,000 through sponsored walks at many country cricket grounds, with the active support of cricketers past and present.
The campaign was supposed to end with a walk at Lord’s last September on Ron’s 75th birthday, but the momentum is such and Ron’s health remains robust, so more are scheduled this year.
So far there are walks planned at county grounds in Surrey, Essex, Middlesex, Warwickshire, Sussex, Worcestershire and Hampshire. Six of the walks – usually around the ground – coincide with match days where those taking part in the walk will be given a ticket to watch the day’s play.
“We are in awe of the support that cricket has given us,” said Ron, of Old Kiln Road, “in particular those counties playing over 60s and over 70s cricket.”
Ron’s next walk is on Sunday 6 April at Flitwick Cricket Club in Bedfordshire. If you would like to join him or make a donation please contact him at rjhatters@yahoo.co.uk
You can also donate or find out more about Ron’s campaign on this link https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/support-rons-march-for-prostate-cancer
*It was announced last month that in 2023, for the second year in succession, prostate cancer was the most commonly diagnosed cancer in England.
A passion nurtured in Penn that ended in murder on a London street
NO-ONE PAID too much attention to the young couple giggling, squabbling and getting slightly sozzled in either Penn’s Red Lion or the Crown where they were both regularly seen 70 years ago in the winter and spring of 1955.
Yet by Easter of that year their names were plastered over every newspaper and Penn was the centre of national news attention for weeks.
For he was David Blakely, a rich and promising racing driver and would-be playboy who lived in Hammersley Lane, Penn.
And she was Ruth Ellis, a troubled and tragic nude model and nightclub hostess, who shot him dead with four bullets outside a pub in Hampstead on Easter Sunday, 10 April, 1955.
An ITV drama, ‘A Cruel Love:The Ruth Ellis Story’ is being shown this month in an attempt to throw fresh light on a crime of passion which has engrossed the public for three generations. Her grandson Stephen Beard hopes it will lead to a campaign to have Ruth pardoned.
Ruth was the last woman to be hanged in Britain – an execution that so upset people that it eventually led to the abolition of the death penalty. Today, argues Mr Beard, Ruth would have treated as a battered woman with diminished responsibility and she would have been treated much more leniently.
She lies in an unmarked grave in Amersham. Her victim lies next to his brother John in Penn churchyard.
*Ruth Ellis and David Blakely: their story in Penn. See the end of this blog.
Local news
Bus request – Carousel Buses is being asked to consider putting a bus stop on Church Road, Penn to cater for those living near Penn Church and the Crown. The company last month extended the number 31 High Wycombe to Penn route to cover Knotty Green and Beaconsfield.
Flooding probe – Buckinghamshire Highways says it plans to remedy in the next few weeks the problem that’s made flooding outside the Rose Avenue shops such a problem this year.
Plan withdrawn – A plan to demolish outbuildings and extend April Cottage, a listed building in Elm Road in the Penn and Tylers Green Conservation Area, has been withdrawn. Penn parish councillors had made a number of objections to the scheme.
New cafe – A new cafe opened at Penn and Tylers Green Sports and Social Club last month. The Cafe@Penn is open from 7.30am to 2.30pm every day (12.30 on Sundays) serving breakfasts, brunch, pastries and home made cakes.
MP’s task – Sarah Green, the Liberal Democrat MP for Chesham and Amersham, which includes Penn and Hazlemere, is a member of the Parliamentary committee considering in detail the bill on assisted dying.
King criticised – Tylers Green and Loudwater Conservative councillor Steven Barrett has accused King Charles of political bias for showing the prime minister and his deputy around a housing project the king inspired. Cllr Barrett, a right-wing lawyer and regular commentator on GB News, said the monarch had a duty to be impartial and this showed otherwise.
Farewell Julian – Actor Julian Holloway, who spent his childhood in Penn as the son of stage and screen star Stanley Holloway and his wife Violet, has died at the age of 80. He had a relationship for a short time with Tessa Dahl, daughter of children’s author Roald Dahl, and their daughter is the author and former fashion model Sophie Dahl who is married to jazz singer Jamie Cullum. Mr Holloway appeared in a number of TV and stage shows.
Easter hunt – An Easter Egg trail through Common Wood is being organised on Saturday 19 April between 10am and noon. Tickets should be bought in advance and you can get them on this link https://p-tgrs.sumupstore.com/product/family-easter-egg-trail There’s also an Easter Egg hunt around Holy Trinity, Penn churchyard after the Easter Sunday service.
VE Day and VJ Day memories
LATER this spring and summer, as the country celebrates the 80th anniversary of the end of Second World War, this blog will be recalling those momentous times in Penn, Tylers Green and Hazlemere.
If you have any memories or know of family memories and photos taken during that time we would love to see them. Please contact me at peter@pennandtylersgreen.com. Any photos will be scanned and returned.
Tina and I have built up quite a collection of local World War Two memorabilia over the years and our intention is to donate all of it to the Buckinghamshire Archives when it opens its new headquarters in High Wycombe next year. Therefore anything you send will be saved for posterity and be able to be shared with future generations.
Now, even the council’s own highways department doesn’t like the Ashwells plan
BUCKINGHAMSHIRE Council is being urged to reject plans to build 106 homes on fields next to Ashwells, Tylers Green by its own highways department.
Highways manager Lucy Molloy has told the council the current plans do not allow sufficient parking.
If allowed to proceed as currently planned it would lead to vehicles parking on proposed roads and existing roads like Ashwells, she said. That in turn would make it difficult for large vehicles, like dustbin lorries or fire engines, to negotiate the development which in turn would lead to safety issues.
There’s already concern – although not mentioned in Ms Molloy’s report – that people dropping off and picking up children from the adjacent Tylers Green Middle School will be tempted to park on roads in the proposed estate, adding to safety worries.
The proposed scheme, by the Hill Group, is on council-owned land and has already received outline planning permission.
However, the final designs for the estate are meeting with objections from nearby residents while the council’s access officer has also raised questions about proposed footpath diversions and cycle access. Chepping Wycombe Parish Council says it is “seriously concerned” about access issues.
Woodland sale accompanied by a warning
MEANWHILE, a piece of woodland that is in the Green Belt, the Chilterns Natural Landscape and is designated ancient woodland is being touted as land that could be used for housing.
Penn parish councillors are so annoyed they’ve written to estate agents asking them to warn any potential buyers that if they buy any of the nine plots being offered for sale in Witheridge Lane (B747) the chances of success in converting the woodland to houses would be slim.
But speculators may be willing to take a punt bearing in mind the Government’s determination to relax house-building rules.
There are large homes either side of the woodland and over the road. The agents, for their part, are being clear that if anyone does buy a plot with a view to development they do so at their own risk.
Oops! – There are red faces in Buckinghamshire Council offices after the council carried out a public consultation about the B474 based on wrong information. The council wanted to seek public opinion about a scheme to extend the 30mph limit from its existing boundary in Beaconsfield to Saucy Corner (the junction with Clay Street).
But due to an ‘administrative error’ the consultation indicated the reduced speed limit would stop at the Lion of Beaconsfield pub, half a mile short of the Clay Street junction. The council had to take special measures to correct it.
Local crime: Six out of ten criminals get away with it or aren’t caught
MORE THAN a third of crimes reported in the Penn, Tylers Green and Hazlemere area last year went unsolved without any suspect identified, according to Home Office figures.
In another 30 per cent of reported crimes the police said they were unable to prosecute a suspect for various reasons.
In all there were 1,123 crimes reported in the Chalfont police area, which includes Penn, Winchmore Hill, Seer Green, Chalfont St Peter and Chalfont St Giles, in 2024. Of those 443 (39.4per cent) had the case investigation concluded without any suspect being found. In a further 326 cases (29 per cent) police were unable to prosecute a suspect because there wasn’t sufficient evidence or for other reasons.
In the Chepping Wye police region, which includes Tylers Green, Hazlemere, Loudwater and Flackwell Heath, there were 950 reported crimes last year. Of those 330 investigations were concluded without any suspect identified (35 per cent), and 287 (30 per cent) ended with police unable to prosecute.
It should be pointed out however that these figures are better than the national average and crime generally in this area is much lower than average.
In the Thames Valley Police area Reading recorded the highest number of reported crimes followed by Oxford, Slough and Milton Keynes. The Cherwell area, which includes Banbury and Bicester was fifth; South Bucks sixth; and High Wycombe seventh closely followed by Bracknell.
Developer’s extraordinary rant against protesting residents
NORMALLY when a property developer draws criticism from locals he or she puts on a fixed smile, an understanding look and adopts a soothing tone akin to “we understand you have concerns but let us assure you everything is going to be fine…etc”
But when a group of Hazlemere residents attempted to usurp a proposed development by unsuccessfully attempting to buy the land which already had planning permission – and managed to get some publicity on regional TV and Mail Online in the process – the developer let rip with both barrels.
Chesham based Hawridge Strategic Land company obtained planning permission to build 87 houses on the Tralee Farm site,off the Amersham Road, last year but are now selling it for another house builder to develop. A residents’ group thought they’d put in a bid.
“What is particularly striking is the sheer hypocrisy of the main agitators leading this opposition,” Hawridge growled in a statement.
“Many them live in houses that back directly onto the site, homes that were themselves built on former agricultural land in the post war period. They now seek to deny others the very same opportunity they or their predecessors benefitted from.
“This attitude is precisely why the country is facing a housing crisis: a vocal minority, motivated purely by self-interest, blocking new homes while sitting comfortably in properties that exist only because previous generations did not take the same stance.”
In response the Tralee Farm Community Group said Hawridge had got hold of the wrong end of stick but nonetheless “antagonistic mudslinging” didn’t help. What they wanted to see, they said, were more smaller homes built on the site that would be available for first time buyers and older people wishing to downsize.
“The current plan proposes 55 of the 87 homes will be of a bigger size three and four bedroom properties, but that is not what the community wants or needs,” they said in reply, asking that both sides sit down to “build bridges not barriers”.
Tempers will have to cool first.
Regional news
Making its mark – HS2 continues to progress across the Chilterns. Above, during a four day operation (see December blog) a pre-built viaduct was pushed and pulled across the A413 Wendover to Amersham Road and the main Aylesbury to London rail line.There will be a number of overnight road closures this month while engineers secure the viaduct deck onto its piers.
Elsewhere, below, naturalists will be keeping a keen eye on the Colne Valley Regional Park near Denham this month as hundreds of water birds fly in to build their nests. This year the birds have the new HS2 viaduct to contend with which is ok while there are no trains running but which some fear could lead to bird collisions when there are.
This winter HS2 built five “bird islands” in Broadwater Lake – sites that would veer birds away from the viaduct – which they hope terns, gulls and waterfowl will use and get used to for future years.
In the meantime engineers are constructing four metre high transparent panels either side of the viaduct to prevent birds flying in front of the trains or hitting the overhead electric power lines. They’ll be painting thick black lines on the panels in the hope the birds will see them and not fly into them.
* A report by Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee last month said HS2 was “a tale in how not to run a major project”, bringing “very poor value for money”.
The report added: “The question now is what possible benefit can the Government now salvage for the taxpayers from the mess that presents real risks to the UK’s overall reputation?”
The facts of life – The average age for a woman in Buckinghamshire to have her first baby is 32 according to the director of public health’s annual report for the county, published last month. The number of births to under-18s has dropped by nearly 80 per cent in 15 years. Fifty eight per cent of new mothers were recorded as being ‘white British’. The number of premature births continues to fall, amounting to seven out of every 200 babies.
Alarming for llamas – The movement of alpacas and llamas between farms is being restricted following an outbreak of the blue tooth virus on the Buckinghamshire/Berkshire border.There’s already a wide ban on cattle distribution in Bucks and neighbouring counties in an attempt to stop the virus spreading. The virus does not affect humans.
Bafta awards – A group of students from the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield saw their film Rock, Paper, Scissors win the best British Short Film award at the BAFTA presentations last month. An animation, Wander to Wonder, made by graduates at the school, won the best British Short Animation award.
Baby bonus – New figures show that the number of women smoking in pregnancy in Buckinghamshire is among the lowest in the country while the numbers of new mums breastfeeding is amongst the highest. In further good news the shortage of midwives in the Buckinghamshire NHS Trust area has eased.
Dedication thanked – The National Trust has thanked a team of volunteers who have spent every Thursday for the last 23 years repairing and restoring collapsed flint walls on its Ashridge Estate in the Chilterns. The walls were part of a bridge included in the estate’s design by the celebrated landscape architect Capability Brown.
Changing hands – Dobbie’s World’s End garden centre in Wendover closes on 2 March and reopens a week later as a Blue Diamond garden centre under new ownership. Dobbie’s says the move is part of a restructuring of the company which will see the Beaconsfield branch as the group’s only remaining store in this area. Meanwhile, The Range group is opening in the former Homebase store in Loudwater this month.
Slowly sinking – The trustees of Henley’s River and Rowing Museum says the museum is likely to close because its future in its current mode is unsustainable. They are considering what other uses the Thames-side building could be used for before making any final decisions.
Nuclear call – Mid Bucks MP Greg Smith told the House of Commons that 3,000 acres of land currently used for food production in Buckinghamshire are being “subsumed” by solar panels in order to power up to 50,000 new houses in the county. He said a small nuclear reactor, which would take up the equivalent space of two football pitches and power a million homes, would be a better option.
New bishop – Dave Bull, a former vicar in both Marlow and High Wycombe, was consecrated as the new Bishop of Buckingham at a ceremony in Canterbury Cathedral last month.
Feeling the squeeze – Windsor and Maidenhead Council, which wanted to put up council tax by 25 per cent says it will go hundreds of millions of pounds in debt after the Government limited the rise to nine per cent. The council is now looking at what assets it can sell and how it can increase its income in other ways.
Ruth Ellis and David Blakely – their story in Penn
DAVID Moffat Drummond Blakely was handsome, rich, young and dashing.
The son of a Scottish doctor and an Irish mother – who divorced when he was still very young – he was educated at Shrewsbury School during the war and later joined the Highland Light Infantry.
But his real ambition was to be a racing driver and in 1951, at the age of 22, he decided to follow his dream.
By now he lived in a flat in The Old Park in Hammersley Lane, Penn, which had been the poet Walter de la Mare’s wartime home but had since been bought by his mother Anne and her new husband, Humphrey Cook, a moderately successful racing driver in the 1930s.
David quickly became friends with another motor racing fanatic in the village, Len Gibbs, who ran Slade’s garage at the bottom of Beacon Hill, and, encouraged and financed by his step-father, he bought two racing cars, maintained and serviced by Len. At the same time, to learn more about the business, he worked as a junior manager at a specialist piston factory in Hazlemere Road, Penn.
Between 1951 and 1955 he raced successfully at Brooklands, Goodwood and Brand’s Hatch and inevitably became involved in the glamorous, whirlwind social life that surrounded racing drivers…a life which was to bring about his tragic end.
It’s said that the racing driver Mike Hawthorn introduced David to Ruth Ellis at a nightclub called The Little Club in Knightsbridge in 1953. Their backgrounds could hardly have been more different but love – and lust – made them fascinated with each other.
Ruth was one of six born into poverty in 1926. Her father was a monster, sexually abusing her older sister and beating his wife.
Ruth became pregnant aged 17 by a married Canadian soldier who failed to support her and her baby son. She left the baby with her sister while she took various low-paid jobs in London before earning more cash as a nude model and night-club hostess.
David spent many nights in Ruth’s flat above The Little Club, and he also wanted to show her off to his friends here in Penn…but not to his mother. In fact there are several stories that he went to great lengths to prevent the two women meeting. The Crown was their favoured pub but if his mother was there, as she often was, David would whisk Ruth down to the Red Lion.
Commentators have since felt that David’s actions in keeping her away from his family here in Penn made Ruth feel he was hiding something, and perhaps having an affair with another woman.
It was certainly a tempestuous relationship – it’s not disputed he once hit her in the stomach when she was pregnant, leading to the pregnancy being terminated.
It was that suspicion of infidelity which many felt led to Ruth murdering David outside a pub in Hampstead on Easter Sunday 1955 where she was waiting for him. She missed with the first shot; hit him in the chest with the second and then stood over him and fired three more bullets into him at close range. She was 28 and he was 25.
At her Old Bailey trial she offered no defence. The prosecution asked her just one question: “When you fired the revolver at close range into the body of David Blakely what did you intend to do?”
She replied: “It’s obvious. When I shot him I intended to kill him.”
Before her execution she wrote a letter to David’s parents saying: “I have always loved your son, and I shall die still loving him.”
Her family requested that she be buried in Penn churchyard near to David Blakely. The vicar, Oscar Muskpratt, refused saying it would be disrespectful to the Blakely family. So her family buried her in the nearest place to Penn they could find in Amersham churchyard. Some years later her grave was vandalised so the headstone was removed, leaving her buried in anonymity.
You can contact this blog at peter@pennandtylersgreen.com. It will be updated as necessary, but the next full update will be on 1 April.