A century of remembrance
IT’S A pity Remembrance Day services are somewhat curtailed this year because 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the Tylers Green war memorial in St Margaret’s Churchyard, which would have made the annual remembrance a bit special. Penn’s war memorial, opposite The Crown, celebrates its centenary next year.
At the time the community leaders in Tylers Green wanted a joint Penn and Tylers Green war memorial to remember the 52 men killed in the First World War, but the great and the good of Penn wouldn’t hear of it. They also refused to follow Government pleadings to place the names of the dead in alphabetical order on memorials. Consequently Penn’s is one of the few war memorials in the country where the dead are listed in military rank order and not alphabetically.
We’ve been through worse…
ALTHOUGH Covid 19 is scary or a nuisance, depending on your view, it’s worth remembering this community has lived through worse threats: 80 years ago this month the first bombs began falling, sending people scurrying to their air raid shelters.
The first bombs fell on the area overnight 9/10 October, one landing in Holmer Green, creating a massive crater in Factory Street but leaving no injuries, and another in a field off Cock Lane. A couple of nights later a bomb fell on wasteland in Hazlemere and late on the 25th – 80 years ago tonight in fact – a bomb exploded at Old Town Farm in Penn, again landing in a field and causing no building damage.
Some festive cheer
IF YOUR mind is turning to Christmas, there’s still time to spread a little good cheer by filling a shoebox full of goodies for poorer children around the world.
The village rep for the annual Samaritans appeal is Emma Byrne at 11 King’s Ride, Tylers Green (opposite Dip’s). Simply take a medium size shoebox, wrap it in colourful paper, label it “boy” or “girl”, add age range (2 to 4; 5 to 9; or 10-14), fill it with appropriate gifts and leave it in Emma and Dave’s porch (which is also a collecting point for local One Can donations for families struggling in the pandemic). You can get an idea of what to give on the website https://www.samaritans-purse.org.uk/what-we-do/operation-christmas-child/ but don’t include liquid or food. Contributions need to be with Emma by 6 November.
*Incidentally it’s hoped a couple of festive favourites in the village will take place one way or another this year. Penn and Tylers Green Scouts are planning their usual local Christmas card postal service – albeit with differences. Meanwhile talks continue to see if some form of Carols on the Common can be arranged. ..and there’ll definitely be a Christmas Tree on the common. Watch this space.
Sharing our autumn glories…
THE TIMES featured Penn Wood and Common Wood as its walk of the week yesterday.The newspaper’s walking correspondent Christopher Somerville was certainly impressed, writing that the woods are “perfect for a walk among autumn scents and colours especially after rain, when the black earth of the forest floor smells rich and every turning leaf gleams as though polished up for parade.” But then of course, we knew that…
Sharing their summer ones…
MEANWHILE, on the other side of the world, Lord Howe Island, named after an ancestor of the current occupier of Penn House, has just reopened after six months of total isolation due to you-know-what. The idyllic, volcanic isle, 370 miles off the Australian east coast, has a population of 350 and no Covid. However, it has had to open its doors again because tourism is its only income and, of course, summer is just beginning over there. The residents enjoyed their isolation on the World Heritage Site island but feared getting toothache. There isn’t a dentist among them.
Telling it like it is
COMEDIAN James Corden showed his political sympathies on Twitter last week heaping praise on Manchester’s mayor Andy Burnham. Sadly, it didn’t say too much for the English grammar he was taught at Holmer Green Senior School. “The people of Manchester and it’s surrounding areas deserve…so much more from the government at this time,” he tweeted. Wrong “its” Smiffy. (To be fair, my son knew James at school and, to be honest, he could hardly have been described as a studious student, so don’t blame the teachers!)
Playing for time
YOU need to take any relief you can find in this pandemic. Take the clock-winder-upper at Waddesdon Manor. Normally he would have turned back over 60 clocks at the end of British Summer Time this morning, but instead it was just nine. The other clocks were never put forward in the first place.