St. George in person in Aylesbury!
The 23rd of April is St. George’s Day, the feast of the Patron St. of England. This of course would have been a great surprise to St. George who, being a Minor Asian, never knew the place existed. What is clear is that Richard the Lionheart, a French Plantagenet, who actually spoke English badly and spent less than six months in England as King endorsed St. George as Patron Saint because the Crusaders identified with his being martyred in land which they held as part of The Kingdom of Jerusalem and then of Acre in the 13th Century. George's reputation grew with the returning crusaders. A miracle appearance, when it was claimed that he appeared to lead crusaders into battle, is recorded in stone over the south door of a church at Fordington in Dorset. This still exists and is the earliest known church in England to be dedicated to Saint George. The Council of Oxford in 1222 named 23rd April as Saint George's Day.
http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/03/for-st-george-and-england.html
So today in Aylesbury our out of touch Town Council organises St George’s Day events to demonstrate its irrelevance and its increasingly urgent need to justify its own existence. Afterwards to recover a gentle stroll to our wonderful (they only overspent by £18,000 a seat!) new Waterside Theatre and then to the adjoining canal basin which is the terminus of the Aylesbury Branch of the Grand Union Canal.
WARNING; Scenes of Morris Dancing in Kingsbury Square
Laugh if you may but Aylesbury, the County Town of Buckinghamshire, is not unknown to the stars of stage and screen. Part of Clockwork Orange was filmed in our concrete underpasses, Laurence Olivier and Vivian Leigh lived nearby at Notely Abbey, David Jason lives by Coombe Hill and Sir John Gielgud lived in the South Pavilion, Grendon Underwood House, now Tony & Cherie Blair’s country house. Many made their way to the Prime Minister’s country house at Chequers 2 miles from our modest cottage and Burton, Taylor and many famous luvvies used to wine and dine at the Bell in Aston Clinton when it was a rather top restaurant. And then there was an actor who began his acting career in Aylesbury more than 60 years ago.
The shape and use of materials in the Waterside Theatre is designed to echo the wooded rolling Chiltern Hills with their limestone underlay
Waterside Theatre in Aylesbury
Ronnie Barker's statue
A bronze statue of the late comedy legend Ronnie Barker was unveiled last September at the opening of the Waterside Theatre in Aylesbury. The Porridge and Two Ronnie’s star, who died five years ago, was born in Bedford and Aylesbury Vale District Council commissioned sculptor Martin Jennings to design the statue as part of its Waterside development project. It now takes pride of place in the new public space in Exchange Street. The statue was officially unveiled by Mr Barker's widow, Joy.
http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/09/ronnie-barker-in-aylesbury.html
The Aylesbury arm runs in a beeline from Marsworth Junction, on the Grand Union Canal which connects Birmingham to London, ending up in the town basin, the home of the Aylesbury Canal Society. From Marsworth Junction to Aylesbury Basin is around six and a quarter miles and sixteen locks, the Marsworth seven and Aylesbury nine. The canal arm took just three years to build after over fifteen years of 'planning'. The canal takes most of its water from the Grand Union through Marsworth Junction - Aylesbury Canal Locks 1 and 2, the only staircase locks on the southern Grand Union Canal system.
Aylesbury Canalside
Aylesbury is the county town of Buckinghamshire in South East England. In the 2001 census the Aylesbury Urban Area, which includes Bierton, Fairford Leys, Stoke Mandeville and Watermead, had a population of 69,021, which included 56,392 for the Aylesbury civil parish. This is expected to be over 90,000 after the 2011 census.
The town's population has doubled since the 1960s due to new housing developments, including many London overspill housing estates, built to ease pressure on the capital, and to move people from crowded inner city slums to more favourable locations. Indeed Aylesbury, to a greater extent than many English market towns, saw substantial areas of its own heart demolished in the 1950s/1960s as 16th-18th century houses (many in good repair) were pulled down to make way for commercial developments.
Traditionally the town was a commercial centre with a market dating back to the Saxon period. This is because it was established on the main Akeman Street which became an established trade route linking London to the southwest. In 1180 a gaol was established in the town (it is still there though has moved locations two or three times) which only really happened in main towns across the country.
Market Square, Aylesbury
By the late 19th century the printers and bookbinders, Hazell, Watson and Viney and the Nestlé dairy were the two main employers in the town, employing more than half the total population. Today the town is still a major commercial centre and the market still meets on the cobbles of the old Market Square four days a week. Nestle and Hazell, Watson and Viney have both gone, as has the US Automotive parts producer TRW, who left the town in 2006. Although three major industrial centres make sure the town has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country.
Britain's most unlikely Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beconsfield
Sir John Hampden, the local MP whose refusal to pay the Ship Tax to Charles I led to the English Civil War
Stoke Mandeville was also the location of the Stoke Mandeville Games, which first took place in 1948 and are now known as the World Wheelchair and Amputee Games. The Games, which were held eight times at Stoke Mandeville, were the inspiration for the Paralympic Games, also called The Stoke Mandeville Games, which were organised in Rome in 1960. The wheelchair aspects of the 1984 Paralympics were also held in the village. The London 2012 Summer Paralympics mascot, Mandeville, is named after the village, based on the games once held there. Stoke Mandeville Stadium was developed alongside the hospital and is the National Centre for Disability Sport in the United Kingdom, enhancing the hospital as a world centre for paraplegics and spinal injuries.
http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/09/paralympic-games.html
As well as the convenient and much improving shopping, educational, medical, entertainment and employment opportunities of Aylesbury what most people appreciate here is the position at the centre of the fertile Vale of Aylesbury just the far side of the Chiltern Hills from London. Buckinghamshire is one of the loveliest of the Home Counties - some say the loveliest - and its Chiltern Hills and beechwoods, beautiful River Thames and the rolling acres of Aylesbury Vale make it a place for visitors to enjoy. Country walks run between picturesque villages with a host of welcoming pubs.
http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/04/chiltern-spring.html
The Chilterns lie only a few miles north-west of London and yet they are an unspoilt area of rolling chalk hills, magnificent beechwoods, quiet valleys and charming brick and flint villages. A wonderful mosaic of woods, fields, hedges, sunken lanes and clear streams.
So that is the attraction of Aylesbury, a sizable town with facilities which make it convenient set in lovely Buckinghamshire countryside within 50 minutes commute of London and with good travel connections to the rest of the UK and to London’s airports.
The Chiltern Hills
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