Chiltern Spring

Spring is always a delightful time in the Chiltern Hills when the snowdrops, primroses, bluebells and daffodils appear in the undulating wooded hills. So we found ourselves on this sunny Sunday morning heading across the lovely countryside to two of my favourite places, Bledlow Ridge and the delightful preserved GWR branch line at Chinnor. Bledlow's main residence is Bledlow Manor, the family home of Lord Carrington who opens its wonderful grounds and sculpture garden for charity. Opposite the manor is a wonderful old Church and beside it the Lyde Garden which is a sunken aquatic garden fed by 14 springs. Lord Carrington generously maintains this lovely enclave and keeps it open to the public at his own expense. A couple of miles beyond Bledlow you come to Chinnor where a group of enthusiastic volunteers maintain part of the old GWR branch line from Princes Risborough to Watlington.


The Chilterns


Cottage being re-thatched

We are overlooked by the Chiltern Escarpment. The Chilterns lie only a few miles north-west of London and yet they are an unspoilt area of rolling chalk hills, magnificent beech woods, quiet valleys and charming brick and flint villages. It provides a wonderful mosaic of woods, fields, hedges, sunken lanes and clear streams. Bledlow consists of Bledlow Ridge on the top of the escarpment and then a half mile below the village of Bledlow clumped around the Manor House and Church.

"Bledlow is the most western of the villages which stand on the northern spur of the Chilterns, and one of the most attractive. It is charmingly placed just above the low-lying meadows which stretch across the Thame Valley to Haddenham. A large, straggling village shaded by elms; behind it rises Wain Hill, some of it all woodland, the rest bare down."

[Buckinghamshire, by E. S. Roscoe]


Bledlow Church

Holy Trinity Church at Bledlow is situated in the centre of the village, and is built of flint with dressings of limestone and a little clunch. The Nave is probably part of an original 12th century church on the site, which from appearances probably once had transepts and a central tower. The aisles were added circa 1200 and later in the century were widened and lengthened, the Chancel being rebuilt on a larger scale and is now wider than the nave, and the West Tower was added. During the 14th century the South Porch was built and windows were inserted in various parts of the church. In 1909 the whole building was restored.


Bledlow Churchyard

Of especial interest are the nave arcades, which are fine examples of early 13th century work, also the 14th century windows are noteworthy. There are some interesting remains of medieval mural paintings in the North Aisle, particularly that of St. Christopher. The church has a clearstory which has on each side three wide windows of three trefoiled lights under square heads; the inner stonework being possibly of the 13th century, the lintels and outer stonework are modern; on the north side of the clearstory, at the east end, is an outline of a pointed opening, probably connected with the former rude-loft.


Bledlow Manor

In 1927 "The Victoria History of the Counties of England: Buckinghamshire" stated as follows:

Bledlow parish lies on the western boundary of Buckinghamshire. It is nearly separated from the other parishes in the Three Hundreds of Aylesbury by a piece of Desborough Hundred, which lies between the parishes of Bledlow and Horsenden. The southern end of the parish lies on the Chiltern Hills, and is called Bledlow Ridge, being between 600 ft. and 800 ft. above the Ordnance datum. The lower Icknield Way runs parallel to the line of the high ground from north-east to south-west, along the north and west sides of the parish, and the village and church stand back from it about half a mile on the lower slopes of the hills. Close to the east end of the church is a steep wooded coombe called the Lyde, in which several springs break out from the chalk and form a small pool. The nearness of the church to the steep banks of the coombe where water from the springs is said to wear away the chalk on which the village stands has suggested a local rhyme;

They that live and do abide
Shall see the church fall in the Lyde,

Fortunately this disaster does not seem very imminent. The brook running from the pool is called the Lyde Brook, and is used for two paper-mills, Bledlow Mill and North Mill. The western boundary of the parish is formed by Cuttle Brook, which runs south to the River Thame. The Lyde Garden contains the source of the river and has dramatic plantings of moisture - loving plants such as primula and astilbe.

An inspired element is the joinery: two bridges, a boarded walkway on stilts and an oriental screen. These were designed by Robert Adams, the landscape architect who worked with the Carringtons on the Manor House garden. They give the garden a Japanese cast, strengthened by bamboos, weeping willows and a charming all-white bird sanctuary at the centre of one of the pools.








The Lyde Garden

The garden is worth a visit at any time of the year as its character and mood changes with the seasons. I first saw the Lyde Garden in spring when the marsh marigolds and irises were in flower, and more recently at dusk with a huge moon gilding the water. Sheeted by frost, the magic is different, and after a fall of snow you feel you have only to shake this unique ravine-in-a-bottle to stir up an instant blizzard.

The higher slopes of the hills are in parts well wooded, and in one of the open spaces, on the north slope of Wain Hill, is the Bledlow Cross, cut in the turf, and visible for miles as a landmark. The village is picturesque, its small houses, surrounded by gardens, lying for the most part along the side of the hill, but there are outlying houses in the lower ground on the side roads which join the Icknield Way.


Bledlow Village

The village's name is Anglo-Saxon and means Bledda's burial mound. In the 10th century the village was recorded as Bleddanhloew; in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Bledelai. The village is situated on the Roman road Icknield Way and is the location where several springs form a small pool called the Lyde.

Opposite the church and The Lyde is Bledlow Manor, dating from the 17th century and early 18th century. It has been the family home of the Carringtons since 1800, the present owner being Lord Carrington, the former Conservative cabinet minister. The garden, which can only be glimpsed from outside, is described in the Good Gardens Guide as "an elegant English garden of exceptional quality". The garden is open by written appointment from May to September, and occasionally for charity. The large yet tranquil garden has been in development since 1969. The garden has been designed by Robert Adam and contains many individual areas including an impressive vegetable garden. There are long herbaceous borders and, to the east of the house a sculpture garden.







Whilst in Bledlow you can hear the whistle of the steam train which travels on the old GWR branch line which has been brought back to life by the enthusiasts of The Chinnor and Princes Risborough Railway. Originally known as the Watlington and Princes Risborough Railway Company, the railway was largely promoted by local land owners following the failure of the planned extension of the Wallingford branch through to Watlington. Construction of the branch was authorised by an Act of Parliament dated 26th July, 1869.



This authorised the construction of the branch as a Light Railway, commencing from the Great Western Railway Station at Princes Risborough and running for a distance of 8 miles 66 chains to a terminus at Pyrton just outside Watlington. On 20th December, 1989, a class 47 diesel (No. 47258) together with 35 hopper wagons made the final journey into Chinnor cement works, with the locomotive sporting a headboard with the legend “Last BR Train on the Watlington Branch”. Maintenance of the branch from Chinnor to the junction with the Thame branch near Princes Risborough was given to the Chinnor and Princes Risborough Railway Association from January, 1990.


The cement factory which kept the track open








Chinnor Station

The Branch was opened on 15th August, 1872 and had two intermediate stations at Chinnor and Aston Rowant. After opening, the company immediately ran into difficulties and for a period of time the company directors ran the line at their own expense. Finally after being offered the branch on more than one occasion the Great Western Railway acquired it on 1st July, 1883 for the sum of £ 23,000, which was less than half the cost of its construction. Under the ownership of the Great Western Railway, track on the branch was re-laid, the original being in very poor condition laid directly on the chalk. Rail level halts were opened at Bledlow Bridge, Kingston Crossing and Lewknor Bridge in 1906 and Wainhill Crossing in 1925. After the Second World War the passenger traffic on the branch started to fall and by the mid 1950s had fallen to such a level that on 1st July, 1957 the line was closed to passenger traffic.


Real Train Drivers!


Firebox & Controls




GWR Pannier Tank 9682 Built 1949 Swindon

The railway now opens for passenger services in March until Halloween with Santa Specials operating in December. The line currently runs over a 3 ½ mile stretch along the foot of the Chiltern Hills running parallel to the Icknield Way, passing through attractive countryside with some outstanding views across the Vale of Whiteleaf. The aim of the volunteers is to re-open as much of the branch as possible. They have built a replica of the original Station at Chinnor and are working to extend the line into Princes Risborough with connection to the Network Rail station. Services now operate out of Chinnor station, principally at weekends, and run to Thame Junction, a round trip of nearly seven miles.


Carriage Interior


Ticket Office


The Cambrian railway carriage used as the Station Buffet


Station Teddy

The buffet at the station is contained in an old railway carriage and refreshments and snacks including freshly made sandwiches, tea and coffee are available. In addition they operate an on train buffet on many services. The rebuilt station has a newly refurbished gift shop which stocks a wide range of gifts, toys including “Thomas the Tank Engine” items and an extensive range of books on the glory days of railways in Britain.

THE LYDE GARDEN
Bledlow, Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire.
After the Bledlow village sign, turn right up West Lane. Open all year, daily, dawn to dusk


Signal Box

CHINNOR STATION
Station Approach, Station Road, Chinnor, Oxfordshire, OX39 4ER, England
Talking Timetable: 01844 353535

enquiries@chinnorrailway.co.uk

Also see;

Wendover, Buckinghamshire.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/08/wendover-buckinghamshire.html

West Wycombe Park

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/12/west-wycombe-park.html

Rupert Brooke and the Chilterns

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/03/rupert-brooke-and-chilterns.html

Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/01/roald-dahl-museum-and-story-centre.html

Rupert Brooke and “The Chilterns”

Rupert Brooke

Regular blogistas who follow the Sage know our enthusiasm for the Vale of Aylesbury and the Chiltern Hills as the Sage’s Castle is about 2 miles from Chequers, the Prime Ministers country home. Buckinghamshire is one of the loveliest of the Home Counties - some say the loveliest - and its Chiltern Hills and beech woods, 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. We are overlooked by the Chiltern Escarpment whose edge marks the southern border of the Midlands of England which continue to Wolverhampton and the Quantock Hills. The Chilterns lie only a few miles north-west of London and yet they are an unspoilt area of rolling chalk hills, magnificent beech woods, quiet valleys and charming brick and flint villages. A wonderful mosaic of woods, fields, hedges, sunken lanes and clear streams.

One of the most typical hilltop villages remaining is Dunsmore. This is a hamlet in the parish of Ellesborough, in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located on the hilltop of one of the Chiltern Hills, about 2 miles south of Wendover. It is one of the remotest places in the whole of Buckinghamshire, accessible only by two steep, single-track hillside lanes. The place name is Anglo Saxon in origin, and means literally Dunna's moor.


Track to Dunsmore

Today the village is extremely picturesque as it is surrounded by mostly National Trust owned woodland. However due to its location it is occasionally cut off because of bad weather or bad road conditions, and retains its small community atmosphere. Central features of the hamlet are the village pond, the village hall and the Church of the Resurrection, Dunsmore. There were two public houses, the Fox and the Black Horse, but these have closed and been converted into residential dwellings in recent years.


The Duck Pond, Dunsmore

Another fan of the Chilterns was the war poet, Rupert Brooke. He was a promising English poet who died young in World War I. Brooke ( 3 August 1887 - 23 April 1915 ), was a popular English poet, famed for his idealistic War Sonnets that he wrote during the First World War. Works such as "The Soldier", "The Old Vicarage" and "The Great Lover" are much loved throughout the world.

Poets have always glorified war, and Brooke did his best to continue the tradition, and sacrifice himself in this effort. His death made him the hero of the first phase of the war and a canonised symbol of all the gifted young people destroyed by the conflict. However, Brooke's poetry with its patriotic mood and naive enthusiasm went out of fashion as the realities of warfare were fully understood.


Ellesborough

Rupert Chawner Brooke was a British war poet, somewhat idealistic and known for his looks. W.B. Years once described him as “the handsomest young man in England.” Born in Rugby, Warwickshire, he attended Rugby School where his father was a schoolmaster. He later attended King’s College, Cambridge, where he became one of the ‘Cambridge Apostles’, and made friends with members of the Bloomsbury group. Brooke struggled somewhat with his sexuality, which often led to a frustrated and unhappy romantic life.


Princes Risborough

Before WWI he walked regularly in the Chilterns, sometimes with friends. He used to visit the Pink and Lily pub, at Parslow’s Hillock above Princes Risborough, and loved to walk there from Wendover station. Legend has it that the Pink and Lily pub came into being in 1800 when Mr Pink, a butler from nearby Hampden House, and Miss Lillie, a chambermaid from the same house, fell in love and turned a private house at Parslow’s Hillock into the Pink and Lily hostelry. He also wrote a short cheerful ditty about a particularly merry lunch at the Pink and Lily with his friend Jacques Raverat.

When WWI began Brooke joined the Royal Naval Division. The early months of the war inspired him to write some idealistic war sonnets. Later, his tone became more realistic when he wrote Soon to Die.


Pink and Lily pub

Brooke’s visits to the Chilterns inspired him to write the poem called The Chilterns which includes these evocative verses:

The Chilterns

Your hands, my dear, adorable,
Your lips of tenderness
--Oh, I've loved you faithfully and well,
Three years, or a bit less.
It wasn't a success.

Thank God, that's done! and I'll take the road,
Quit of my youth and you,
The Roman road to Wendover
By Tring and Lilley Hoo,
As a free man may do.

For youth goes over, the joys that fly,
The tears that follow fast;
And the dirtiest things we do must lie
Forgotten at the last;
Even love goes past.

What's left behind I shall not find,
The splendor and the pain;
The splash of sun, the shouting wind,
And the brave sting of rain,
I may not meet again.

But the years, that take the best away,
Give something in the end;
And a better friend than love have they,
For none to mar or mend,
That have themselves to friend.

I shall desire and I shall find
The best of my desires;
The autumn road, the mellow wind
That soothes the darkening shires.
And laughter, and inn-fires.

White mist about the black hedgerows,
The slumbering Midland plain,
The silence where the clover grows,
And the dead leaves in the lane,
Certainly, these remain.

And I shall find some girl perhaps,
And a better one than you,
With eyes as wise, but kindlier,
With lips as soft, but true.
And I daresay she will do.

Rupert Brooke (1887 – 1915)


Chiltern Hills

During the First World War, Rupert Brooke was commissioned into the Navy, just after his twenty-seventh birthday, and took part in the Royal Navy Division’s Antwerp expedition. He died on April 23rd, 1915 off the island of Lemnos, in the Aegean, on his way to battle at Gallipoli after contracting pneumonia from an infected mosquito bite. His body is buried on the island of Skyros, Greece.

Brooke was stationed off Tris Boukes Bay, located to the south west of Skyros. Brooke, and the rest of the platoon arrived on the 17th April 1915, and they were waiting for clearance to head off to the island of Lemnos. The following days after their arrival were spent doing a variety of exercises. On the evening of Tuesday 20th April, Brooke became very ill. He has a swelling on his upper lip, caused by an inflammation of a mosquito bite. During the subsequent hours, this inflammation spread, which was later identified as a diplococcal infection - blood poisoning, in simple terms.

On Thursday 22 April, Brooke was moved to a neighbouring French medical ship. He was actually the only patient on board as the ship was actually waiting to pick up injured personal from Gallipoli. On Friday 23rd April, Brooke's temperature rose and lost consciousness. He died in the late afternoon. A little later in the evening, three fellow officers took a digging party to Skyros, and headed to an olive grove that Brooke and a few others had rested at a few days earlier. Brooke was buried just before midnight.


Rupert Brooke statue, Skyros

Because Brooke's party were due to set sail the following morning at 6am, the ceremony was very simple. A wooden cross, which was inscribed in Greek, was placed at his grave. The inscription of the cross stated ... "Here lies the servant of God, Sub-lieutenant in the English Navy, who died for the deliverance of Constantinople from the Turks". The grave of Rupert Brooke is often visited by travellers to Skyros. The tomb you see here today is not the original grave but one made after the First World War commissioned by his mother. The grave has an inscription of Brooke's most famous poem, "The Soldier", which was written during the last months of 1914.

The Soldier (1914)

If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

Rupert Brooke is a very celebrated figure in Skyros. As well as his grave in the south, you will also visit the Brooke Square, which is located close to the capital town of Chora. Here you will find the impressive statue, in memory of Rupert Brooke. From this square, you can admire the beautiful panoramic views that stretch out over the coastal towns of Magazia and Molos.

For more on the Chilterns see;

Wendover, Buckinghamshire

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/08/wendover-buckinghamshire.html

Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/01/roald-dahl-museum-and-story-centre.html

West Wycombe Park

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/12/west-wycombe-park.html

And for our own journey towards The Somme and coming to terms with the cathartic schism which occurred in Ireland from 1914 to 1918, the years of the “Great War” see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/11/towards-somme-personal-journey.html


Skyros