Buckinghamshire Places (4) : Beaconsfield

Beaconsfield is a market town in South Buckinghamshire close to High Wycombe and Amersham. The earliest record of Beaconsfield dates from the late twelfth century where it was known as Bekensfeld (Beeches Field). In the mid-thirteenth century the town received it's charter allowing it to have a yearly market (on May 10th) which the town continues to have to the current day. In latter years Beaconsfield was a stop for stagecoaches travelling between London and Oxford. Nowadays Beaconsfield is very affluent, indeed it was named Britain's richest town in 2008!

Beaconsfield consists of the Old Town and the New Town which was a result of the railways reaching the town at the start of the twentieth century with new settlement being built up around Beaconsfield railway station. An example of one of the buildings of the New Town is the Church of St Michael and All Angels.

A notable attraction of the town is Bekonscot, the first model village in the world. The town also has film studios with the town often appearing in films and TV productions such as Thunderball and Inspector Morse.

BGLR : Plymouth 2.0

Apart from some running the BGLR has been quiet this week. Plymouth will return to the workshop soon to complete it's makeover. There will, at the start of September, be a bit of a stock cascade as the Railcar goes into the reserve fleet (to be replaced by the push-pull coach), some wagons will also be changed and finally Maggie will be replaced in the active fleet by Black Beauty.

Loughborough

As the railway franchise East Midlands Trains ended this weekend (to be replaced by East Midlands Railway), yesterday I headed into the East Midlands to have one last trip on EMT's trains.

I visited Loughborough in Leicestershire for the first time, having a walk along the Grand Union Canal there as well as a brief visit to the heritage Great Central Railway's station at Loughborough. I must visit the town again one day as both canal and preserved railway will require a lot more exploration! You can see my photos here.

RNLB City of Sheffield

One of the exhibits at the excellent National Emergency Services Museum in Sheffield is a retired Tyne class lifeboat which carries the city's name.

Lifeboat 1131 City of Sheffield was built in 1988 at Wright/Souter and served at Whitby, Ramsgate, Hartlepool, Relief and Poole lifeboat stations [1]. It served at Poole for the longest, saving over six hundred and fifty people in fifteen years service before being retired in 2016 [2].

[1] Nicholas Leach and Tony Denton, Lifeboat Directory (Ships in Focus, 2013) p. 105
[2] "RNLI City of Sheffield: Lifeboat which saved 650 people retired" <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-37940364>

Buckinghamshire Places (3) : Haddenham

Haddenham is a Buckinghamshire village close to the Oxfordshire border and the village of Thame which is about three kilometres away. The village was recorded in the Domesday Book as Hedreham and may have been founded by members of the Anglo-Saxon Hadding tribe from Haddenham, Cambridgeshire.

For a few years (1294-1301) Haddenham had a charter to be a market town but lost it due to the proximity of Thame which objected to the competition. Agriculture was the main occupation of Haddenham's inhabitants, the village was known for duck and poultry breeding [1]. The village also had a brick works.

The village has a rather unusual plan, stretching over one and half kilometres. The village was devastated by two fires in the eighteenth century which destroyed a large number of buildings, especially near the church [2].

The parish church, situated on the green, is dedicated to St. Mary and dates back to before the thirteenth century at least and maybe even has remnants from Saxon times. The chancel is thirteenth century with other additions in later centuries. The church was rebuilt in Victorian times [3].

The village is served by Haddenham & Thame Parkway railway station.

[1] "Parishes: Haddenham." A History of the County of Buckingham: Volume 2. Ed. William Page. London: Victoria County History, 1908. 281-286. British History Online. Web. 16 February 2019. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/bucks/vol2/pp281-286.
[2]" Haddenham." An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Buckinghamshire, Volume 1, South. London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1912. 176-184. British History Online. Web. 16 February 2019. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/bucks/vol1/pp176-184.
[3] Nikolaus Pevsner, Buckinghamshire (Penguin, 1960) p. 149