Here we are in 2020, a new year but not a new decade, no matter what they tell you! Today we are having a look at some of the highlights from the last twelve months, and a few photos from the archives.
The Highlights
New Year’s day last year was a fine day for a motorcycle ride. Though not too warm, it was dry and sunny. I rode up to the classic vehicle show at Stony Stratford, and when it finished just before lunch time I took to the back roads and ended up in Olney.
On the way I stopped at Stoke Goldington when I saw this fellow working on his allotment. I think he was starting the year as he meant to go on...
The only statue of David Bowie in the whole world is in Aylesbury, and it was a year old in March. There were strong links between Bowie and Aylesbury’s Friars music venue, and when David Bowie passed away in January 2016 there was a memorial event that drew over 3,000 people. A petition to create a Bowie statue was started that day…
I’ve been having days out this year with classic BSA motorcycle riders, and joined the BSA owners club because I’ve been planning to buy a BSA.
If you are going to have a tug of war between two villages, what better place to do it than across the river that marks both their parish and county borders?
A tale from my early childhood; I'm the one in the middle. Read the story and you'll see it’s no surprise I ended up riding motorcycles! Photo by my dad.
There are many lost villages in North Bucks; The NBW took a look at some of them. At Tyringham the village was demolished when the grounds were landscaped, but it's a nice bridge...
The King’s Head pub, in Aylesbury. This picture was to be in a Christmas Eve post about haunted pubs in North Bucks, but I ended up making a completely different post. I’d taken this photo for a post that tells you how to identify an old turnpike road, but chose another shot instead, as you’ll see here.
Hillesden church is known as the Cathedral in the Fields, but since I took this picture I’ve learned that there are plans to build one million homes across Oxfordshire, North Bucks, and part of Beds.
Oxford and Milton Keynes would become just part of an immense built up area. This church would no longer be in the fields, but be surrounded by housing estates and roads.
A dual carriageway or motorway the planners call an expressway would link Oxford and Cambridge for the hundreds of thousands of new commuters living around it.
From my archives
This is Great Horwood, from the top of the church tower. I don’t think the view has changed much since this was taken in 2013, but if the plans for the expressway come to fruition, just about all you can see here, right to the horizon and beyond, will be roads and houses. The expressway will run just the other side of Winslow.
If you don’t want this to happen, and I do not, The No Expressway Group are fighting to prevent it.
These two Roman tumuli are in a field next to the 600 year old Thornborough bridge, that's on a river crossing which is at least a couple of thousand years old…
My dad, Victor Bradbury, grew up in this farmhouse, at Station Road farm in Quainton. You can see the windmill in the distance. He passed away this year; aged 87. I’m told I am very like him.
My dad, aged about 16 or 17, in 1946 or 1947.
From the base of the tower in St Lawrence’s church, Winslow.
This is one of the earliest photos ever taken of me, in 1959. Holding me is my mum, Vera, at Westcott. She passed away in 2018, having left me with a love of reading, which has helped me greatly when I’m writing blog posts.
Family photographs are important, even though they may be blurred or badly framed. But if you are a beginner and want to improve your skills, this photography book is a good way to start.
This year promises to be interesting, and the North Bucks Wanderer hopes to see you soon. Happy New Year!
Comments