As Typepad is having technical problems after moving to a new server which mean I cannot upload photos until the problems are fixed, I thought I'd show you the first Monday Photo, from February 2020.

You may find that this photo when clicked on, does not produce an enlarged version. I can't do anything about that until the technical issues are fixed.

Eight Miles High

The Monday Photo

Mursley water tower sits on a hill that’s over 500 feet high; it's a local landmark. I’ve often spotted it from the roads and fields in the villages around Mursley, but I didn’t realise it could be seen from eight miles away until I visited Hillesden.

Hillesden is also high on a hill, and from the hill the water tower is unmistakable on the distant horizon. To the right you can see two radio masts that are on a farm just the other side of Mursley, and the trees in front of them are part of the village.

The darker band of trees you can see a bit closer to the camera is Addington. Winslow, between the two villages, can’t be seen at all.

Mursley water tower was built by the Buckinghamshire Water Board in 1938, so that mains water at a good pressure was available to the central and Northern parts of the county.

Have you ever spotted a local landmark from a great distance?

As Typepad is having technical problems after moving to a new server which mean I cannot upload photos until the problems are fixed, I thought I'd show you a post from the early days of the North Bucks Wanderer.

You may find that some of these photos when clicked on, do not produce an enlarged version. I can't do anything about that until the technical issues are fixed.

Since I wrote this in 2018, the shrubs and hedge that hid the top of the shaft have all been cleared away, and the hatch has been padlocked shut.

Underground in the Cold War

The entrance shaft. The top of the shaft is about three feet above ground level, so the post is about 17 feet below the ground (I estimate)

In the mid 1950s, the threat of atomic attack by the Soviet Union was taken very seriously by the British government. The Royal Observers Corps were given the job, if an attack took place, of reporting nuclear bomb explosions and of monitoring radioactive fallout. Three men at a time crewed the post.

1,563 underground posts were built all over the UK for the ROC, and many still exist. This one is somewhere between Winslow and Aylesbury. I’ll not be more precise, as these posts tend to get vandalised or the contents are stolen. This post closed in 1991.

There are a few restored posts. Here is one, with a cutaway diagram of the post.

The posts were built to a standard design, although the hatch at the top of the shaft isn't always hinged on the same side, and some were built 'handed'. That is, to a mirror image plan. I have no idea why; can anybody enlighten me?

If you want to know more, there are at least two books on the subject. They are Cold War Secret Nuclear Bunkers by Nick McCamley, and Cold War - Building for Nuclear Confrontation 1946-1989 by Wayne D. Cocroft and Roger J. C. Thomas.

Anyway, here’s some photos I took last year.

The bottom of the access shaft. The device on the right is a hand pump for emptying the sump, where any water that got in would collect.

This is the main and only room. The entrance shaft is at the far left, and off the  shaft but not visible in this photo, was the chemical toilet.

The view from the door.

Folks

I'm unable to upload photos at the moment; I think it's due to Typepad (the providers of the blogging platform the Wanderer uses) moving to a new server; there are always a few problems with a big move or change like this.

I've got a post all ready to go, but it'll make little sense unless you can see the photos too. I'll tell you the post title, though; it's The Wonky Church.

Roger the Wanderer.

The Monday Photo

Tucked out of sight at the back of the Mentmore Towers estate is Crafton Lodge; a gatehouse. It’s named after the hamlet of Crafton, part of Mentmore parish.

The lodge allows access into the back of the Mentmore estate. Like many of the estate and village buildings around the main house, it was built around 1870-80, some years after the main house was finished.

The lodge is built in a picturesque, almost Tudor style, but like many Victorian buildings that look back to earlier times (I’m thinking of the Gothic Revival churches quite common in North Bucks) the roofs are uniformly very steep; steeper than a thatched roof would be. This is a bit of a giveaway if you are not sure how old a building is.

It’s a nicely proportioned house, and a much nicer place to live in than the many modern boxes now being built. But unlike the lodge they do not look as though they will still be here in 140 years.

This lodge, like the other two on the entrances to the Mentmore estate, Cheddington Lodge and possibly Stone Lodge, was designed by George Devey, who also did much work at Wing to extend Ascott House.

Crafton Lodge is a private house and is obviously looked after. But the 1852-54 Grade 1 listed main house (built for the Rothschilds) was reported in April this year to be neglected and no longer quite weatherproof. It’s a shame.

Tucked away places like this are the reason I look out for lanes to explore with “No through road” signs on the entrance. On my motorcycle there’s no road I can’t turn around at the end of; I’ll never get stuck if the lane just stops at a farm gate.

It’s a bit different in a car, but you might like to try exploring on a bicycle. To travel further, you can go by car or by train with your bicycle to explore an area you aren’t familiar with.

Give it a try; I might see you out there.

The railway crosses the road close to the bottom of a small valley. A stream which ran just this side of the bridge was culverted under the road and the built up land on the far side of the tracks. The nearest part of the stream ran roughly along the line of Melrose Avenue, West Bletchley.

This is Denbigh Hall railway bridge, and for a few months in 1838 the line from London stopped here.

You’ve probably seen articles and videos about this bridge and the temporary station here and wondered where that station stood. I wondered too, because nobody ever gives a location.

I looked at every source I could find, and for a while went on a wild goose chase, finding a low wall said to be the remains of the platform. It wasn’t.

Nobody seemed to know, but I think I’ve found the answer.

The Monday Photo

Until about 1981 this narrow twisty lane was part of the main road from Olney to Wellingborough; the A509.

The lane just leads up to a farm now, but imagine driving along here on a dark winter’s rush hour evening in the 1970s, with the ineffective headlights of the time. You’d be struggling to see as car after car and articulated lorries came towards you through the rain.

Nor would I want to be broken down on this road with my bike parked where it is now; there’s barely enough room for a lorry to get by.

The two trees behind the woodpile In the background show where the old road turned sharp right. An even sharper bend can still be seen now about a third of a mile away behind the camera.  It’s on the far side now of the much straightened A509.

Like many main roads this one has been an important route for a very long time, and was once the Newport Pagnell to Kettering turnpike, which opened in 1754.

In 1979 work on the Newport Pagnell bypass began, and the project went far past the town, bypassing Sherington and Emberton too. Work at the Emberton stretch was going on in 1980 and I think that the straightening of this stretch of road at Warrington was done as part of the project in 1980 or 1981.

You might know of a funny little piece of road left over from road improvements; why don’t you see if you can work out what the original road layout used to be?