About once a month I’ll make the 35 mile round trip to my butcher at Hogshaw, who is only open on Saturday mornings. It’s a nice run out down the back roads around Winslow, and it’s worth it for the quality of the meat.

My late father introduced me to this butcher, called J.C. Meats. I would drive my Dad there about every six weeks to stock up his chest freezer. I’ve also gone there with a wide variety of other people, so at one time Charlie the butcher there couldn’t work out who I was related to.

In the summer months, I’ve taken to going there on the bike. The bike’s panniers easily take all the sausages, bacon and other meats I’ll eat in a month. I buy a variety of different sausages, and pack them up in mixed half dozens for the freezer when I get home. I do like their sausages and their mince is very tasty.

When I was there recently Charlie asked me if I had been at Ickford for the tug of war match against the Oxfordshire village of Tiddington. He thought he had spotted me in the pub afterwards, but as I’d only stopped there for a quick half of bitter, I had gone before he could talk to me.

Charlie told me that he was there because his boss was the anchor man for the winning Ickford team. You can read all about the annual match that’s pulled across the river Thame in my post here.

To get to J.C. Meats, take the Grandborough and Waddesdon turn at Botolph Claydon and drive down the hill. At the bottom of the slope don’t carry straight on to Grandborough at the junction, but follow the road round to the right.

After a mile you’ll pass the left turn to North Marston, and the entrance to Hill Cottage Farm is about 300 yards further on, on your left. J.C. Meats are at unit 9, and only open on Saturdays, from 8am to 1pm; J.C. Meats are mostly a wholesale butcher. The postcode is MK18 3LA.

There’s just a few farms at Hogshaw now, but there used to be a village until the occupants were evicted from their homes so the land could be used for sheep farming, in the late 1400s. The church was pulled down in 1730, and we don’t know exactly where it was now.

There’s a couple of fishponds, an empty moat and a few earthworks to show where the village once stood. Hogshaw is just one of many deserted villages in North Bucks.

My nephew’s birthday cake. 18 years have gone by quickly, and I am unable to dangle him upside down these days like I used to, as he’s now bigger than I am.

The North Bucks Wanderer is one year old this week! I wanted to show you some of my favourites from the last twelve months, but I’m holding that post over until next week, because today I’m showing you quite a few photos from Stony Live, Stony Stratford’s eight day live music, entertainment, and events festival.

Many blogs runs out of steam early, with perhaps half a dozen posts before the author runs out of steam. In contrast there’s been over sixty posts on the North Bucks Wanderer. Why not take a tour through the archives to pick your own favourites, then come back next week to see if they match my choices?

Another nephew’s birthday cake, which also marked a match where the other Manchester team was soundly beaten. As a City supporter he refused to eat any of the cake on the United side. On this subject, if you are in Stony Stratford, the Macintyre coffee shop does very nice cakes.