We all met at Milton’s Cottage at 10am on Friday 10th October. Most of us arrived early and, as the weather was good gathered in the garden.
This pretty cottage was built in the late 15th Century for workers on the local estate, The Vache.
We were hosted by Kelly, who showed us around the cottage and described its history and the life and works of John Milton. Kelly was remarkably knowledgeable, answering all sorts of questions as she showed around the 3 or 4 rooms open.
The cottage may be very small, but there was so much to see and read.
Milton took refuge from the plague in London by escaping to this cottage in 1665, and, although he lived here for less than two years, wrote his most famous work Paradise Lost and began Paradise Regained, whilst living here with his third wife.
Milton was a staunch republican, who wrote books and pamphlets in support of regicide, the abolition of the monarchy and divorce, but was spared from retribution during the restoration of the monarchy.
The cottage contains many of his original works as first and second editions along with artifacts from his time.
We then walked down the hill to the parish church of Chalfont St Giles. Here we met our guide Tony Ferguson, who is not only an author and speaker, but also a member of the St Giles watch, which helps to ensure that the church remains open to visitors.
The church itself dates back to around 1150, during the reign of Henry II, but has been remodelled several times over the following centuries. Parts of the original Norman church are clearly visible and on the wall is a list of the rectors through the years dating back to the early 13th century.
One of the most striking features of the church is a set of 14th century wall paintings depicting scenes from the bible. These were discovered and revealed by the Victorians, but about 20 years ago suffered damage as a result of thieves taking lead from the roof.
Tony also pointed out ancient graffiti around the church dating back to the time of the civil war and a stained glass window with a small depiction of the devil, though he was a very small figure inside a red circle of hell!
Outside we were shown interesting features and graves, including a method used to protect the recently buried from ‘the resurrection men’ by placing long heavy stones across the grave.
After a very interesting tour of the church, we continued our walk into the village, ending up at the pub, ‘Merlin’s Cave’ for lunch.
Thanks to Gwyndaf for arranging this interesting and informative outing.
We all met at The Queen’s Head in Little Marlow at 10:00 for a 10:30 start. There were about 18 of us in all. We ordered our lunches before setting off.
We started off by heading off to the parish church of St John the Baptist.
Norman times, was constructed from materials from the convent, one of the oldest parts is the font.
We were able to spot swans, great crested grebes, tufted ducks, and various geese (greylag, bean or was it pink footed?).
As we went, Gwyndaf pointed out features of the flood plain, including the alder trees that grew along the river. Alders love moist or boggy ground, and Gwyndaf showed us the unusual female catkins, which look just like very small pine cones. It is the only deciduous tree which produces a cone.
On Thursday 19th September, a group of 15 members met at10:00am on Windsor Bridge for a walk around Windsor and Eton.
David & Gwyndaf had done their homework and planned a walk that was to take in sights of Windsor that many of us had not seen before. The walk was loosely based on The Queen’s Walkway and a series of 63 of the town’s attractions, but we were to cover only the sights in the centre of the town.
There were many unusual attractions: the death warrant for Charles I, a game of hopscotch based on monarchs connected with Windsor and the parish church of St John the Baptist which held an 18th century picture of the last supper, a wonderful carved altar rail by Grinling Gibbons and the royal pew with two grand wooden thrones.
First we visited the new church which was built in Victorian times (1867), to house the growing population of the village. Unusually for a Victorian church, it was built in the ‘Arts and Crafts’ style rather than gothic. The church bell was taken from the old church and is said to date from about 1290.
Trish then took us on a path leading behind the new church to a much smaller building. This dated back to about 1220, built by the Cistercian monks at Missenden Abbey on a site of an older wooden church. One of the first things that we noticed were the old sun dials on the exterior wall. These were Mass Clocks, for telling the time for mass.
Inside there were traces of the medieval wall Doom painting showing the weighing of souls and another depicting St
Christopher.
figures of St Mary and St John. Below that, the main window depicts three puritans including John Hampden in the centre and Oliver Cromwell to his left. This window was originally meant to be for the church in Little Hampden, but was rejected as it contained the figure of Cromwell.
We then walked through the woods, which were carpeted with wild garlic and their aroma filled the air. Some of our walkers took the opportunity to gather leaves as they can make a very good pesto. Luckily, it had not been raining recently so the path was not very muddy.
As The Lee is quite high up, there are no streams and the village used to rely on a pond for its water. In 1897, in the year of Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, a well was dug to provide clean water. This was quite a task, as the well is 365 feet deep, 4 foot six inches wide, and the workers had to rely on candles for their light and a blacksmith’s bellows to provide ventilation. It was commissioned by Sir Arthur Liberty and built by Liberty’s craftsmen.
On the way Gwyndaf found several plants of interest, including the Coralroot, a tall pink flower which is quite rare (in most places)96, but one of the few places you can find it is in the Chilterns.
5 Horsemoor Lane, past a farm and some woodworking buildings, across a field with views across to Penn Street and its church, then turned right into a path edging Priestlands Wood, back towards the common and The Potter’s Arms. On the way we were told of the hundreds of different types of dandelions, and were informed about sedges – all being asked to recite ‘Sedges have Edges’.
On Thursday 29th April Gwyndaf and Janet John organized a Spring Walk around the woods at Hedgerley.
The plan was to meet at the pond in Hedgerley at 10:30, book our meals at the pub and then set off covering very similar walks but at different times and in different directions. However, when parking the cars, people were so pleased to see each other again, that in true CDWS fashion, they stopped to chat and soon it was 11:00.
