Two Sundays ago we headed South down the M40 about 40 miles and took a look at some new to us villages.
First up was Hambleden where a lot of film scenes have been shot around the village.
Included is Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The New Avengers and 101 Dalmations.
The village dates back to the Domesday Book being listed in 1086...
The Main street.....
With a Pub at the end....
And a....
Butcher shop......
The buildings are unique in that.....
The stone on them has a lot of Flint in it....
Several more......
Attractive houses...
And across the road stood the....
Church of St, Mary the Virgin..... 1300,s....
She was away. Apparently down Harley St, way getting some sort of Check Up....
You can enter.....
Through the front gate.....
Or......
Through the side gate via the grave yard....
A very old.....
Burial Tomb..... probably has a whole family in there....
The sides of....
The church tower had the Flint look...
From the village green looking across to...
A couple of country homes with a Woods backdrop.....
And closer to the green....
Some village houses and a sign that Spring is well and truly here....
And just to.....
Confirm those thoughts.....
Next stop just up the road about 3 gear changes is....
Mill End... on the river Thames....
On the RH side above is.....
Hambleden lock.....
And opposite the lock.....
Stands this double boat house....
And along side stands.....
Another boat house with a "Tidy Pad" attached....
The weir beside the lock....
Was running pretty fierce....
A couple more gear changes and a Skid of the tyres and we were in....
Henley on Thames.... a market going on but not to crowed....
On the river side.....
A look upstream.... We were here the weekend before the famous rowing race... Luckily as those in the know say it can take up to 3hrs to drive from the towns surrounding area on race day...
And looking....
Down stream... there was some rowers out but seemed rather quite....
Time to take in....
Some flower box's and a nice front door....
We left there and called to the.....
Village of Turville.... about 30 houses..... The Bull and Butcher pub was a good place to sample a brew....
Another "Beauty" place.....
Look at those straight lines..
The Vicar of Dibley was filmed in the village.....
Another village Gem.....
I guess because of the wet winter the water table in the ground is running high....
In fact so high several roads in the area had water pouring down them seemingly coming out of
"just holes in the ground"....
This is what makes England so different....
Not more than....
8 minutes drive off the 6 lane M40 and there's single track roads... It's like you've "Gone Bush"....
Ohh and road signs warning of Deer running across the roads....
Then on the way home...
A large water tower.... or Stalag 13.......
And a...
Home converted from an old Grain Mill straddling a stream.....
