Twyford, Buckinghamshire

 

Another map, another Twyford.
I was amused by the neighbouring village of
Marsh Gibbon, Becky less so.

We pressed on from Oxfordshire, for our next Twyford was just 18 miles away, between Bicester and Buckingham, an area known quite well by Becky from her childhood, and the journey was punctuated by shouts of 'I know that stables!' and 'I used to climb up that hill!'.

We got a good look at the village on the way in, driving right up the main street from south to the edge of the churchyard at the far north. And so beheld our third St Mary's (this time, strictly speaking, The Blessed Virgin of St Mary, but the signwriter had apparently forgotten that detail).

The tower looks more impressive close-up

St Mary's Church, Twyford, Bucks

We are finding that different churches radiate different energies when you step inside. Some churches feel reverent. Some feel brusque and efficient. Some feel cosy. This one just felt OLD. In a good way.

 It was not difficult to feel the accumulation of eight or nine centuries of worship, no matter how briefly you looked around. It was preserved immaculately in memorials, in the painted murals that had been left to age naturally, and in the authentic 14th Century pews (better to look at than to sit on, as we found out). Overall, the impression was of a lovingly curated history, even more impressive when we found out the place had been extensively refurbished by a Victorian vicar, and the Victorians were notoriously for wrecking stuff like this. Indeed the place is refreshingly free of Victorian fripperies and stained glass: nearly all of it feels much as it would have done in the 17th Century

The pews - authentic 14th century oak.
Better hope it's a short sermon

The nave

Not a bad window to spend your
eternal rest in front of

A knight's tomb! Indiana Jones wannabes, form an orderly queue

Thomas Wenman was a viscount
 and a member of parliament

Grand memorials are clearly
the order of the day

The font. Original Norman fonts have
been a theme on this journey. It's amazing how
 well preserved many of them are.

My favourite photo, just to see the

layers of history that have been preserved.

The mural and painted panels are at least

500 years old

But this is immaculately preserved
for a 300-year old tomb, too

Wenham's Dad. A prime candidate
for oldest tomb

We have the Revd. Henry Collier, apparently
a diligent historian, to thank for keeping the
 place so well preserved

We paused on the way out to take in the marvels of the doorway arch, another bit of authentic Norman carving in the oldest part of the church structure. Could you maybe imagine you see a fish in those details? Perhaps if you squinted...

Norman carvings around the door
are well worth checking out

Do you fancy you see a fish?

1701, we think. Love the carvings around the top.

And then a wander around a rapidly expanding graveyard in search of the oldest grave. Well, I SAY we searched. In truth the rain showers were still soaking us at regular intervals and we decided to give credence to the logic of the oldest grave always being tucked away beside the church door.

A much more interesting challenge was going in search of fords. We had marked several likely locations on the various brooks around the villages (all, as far as I can tell, tributaries of the little-heralded Padbury Brook), and - between attacks of precipitation, endeavoured to see them all.

The OS map, marked up with a variety of potential ford locations.

Location 1 was down by the charming central village, dotted with thatched rooves among more modern buildings (a juxtaposition that worked so much more nicely than in - say - West Felton). It's been largely roaded over now, but Becky thought that - given its prominence to the village, it was a good candidate for one of the two. I wasn't so convinced...

Houses, old and new, in the village centre.
Surprisingly, the pub seems to be the most
modern building of the lot

Ford location 1? A bit overgrown now

There's a bit of water down here
somewhere, promise

So we pressed onto location 2, tucked away behind the village cricket pitch. Sadly it was occupied today only by some aimless youngsters. If Ford 1 was charmless, then this was even worse!

We headed next to the locations of fords 3a and 3b. I had strong hopes for these after learning about farmers' journeys earlier in the day: they looked like prime candidates for a route between the fields and the mill.

Unfortunately, we got barely 200 yards out of the village, before we encountered this!

For those who don't live in the UK and are possibly unaware of its existence, it's a railway that no-one wants, that the country can't afford and that no-one will travel on when it's finally built. It's causing untold amounts of construction work around some of the nicest historic parts of the country (prime example right here, although to be fair, if you look at the map, it is on a previously abandoned railway line). In this instance, could it actually be depriving a village of the very features that gave it its name?

We never got as far as point 3a, but diverting back around the village, brushing aside some nettles, and tramping through a field of handsome if steadfastly curious sheep, did get us as far as 4a.

Sheep. They don't move if you ask nicely

Point 4a. A very likely ford
location, now bridged

The view from the other side of the bridge.
I reckon those lily-pads are a
definite crossing point.

There was a small footbridge at 4a with another HS2 'path closed' sign, but no fencing. I want to be very clear that trespassing on private land is wrong, but taking a quick hop across land that a misfiring utility didn't really know or care about - on a Saturday moreover - doesn't seem in the slightest bit blameful. So I took a quick dash across to 4b and was pleased to find a classic model ford - the ditch now earthed in to provide a wide sheep run, clearly developed for herding animals.

While Becky may have a point about location 1, I had no doubt at this time that 4a and 4b were the pair of fords, following a similar 'farmers journey' route to that we had seen in Oxfordshire earlier in the day.

The 4b ford. Wholly functional, unlike HS2.

The pretty riverside at 5

We briefly drove out of the village to visit location 5 and were treated to a pretty view of the mill and the weir, but it didn't seem obvious that there was ever a second ford here. Mills tend to be later developments than village names on the whole and it's likely the brook was diverted to provide power. We're not complaining, given the scenery, though.

Sadly, the locally-owned village shop, which we had been banking on for a nice souvenir, was reliant on volunteers and locals to stay open and had long closed before we even arrived. Luckily, we were staying in Bicester and visited the nearby garden outlet (forsaking Bicester Village which is WAY too middle-class for us) to pick up a nice set of environmentally-friendly bamboo based tableware. It was a real shame we couldn't pick something up from Twyford itself: Becky had an eye on the little duck sculptures which were the hallmark of the local thatcher, appearing on nearly all the rooftops.

A practical souvenir...

...but can anyone get us a thatch duck?

The journey continues, with a visit to Twyford, Berkshire...