Book: A Country Town, Buckingham Sketchbook

INFORMATION

Published by Saga. Part of Barracuda Books of Buckingham, England and Printed by M & A Thomson Litho Limited of Glasgow, Scotland. Bound by Hunter and Foulis Limited. Jacket and case print by Cheney and Sons Limited of Banbury, England. 1988.
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ARTIST’S NOTE

For about 20 years I lived in Buckinghamshire and for much of that time I produced sketches of North Bucks for a charity calendar each year. By 1985 I had a folder containing well over a hundred such drawings and someone, on first seeing them remarked “that looks like a ‘bookful’ you have there – why not get writing again, and weave your words around the drawings, as you might in a sketchbook?”.

So that was the start of the book ‘A COUNTRY TOWN’. By the time Saga Books sent it off to the printers there were over 160 drawings spread throughout 120 pages.

I very seldom use a ‘graphics pen’, preferring to use a ‘dip & scratch nib’ and a pot Indian Ink, so it is possible to vary thickness as a line progresses. My habit of always carrying a little (6″ x 4″) black bound pocket book came in handy. Both Daler, and Winsor and Newton produce them – plain paper for sketching if necessary, but I fill them mainly with scribbled notes on whatever seems worth recording – especially about people and place I draw. For sketching faces I use the cheapest of the fine BIC ball pens. At its best the BIC is a remarkably sensitive pen, fine for features. The disadvantage of a ball pen however, is that it cannot be erased; you must hope to be correct first time, or start again.

The thing about Buckingham is that it has long ceased to be the county town of Bucks, yet its name is known and spread around the globe. There is a town named Buckingham in Canada, and Buckingham Canal which hugs the coast line of the Coromandel Coast of India. The London residence of the British Monarch is named Buckingham Palace. Why? Read ‘A COUNTRY TOWN’ if you can acquire a copy. In 1763 Buckingham actually provided the Country with a Prime Minister – namely George Grenville. His 2 years were disastrous. It was Grenville Administration which first proposed taxing the American Colonies. So it might be said that if it was a Buckingham man who had a big hand in causing the American War of Independence, and it was George Washington whose origins were also in the Buckingham area who brought the war to such a lasting and significant conclusion.
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

  • The Old Station, Bletchley
  • The ‘Super D’ on the Cambridge to Oxford Line
  • Padbury Station
  • Verney Junction
  • Buckingham Station
  • The Old Railwayline above Bath Lane
  • The Lone Tree near Thronborough
  • The Roman Barrows
  • Thornborough Bridge
  • Bourton Villa, Buckingham
  • Woolpack Inn
  • Ford Street
  • Watling Street, Stony Stratford
  • Thornton Hall
  • Brackley
  • West Street, Buckingham
  • Sheep Street and Market Square, Bicester
  • Tingewick
  • Nelson Street and St. Rumbold’s Lane with the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul
  • Winslow Hall
  • Bridge Street, Buckingham with the Three Cups’ Public House
  • Cosgrove Lock
  • The Buckingham Branch
  • The Canal Cottages by the Stratford Road
  • Stratford Road at the entrance to the basin terminus of the Buckingham Branch of the Grand Union Canal
  • Grand Junction pub
  • Cannon Corner
  • White Hart Hotel
  • The Community Centre
  • The Parish Church of St. Peter & St. Paul
  • The Old Gaol 1988
  • Buckingham Palace
  • The Manor, Buckingham
  • Rose Cottage, Bourton
  • Sulgrave Manor
  • The Washington Arms
  • Villiers Street, beside Charing Cross Station
  • The Duke of Buckingham’s Watergate to the Thames
  • Castle Street, Buckingham & Trolly Hall
  • The South Front of Cliveden
  • The Fountain of Love, Cliveden
  • Stowe, south front
  • Van Marks of County Down, Landlord of the King’s Head from 1966 to 1989
  • The Old Market House once The Talbot Inn also known as The Dog
  • Peter Hain
  • Dick May, Postman Market Hill and North End
  • Ian Price, Town Crier
  • David Stevens
  • Eric Fern
  • The start of The Chewar
  • Buckingham Bookshop
  • Vic Tattersall, editor of the Town’s Newspaper from 1967 until 1987
  • Printers’ Mew of Fleece Yard
  • Bruce Kershaw
  • The Old Latin School
  • Patti Pearce
  • Cromwell and King Charles I
  • The Swan and Castle Hotel, Buckingham
  • Castle House
  • The Old School, School Lane
  • N° 62 Nelson Street in 1923 (Woolton & Co Confectioners)
  • N° 62 Nelson Street
  • The Coach House at the Gateway to the Parish Church of St. Peter & St. Paul
  • F. X. Kay
  • Church Street
  • St. Rumbold’s Lane
  • The Saxon Font at the Parish Church in Kings Sutton
  • Twisted Chimneys
  • Well Street
  • The Woolpack Inn
  • N° 59 Well St
  • N° 60 Well St
  • N° 5 & 4 Well St
  • Well Street Garage (Davey Bros)
  • Holland’s Folly
  • Bertie Clarke
  • Bridge Street
  • Snapper
  • Sid Vicious
  • Female figure
  • Arthur Clarke
  • Mentmore House gates – Baron de Rothschild – Lord Rosebery
  • Great Horwood
  • Brill near the Oxfordshire Border
  • The village of Milton Keynes
  • Thornborough Village Green
  • Thornborough Parish Church
  • Lower Way, Padbury
  • Padbury I
  • Padbury II
  • Don King of Padbury
  • Gawcott Parish Church
  • All Saints, Hillesden
  • The doorway of St. Giles’ Church, Water Stratford
  • St. Giles’ Church, Water Stratford
  • The Sunday School, Tingewick
  • The Church of St Mary Magdalene, Tingewick
  • Tingewick
  • A Fox
  • The Old Rectory Cottage, Mixbury
  • Adstock
  • Adstock Cottage
  • Whitfield Aerodrome
  • Silverstone – Horwood Airfield
  • Winslow
  • Bill Read
  • Winslow Parish Church
  • The Wheatsheaf Inn, Maids Moreton
  • The Crown Inn, Gawcott
  • The Robin Hood, Padbury
  • The Two Brewers, Thornborough
  • The Old Thatched Inn, Adstock
  • The Folly Inn, Adstock
  • The Seven Stars, Twyford
  • The Shoulder of Mutton, Little Horwood
  • The Radcliff Centre
  • The Old Town Mill
  • Prebend Cottage & The Life Science Laboratory, Buckingham University
  • Church Street
  • Prof. Sir Alan Peacock
  • Clive Birch
  • Marriotts, Castle Street
  • Lord Hailsham
  • Nigel Bowerman