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. .
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. .
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