Places Of Interest

Princes Risborough Information for Campers
 
Princes Risborough is a historic market town with a population of about 7000 so there is the usual smattering of pubs, take-aways, nail-bars, hairdressers and charity shops…...but it is the Gateway to the Chilterns AONB and a fantastic place to live. (52 years and counting for us). Our site is on the hilltop overlooking the town with magnificent views west across the vale towards Oxford – sunset opportunities abound.
 
Ridgeway Long Distance Footpath
The school site is bounded by the footpath on one side and our garden on the other – well part of it anyway, so for those who enjoy walking Avebury is only 65 miles along the path to the west and Ivinghoe Beacon is 22 miles to the east, an easy days walk. If you want to see Rishi (Prime Minister at time of writing) Chequers is about 3 miles along the path from our site and the path goes through his front garden but you will be observed by armed policemen and on television. The Ridgeway also passes Whiteleaf Cross, an ancient chalk cross cut into the hill behind the town and within an easy (less than 1 mile) walk from our site before reaching Coombe Hill at 852 ft the highest point in the Chilterns overlooking 7 counties, Chequers, Wendover, Aylesbury and all the devastation that is HS2. Coombe Hill is National Trust with a free-to-all car park which is motorhome accessible but busy at weekends. Dozens of footpaths and cycle routes radiate from the vicinity of the school into the surrounding Green Belt and Chiltern Hills.
 
Public transport is good.
High Wycombe or Aylesbury with links to Marlow, Henley, Milton Keynes etc
The above towns are available by public bus service.. The bus stop is about 5 minutes walk down the hill with buses (approx every 20 mins).
Chiltern Line - train station –, voted best operator for many years, is less than 15 minutes walk from our site. Trains to London take 45 minutes (fast) or 55 minutes (slow) and run at least every 30 minutes into Marylebone Station or to Bicester, Oxford or Birmingham in the other direction. There is also a steam train service from Princes Risborough station to Chinnor that has a regular service at weekends and during most days in the school holidays, a pleasant trip of about 5 miles along the base of the Chiltern Ridge. - often using steam engines borrowed from other rescued railways as well as their own steamers. Also the Buckinghamshire Railway Museum at Quainton has regular ‘Steam Days’ with a rebuilt station about 15 miles away but very close to Waddesdon Manor if you want to double-up on the day’s excitement.
 
Wildlife in the area –
Red Kites are the main local attraction.
Every day they visit our site and spend hours circling above the school fields and adjoining open green-belt land in search of prey and crisps and on one occasion my dinner that had been put out to thaw! They will happily steal from tables, and they are big when close up - you have been warned! Other than kites we have squirrels, badgers and muntjac deer as regular visitors.
 
(Daisy will have gone by then but Barry may well have another puppy to entertain us. For those of you who don’t know me, Daisy is a Hearing Dog we have trained and Barry also trains them)  
 
Places to visit – we are well served by the National Trust with four big houses within 15 miles. Waddesdon Manor, home of the Rothchilds; Clivedon, home of the Astors and where Mandy Rice-Davies and her friend Christine Keeler used to ‘play’.
West Wycombe Park and House, home of the Dashwood family with the Hell-Fire Club and caves (open to the public but not Nat Trust) and Hughenden Manor where Disraeli used to entertain rich guests. All well worth a visit and very photogenic.
Marlow and Henley are both fine towns with plenty of photo opportunities as are the many villages in the vicinity of the Thames such as Turville (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Windmill once owned by Hayley Mills) where Vicar of Dibley was filmed, Hambleden with a big weir where one of the country’s top slalom canoe clubs holds regular competitions – brilliant photo opportunities and many other very old villages with flint houses, thatched cottages and other ‘chocolate-box’ photos to add to your collections. Many used as film sets for Morse and Midsummer Murders as well as BBC drama series and Downton Abbey etc, too numerous to mention.
Lacy Green Windmill is within sight of our pitches, owned by the Chiltern Society and the oldest of its kind in the country, open on Sundays all year but probably more often in School holidays, walk to it across the fields and enjoy a pint in the Whip pub next door. (or the Black Horse or the Pink & Lilly both highly recommended).
Bledlow another village less than 3 miles away is home to Lord Carrington whose gardens are sometimes open to the public and well worth seeing, as are the Lyde Water Gardens and the Red Lion pub, all have nearby motorhome accessible parking.
 
If you want a really good meal whilst helping a charity, Hearing Dogs for Deaf People have their headquarters less than 4 miles from our site and  the bus stops outside if you don’t want to drive. The on-site restaurant serves amazing breakfasts and lunches with cream teas a speciality in the afternoon. The whole site is dog-friendly with secure areas to exercise any four-legged friends. I am hoping to arrange a guided tour with demonstration of the work that these incredible life-changing dogs can do to for their deaf partners. (Plenty of parking for motorhomes)
 
Also in the area, about 4 miles away is one of NATO’s main sites. Formerly known as Strike Command and prior to that it was Bomber Command from where ‘Bomber’ Harris controlled our sorties during WW2. His autograph was on display in the local village Post Office when I first moved here but its long since closed. The bunker at the site goes down about 7 storeys if I remember correctly (I’ve been in it – spooky) and I may be able to arrange a site visit for anyone interested in how our air defences are still managed from this hilltop between High Wycombe and Princes Risborough .
 
So back to Princes Risborough itself.
An Esso garage is less than half a mile away. The Bell pub opposite the garage sells beer. The Bird in Hand pub on Station Road, 10 minute walk, small friendly hostelry, George & Dragon on the High Street, recently (Jan 24) changed hands but is getting good reviews. Miya is a new Japanese restaurant in the High Street which gets good reviews.
Radhuni Indian restaurant in the Market Square for excellent Indian food, and CoCo Tamarind on the Aylesbury Road (2 miles) is also excellent. Prince of India in the High Street also good.
The fish & chip shop in the Market Square has won awards for the quality of their cuisine, good stuff considering how far we are from the coast.
Food shops
There is a Coop within 5 minutes walk and a Tesco within 15 minutes walk. Tesco car park will be tight for anything bigger than a campervan.
Marks & Spencer (food shop) also within 10 minutes walk so altogether an amazing place to spend 5 days in August.
 
If you want to see more of the location just use Google Maps Street View and ‘enter’ the school via Merton Road, you can see our van on the right about halfway up the school drive! I could list all the websites but if you just ‘google’ anything you’re interested in I’m sure there will be an entry.
 
Hope to see you here in August,
Peter.