Plague, piles, snakes and soldiers!

 

1964 was a very good year. The BBC launched 'Match of the Day' and The Beatles landed in America. It was also the year that I came into the world at the Stone Nursing Home in Chalfont St Giles.

​

So what else is this quaint little Buckinghamshire village famous for? John Milton set up home there after fleeing the bubonic plague in London in 1665 and put the finishing touches to Paradise Lost.

​

Move forward 306 years to 1971and The Crown pub doubled up as Captain Mainwaring's bank in the Dad's Army movie. Needless to say, Warner's butchers, with its distinctive blue and white tiled front, took on the guise of Jones's butchers.

​

And of course where would the hapless Viz character, Nobby Piles, be without his 'Chalfonts'?

​

I should add that the village pond is the final resting place of my toy snake which sank beneath the surface when I threw it in to see if it would float in 1973. It's probably still lurking in the mud.