 This is the very heart of the old village. Not a river. You can see a mound. Now that is an old Morton Bailey castle Thank you for joining me. I'm out in a Buckinghamshire village and today is an episode of Plastic Villages of England. Before I go into too much detail as to where we are I just want to say if you do like my videos and enjoy watching please do like share and Comment and subscribe. That's the most important if you subscribe. The more subscribers I get that really helps the channel So today episode of Plastic Villages of England. It's only episode 3 and as the series evolves You know things change slightly So what's probably going to become a bit of a feature not necessary of every video But some of them is to include more than one village. So we're in a village called Western Turbill in Buckinghamshire We're going to walk to the nearby village of Houghton. So effectively it's two villages I'll show you this house here. That's called Scott House and it was designed by the architect Gilbert Scott So that's our sort of first. It's just not really fun. We only really decided it but that's Sort of first nice landmark. We'll see. We might see some of the back of it as we walk past I'm going to walk down here down to the heart of the old village centre. So to give you an idea of exactly where we are We're about a mile and a half north of Wendover So the nearest railway station will be Wendover on the old Great central and metropolitan joint line here. It's about the best view We're going to get off of Scott House Let's walk down now into the village. So that's roughly where we are Although probably the nearest railway station to the village is actually Stoke Manderville Station, which would be I can see going down this little road here Footpath sign. If I walk down those footpaths, I probably would eventually Go to Stoke Manderville. So that gives you an idea of where we are. So the plan is we'll look around Western Turvill and then what we'll do we'll walk across the fields to Halton and see what we can find there The village name goes back. It used to be once be called Wheatstone. I understand and then Turvill was added, the suffix turvill, added in the 13th century Referring to the Lords of the Manor. This is not to be confused with the other Buckinghamshire village of Turvill That's on the other side the Chilterns. That's the village where Programs like Good Night Mr. Tom was filmed and numerous minutes our murders episodes and all sorts of other things That's a different village. That's not where we are today as we come now into the very hot little village You've got the checkers in there This pub here is called or it's not a pub that house is called The Forge The pub is called The Checkers. There's a couple of we've got really look at really nice fats cottage there And then ahead of us. There's a couple of other fats just cottages Typically someone's having some tree work done So I'm not gonna talk too much further up here because my voice will soon be drowned out by the sound of power tools But what I'm gonna do up here I'm expecting to find a footpath and that will take me down to a stream across the fields to Hawton So this this is the very heart of the old village of of Western Turvill Not too far that way is the newer part of the village So the village has a population of about three thousand one hundred to give you an idea. So it's Yeah medium-sized village, right as the power tools get louder. I'm gonna walk off that way Let's go and find this stream more crossfields to Hawton So as we leave the residential part of the village behind us You might just be able to hear the sound of the power tools I think in a couple weeks time. It's gonna look really nice Below the snow drops or have or have they all come and gone now. Maybe they've all come and gone Here's a stream here It doesn't I can't find anything on an OS map that this stream has a name So maybe if you're local and you know the name of this stream, or does it have a local name? Do please comment and tell me I'd love to know if it flows off in that direction So yeah, it's in that direction It comes from can't see much to the fence but it comes from the there's a reservoir nearby here So that's where the water comes from. There's a few I think that's been gone There's a few snow drops daffodils are coming out over there So it's like that nice feeling get when it's the beginning of the spring walk through this little woodland And we go out into a field now. This is the field. I'm gonna walk across to get to Hawton If you look up there, that's what wants to point out up on that hill that wood is hill That is wind over woods and somewhere up there. It's the highest point on the Chilterns now I don't know how it's very faint, but I can just see in amongst that Hawton house That's part of the RAF camp and but it's like a sister a little sister towards the manor Hawton house is designed by the same market. So I'm gonna cross fields. Let's go and find the village of Hawton So I come across the fields and as you can see I want a road and we are very close now to Hawton village The runway or the end of the runway So I'm now arriving at Hawton Village Centre and Hawton is known for two things. I've already mentioned the RAF. The other thing is the Rothschilds Now they built these estate cottages or houses and really attractive buildings Hawton house, which I mentioned back there. I could see the top of that was one of the Rothschilds houses I said, it's like the little sister Oh, I think it was them. And I have been in there. Occasionally they have Open days and they usually run a vintage bus. So that's worth looking out for usually around September time So as I said, these are some of the Rothschilds houses. There's a couple of interesting things here We're going to talk about transport in Hawton Village. That's the village hall Looks more just like I think your average house, but that's the village hall. More nice houses They've got nice little pictures on some of them too. That's the men chopping a tree I'm going to go sit here now. See I'll talk about transport. It's not an old railway cottage Get onto a railway in a minute What it is You can see there is a bridge here. This bridge Takes us over Show you better on this side Not a river. This is the old Wendover arm of the Grand Union Clown. It is the shoes now, but this section has watering The stub of it is can still be used is navigable There's a section further up with no water one day have been saying this for years I want to make a video on the whole canal, but it's probably a two-day job. It's quite long to one day We'll have a look and we're going to have a look at that nice bridge up there. So that's the canal So that's one form of transport to Hawton. The other form Was a railway Now if you want to know about the railway to Hawton The best thing I can suggest is you click the link on screen now A while ago, I made a video on the old railway to Hawton. It wasn't your average passenger railway It was an RAF railway. The RAF had their own branch from Wendover to Hawton And then off that they had an alligator railway. So That's your transport history for Hawton There's a bus stop there Not sure if any buses I'd like to think there are buses that serve Hawton So that's Hawton's transport history. Let's go have a look at the church now There's the entrance Michael and all angels church Hawton. I don't know if we're going to go inside it or not. If it'll be open I have been in this church before. I've done various walks around this area over the years We walk up the dry See the tower. It's got scaffolding on it and it's obviously having some work done. It's quite a nice church If you look, we'll see as we get closer. You've got the tower It's got a stone. It's got little bits of flint in the mortar I'll show you that. You'll see lots of military graves I didn't want to get them on film But I have seen a couple of soldiers walking around because of the RAF There is the newer part of the video. It's all very much RAF. There's another church there A more modern church. I have also been in that one. So these are the more Yeah, civilian graves. I can see some more RAF graves over there You see what I'm saying about the design of the church? You've got big blocks and little bits of flint in the middle Take my hat off just in case. See it's open Unfortunately, it's not. I haven't had to show you. The church isn't open, unfortunately Maybe another time we can come back. I've got to go up the tower and see the view I'm going to walk down to the canal now and see what we can find down there So now we're walking along beside the canal for about half a mile So it's not a particularly long section of canal before I need to head back to water west and so Looking out across there looks across the Vale of Ellesbury Now when we get to here just ahead of us I can see a bench and I see a foot bath sign The canal sweeps off around there gets quite nice and wide. Like I say, I will One day hopefully explore this whole canal. It's something I really would like to do But I think it's a two-day job. That's the reason why I've not yet done it So the canal goes that way to Wendover. We're going to go Down here down this foot bath, which like I say it's heading back towards Western Turtle. So along beside this hedge and somewhere over there is the Village Centre So I'm now crossing the final field back to Western Turtle. The hill over there is as mentioned already Wendover Woods Looking across there, that's Coombe Hill. I don't think I'm going to pick it out. I can just see the monument. We look towards where we were. We sort of went out that way That's the village of Western Turtle. I can see what appears to be the Manor House And then right ahead of us that is the parish church. That's where I'm heading to next So still with Wendover Woods in the background, we've crossed the field and we're in the churchyard There's one more of those RAF graves there and then here are all the other graves The church itself, that marriage church is just through the trees over there The reason I'm going to take you into this corner of the graveyard is because there's a couple of things of the earlier part of the history of Western Turtle which I wanted to show you I think it's probably going to be the best place we can see them If you look across, it comes to that corner of the churchyard where you don't go, you know, where the compost heap is. That's not what I can show you. There's a reason for it here. Look across there you can see a mound. Now that is an old Motten Bailey castle. So there was once a castle here. The house you can see I believe is the Manor House. Again we don't get a great view. I mean it is private so I don't want to intrude too much on you know their privacy but at the same time if I could see it clearly as we walk past I'd show you. Looking back across there I don't know how clear it is. I can just see the top of Alton House. The sort of thing I'd like to make a video on though maybe, whether I'd go to one of their open days and make a video. The problem is sometimes these places when they have an open day you'd think it's an ideal chance to make a video but usually it's so busy it's not so easy. I get that sometimes with some of these villages like people say I should go to the village when whatever fares on. Yeah village fares are great and everything but it wouldn't be ideal for making this video. So I deliberately usually choose a week though I've got nothing else on and come along and explore these these villages. So this as I say we're now in the churchyard off west and so for the only problem here is sometimes it means the churches are open all the time. It's a bit of a lottery with any church. They either are open or they're not. If they're not it's understandable really because you know people could go in them and get vandals and stuff. So I can understand churches not being open but at the same time it's always a little bit disappointing when you come to a church just like this and it's not open. We'll find out. I'm not going to get too excited it might be open. It's like it's nice to see the church. It's a bonus if it's open. So the manor house. I'll say it is in there. It's a historic bar of itch but we can't really see it because it's in there. There's a sort of ditch here. That was once part of the old castle. I'm not so sure. I will take my hat off in anticipation. Excuse the hat here just in case the church is open. It's not open. It's just a very old door so there's a gap. It always looked like it could be open but it isn't there. Oh well. That's just how it is. So it is the front of the church. Oh look it's the exciting break up of the church not being open. I've just seen this leech gate here. Look there's a white. It's got big weights like an old cannon. I think the idea is if I take that off here the white goes down and it closes the gate and then if I pull it open the cannon goes up. I'll put it back as I found it just because I don't like to interfere too much with things. So that is the church. I'm going to follow the lane now back to the village centre. There's the church in the background that little cottage there. That's like a gate house to the manor house which I mentioned. This little lane will take me back to the village centre but I've noticed there's a footpath there. I think I'm going to go back down there. We come to that stream again. I think this would have been a thord here once. So that's you know how probably I'm just fairly sure there wouldn't have been a thord. Well this unnamed stream or at least I think it's unnamed which I'm speaking to. It seems quite big here. It seems to say it hasn't got a name but like I say maybe it has a local name. It just isn't mentioned on any of the man. So like I say know of the name of this stream please do comment and tell me. I'm literally standing right in the middle of it. I'm going to follow that footpath down there. That will take me back to where I started. I hope you enjoyed this video. I'm glad once again I wore my wellies from standing in the middle of a stream. Thank you very much for watching. I'm going to have a clean boot. Thank you very much for watching. Please do feel free to like, subscribe and comment from the Buckingham shiverage of Western Turbill in a stream which I don't know the name of.