 Hello, thank you for joining me on this lovely spring evening. I'm just walking along the old A413 in Chalvon, St Peter in Buckinghamshire. Now this video, this is the first episode of a new series that we're going to do from time to time as I travel around the country making various other videos. I thought this would be one that will fit in nicely in between the various other videos I make now. Most of the videos I make are about railways but I also do quite a lot of videos which are nothing to do with railways and I know a lot of my followers like the railway videos but I've also got quite a lot of followers who aren't so interested in railways but they do like the other videos such as rivers, castles, churches etc. So I thought, let me check the A413 now, I thought what if I could come up with a series which is as much about railways as it's not about railways and that's what this video is the first of. This series is going to be called the largest town in the county without a railway station. Now we're in Chalvon St Peter so there's probably someone getting ready to write a comment now saying Chalvon St Peter is not the largest town in Buckinghamshire without a railway station, it's not even the town it's a village and you're absolutely right. Chalvon St Peter is a village not a town and it's not the largest settlement in Buckinghamshire without a railway station. So you're probably thinking well why am I starting it here in Chalvon St Peter? Well the answer is my hometown it's fairly large it's about 12,700 it hasn't got a railway station and I just thought we'd use this as like I said it's the first episode the pilot episode to explain the concept of this series so my plan is as I travel around the country so I doing you know the miniature railway videos visiting heritage railways or visiting castles and follies following rivers etc. You know I will visit some of these large towns that don't have a railway station. Now I'm someone who some of the time I drive to places most of the time lately I've driven pretty much everywhere because of the pandemic I've not been on a lot of public transport but I am someone who does also like to leave my car at home and go by public transport preferably by train. So what I thought we'd do is look at all these largest towns in each county that don't have a railway station and sort of see how easy it is to get to a railway station. I've had experiences of living in fairly large towns it's strange just think being the person I am who likes railways. The only large the only time I've ever lived in that's actually got a railway station is Shrewsbury. I've lived in Newport and Shropshire 20,000 odd not got a railway station. I've lived in Leake, Staffordshire again 20,000 people no railway station and that one that was where I had some on the whole the buses were fine but there was a couple of times you're trying to get back from Stoke on Trent you'd have to get two buses you might have a two hour long wait at Hanley bus station and on a Sunday the buses from Hanley to Leake finished at about five o'clock so if ever say came down here I had the worry that had to be back for five o'clock or get a taxi so sometimes if you live in these large towns that don't have a railway station we don't want to take your car life isn't always that easy to get about so that's what I thought be an interesting thing to look at to look at each of these largest towns and see what the public transport is like so that's what we're going to do in this video we're just going to do it with Chalfont St. Peter look at what options you've got for railway stations and how you can get to them if you say don't have access to a car or can't get a lift at the appropriate time and so I've researched every county in the UK and there's some interesting ones as to what their largest town is without railway station I'm not going to go through them all now but some of these largest towns without a railway station have a railway presence some it might just be a miniature railway so as I'm also visiting every miniature railway in Britain then I'll certainly be going to those towns I could do another episode while I'm there on how the town is without a railway station some of these largest towns at least two I can think of have heritage railway station that's another town I've lived in I didn't live in Bridgenorth at one point and it was really nice having a seven valley railway but as nice as it was you know it didn't run a service all the time so I was kind of reliant on buses and driving just crossing the River Missbourne here I have done a series of videos on the River Missbourne so if you have a look at link on screen now you'll be able to see one of those videos so as I'm saying it's not always easy if you do live in one of these towns as hasn't got a railway station I've had a look there's one county where every town has a railway station and the largest settlement without a railway station is a village it's smaller than Chalfonson Peter but it's a village so that's another interesting one Chalfonson Peter it's a village it's not the largest village in England without a railway station but it certainly is the largest village in Buckinghamshire without a railway station and it's the third largest settlement in Buckinghamshire without a railway station the other two it's an interesting one because which one I will do I think I'm just going to have to do both of them Buckinghamshire was the most complicated county because most counties had a really obvious largest town which didn't have a railway station but with Buckinghamshire it was a bit complicated because the two contenders if you count if Chalfonson Peter comes in third place there's a large village which is a bit like a town the other two were Buckingham and Newport Pagnell now Newport Pagnell's the larger one but the problem with Newport Pagnell is it's in the borough of Milton Keynes so technically it's kind of a suburb of a modern city but for the sake of it being an old town I think it deserves a it deserves the title of the largest town in the county without a railway station but then as it is a suburb of Milton Keynes then Buckingham becomes the largest town in Buckinghamshire without a railway station that's not a suburb of anywhere else so we will have to do videos at some point on them they won't necessarily be next I'm just going to as I said slowly work my way around the country as I do various other visits and visit some of these larger towns some large towns though have a railway passing through them and of this example it probably was the largest town in Warwickshire without a railway station was Kenilworth I have been to Kenilworth in the past in fact I even visited the station if you have a look at link on the screen now because Kenilworth had a railway passing through it and you know trains running from between Manchester and Bournemouth passing through it but didn't have a railway station which must have been very frustrating for the 30,000 residents there but thankfully it now does have a railway station another one I can think of although much smaller is Soham I've been to Cambridgeshire that has a railway passing through it's due to get a railway the other interesting thing is most of these largest towns which didn't which don't currently have a railway station have had one once I can think of one one of them that had about 100,000 people on my list of each county without railway station hasn't ever had one but Chalfers of Peter has never ever had a railway station so what we're going to do is we approach the village centre we're going to have a look at where you'd get a bus if you want to go to a railway station have a look at you know where would be the best one to get to now as someone who lives here I nine well how trying to think which one I do use most probably George Cross but sometimes I do use Chalford Latimer but if you wanted to use Chalford Latimer and you can only go by public transport there's no buses there so I have to drive to Chalford Latimer so that's a bit complicated as opposed to there so I would tend to use George Cross if I'm going to London and certainly if I'm going up north but I do use Chalford Latimer if I'm going on a rail to or out of Euston or another London term and I really early in the morning when children railways don't run an early enough train I have quite often got the first train at about um quarter past five off Chalford Latimer I've done that quite a few times so I do use Chalford Latimer from time to time occasionally I've gone to Slough both by bus and driven and probably the furthest away I've ever driven from Chalford Peter for a supposed most appropriate local station was Asford International when I went to Disneyland Paris but that's a bit like going to an airport because you don't normally go to nearest airfield imagine that if every time I went on holiday I went to Denham and could fly from Denham airfield to anywhere that would be um quite unusual but um obviously I don't do that I've never actually flown out of Denham airfield so here is the centre of Chalford St Peter so chances if you live in Chalford St Peter and you want to get to a railway station and um you don't have access to a car you're probably going to come here now this bus stop here this is where buses go in the um towards Amersham where do they go I haven't been on the bus for a while so yeah to Amersham High Wickham and Chessham so I think for High Wickham it's on the say on the short main line like George Crossy you probably would go um on that side of the road get a bus there to George Cross but as I said if you wanted the Met you could go to Amersham um Chessham that's an interesting one that brings me on to another thing with regarding largest towns without a railway station I've said if they have a heritage railway they could still be the largest town because they don't have that seven day a week service but if they've got a metro or tram stop so a couple of obvious ones Chessham is an obvious one Chessham is would if Chessham didn't have the Metropolitan Line Chessham would undoubtedly be the largest town in Buckinghamshire about a railway station but it's got the Metropolitan Line so um we won't count Chessham in that one another obvious one I can think of is in what would be the largest town in Nottinghamshire about a railway station that's West Bridgeford but there's at least three stops on the Nottingham tram network so West Bridgeford and Chessham for those reasons they're all metro straight tram networks so they don't qualify here you can get a bus to Amersham no sorry oh there you get a bus to Amersham you can get a bus to George Cross so that's the most obvious railway station you can also get a bus to Uxbridge but as Uxbridge is another branch of the Met then um really you might as well have gone to Amersham but I suppose you could go to Uxbridge if I do remember when I was little once my dad and I we went we went to Harrow once we went on a bus from here and then we went to Uxbridge and we went on the Metropolitan Line to Rainers Lane and then we got the Piccadilly Line to South Harrow so I have um I have used buses from very early age to get to a railway station so if you get on the bus it'll take you up here towards George Cross so what my plan is when I do each of these videos um when I go to various other towns around the countryside which qualifies the largest about a railway station the idea is I'll have a little look around the town most of them they'll probably be an old railway station to go and have a look at so we will do that as I said they never was a railway in Charleston Peter so we can't go and look for an old railway station and then I would look for or ideally go to the nearest railway station now regarding the Covid pandemic as things get back to normal my plan is perhaps to travel on the buses um and perhaps get to some of these largest towns by train um so if I was to go by train say to one of them and then get a bus make my way all the way um by public transport some of these largest towns but in in this case I'm going to walk up to George Cross basically I'm not going to quite follow the bus route I'm going to take a short car but in some cases I may say visit this largest town without railway station then just drive basically the route the bus will take to the nearest station as I said it doesn't necessarily mean the nearest station to these largest towns is necessarily the most appropriate station because sometimes the nearest station might not have that many trains a day and there might be one slightly further away that has a lot more trains a day the other thing I wanted to touch on um in case anyone sometimes there's people who know of Charleston Peter know of Charleston Jarls they know there's a station on the Metropolitan Line called Charleston Latimer but they don't really know the area and they just assumed that Charleston is some big town in Buckinghamshire that has a railway station so to answer that question anyone is wondering that Charleston Latimer is not Charleston Peter station what happened when they built the Metropolitan Line there was literally nothing where Charleston and Latimer was I have also done a video on that so if you do have a look at link on screen you can watch that video before the Metropolitan Line there was nothing where Charleston Latimer was but they built a station there because it was in the top corner of the parish of Charleston Jarls so they built a station there in Charleston Jarls um it wasn't really that close to Charleston Jarls and it was just as close to Latimer so they decided to call it Charleston and Latimer and then eventually the village of Little Charleston grew up around Charleston Latimer so that how that's how that came to me so Charleston Latimer station is in Little Charleston it's not in Charleston Peter or Charleston Jarls and as I said there's no direct bus there so um unless you want to drive it's probably not the station you're going to use by the way the bus would go up right around there I'm taking a shortcut up Gold Hill Common I'll rejoin the bus route further up I'm not going to talk all the way to Charleston Cross um so that explains that oh and as for um there is railway in Charleston Peter because the children main line which I've mentioned at Charleston Cross it does cut through the parish of Charleston Peter but they never built a station there so what I'm going to do now I'm going to continue on up I'll show you when I rejoin the bus route exactly where I mean and eventually I'm just going to keep on walking all the way along the top of Gold Hill uh Cross Austin were common to George Cross well here I am at top of Gold Hill Common so the bus would have gone right up there around um that end of Charleston Peter later screen and along top of the Common and then it continues past Gold Hill Baptist Church on towards George Cross so um if you lived in this part of Charleston Peter you'd probably get on the bus just over there to go to George Cross or you could walk I mean I quite often walk from Charleston Peter to George Cross that said I probably wouldn't do it if I have luggage um although I have in the odd time I have walked back from George Cross station with luggage but obviously I prefer not to um when I walk to George Cross station I would normally go down this road here and go through a series of footpaths and alleyways but um today I'm as I said I'm walking the bus route so I'm going to continue on along here past St Joseph's Church and uh Cross Austin were common and over into George Cross now another thing um I'll point out is as I said the idea of this series is when we go to these largest towns in the county about railway station is to have a look around I'll show you a bit the history of them the reason I haven't done that which Charleston Peter is because I've already done loads and loads of videos in Charleston Peter because it says my hometown so naturally it's somewhere you're going to make videos on so um I mean have a look at link on screen now you can see one of them um one of the videos I did make in Charleston Peter looking at the history um I'm going to continue on now through this residential area until we get to George Cross and where you would get off the bus to get a train I'm just continuing on towards George Cross just want to show you this little bit here St Joseph's Catholic Church um and then we have Austin were common I just want to show you this bit because when I did do my little series of videos around Charleston Peter um I never actually featured these I'd like to one they do a video inside the church and um show you more of the church that's perhaps why I didn't feature these but that is the newer part of the church it was once a very small Catholic chapel um which we're about to see see see what is here that look at old pictures it's only that just a small Catholic chapel and then they built that huge extension um so we are now crossing school lane another thing I will um take the opportunity to mention seeing as we're here is often when you're going to travel you know on a bus say from a largest town in the county about railway station to um wherever the nearest railway station happens to be or as I said earlier might not necessarily be the nearest but the station you're going to you probably travel through you know um countryside well Charleston Peter and George Cross are kind of one conurbation now but they have got Austin were common in the middle which is um a nice bit of rural Buckinghamshire showing us how um you know the whole area would be so I'm actually going to leave the road for a moment and just take you this way because it's more scenic and attractive this is obviously more common paid here a lot as a child always enjoyed coming here over the years um so yeah this is kind of what rural Buckinghamshire would have been like because really there was no George Cross before the Charleston main line um was built there was only Charleston Peter and then they just happened to build a railway station at George Cross um which was only a hamlet and now George Cross has grown and um like I said they are sort of one but they're not one um this is a really nice bit I think boy it's like this rural cottage here just seemingly in the middle of nowhere and it's quite nice because it's in the middle of nowhere but you could live here knowing that you're not in the middle of nowhere um we're not quite into George Cross yet what I'm going to do I'm now going to go back through here rejoin the main road and um continue eventually to George Cross well here we are it's um starting to get dark now but we've arrived in George Cross along the route that the bus will take you as I mentioned back there if I was to walk to George Cross I probably wouldn't come this way let's go across the road actually oh it's quite a e-foot hotel if times were normal I'd probably go and have a pint in there after finish making this video but I can't um so I'll have to walk home and have a cup of tea anyway George Cross a town funny it's supposedly it's a town but smaller than Charleston Peter that's a village and it has a railway station which Charleston Peter doesn't um but like I said it's like it's all one settlement and um so it's you could say it's a bit like living in one big town that does have a railway station and um Charleston Peter is just the furthest part away from it but um on paper Charleston Peter is a village George Cross is a town so um that kind of almost concludes the um largest town sorry largest village in Buckinghamshire without a railway station future episodes will be um on probably on towns by the way if you were getting off getting on the bus to go back to Charleston Peter you get on it just there um I'll show you where you'd get off the bus as if you had come from Charleston Peter in a moment um it's over by the infamous Tesco so um I don't know how often I'm going to do this it won't be all the time just be from time to time just if I'm in the area really if I'm in the largest town in whatever county it doesn't have a railway station then I'll make a video if I'm near there um maybe if I'm in the second largest town doesn't have a railway station then I might just do a video on that for the sake of it but um you know it's just an occasional series I'm going to do from time to time that's Tesco's over there so you'd get off a bus there to walk down this slope to get on the train as if you were to come up here by bus you know to get to the railway station so um I'll just let you see over there that is the mouth of the infamous Tesco tunnel which collapsed when they were constructing it if you want to know about that then have a look at the Lincoln Street now because that's another video I did last year called George Cross a walk back in time where um that's all explained and basically the history of George Cross so coming down the slope not getting on a train I really would like to I've not been on a train so it's the first of November last year there's the tunnel but you know it's for the right reasons and um once we eventually move away from lockdown then videos on trains will become a regular part of my videos again probably though before I go on the main line train I'll probably end up going on a miniature railway because they are starting to open up so probably next couple of weeks or so I will go and visit a miniature railway and as I can travel around a bit more perhaps I'll do a few more old railways you know castles the lot the lot that um Henry's adventures normally is will all soon be back but um as a sign of things to come well there's George Cross station just there so um hope you enjoyed this um like I said it's a bit of a pilot episode um of a series I'm going to do and by the way George Cross station looks a bit different at the moment because it's been having a new roof so yeah George Cross station looking different and if you were to do this journey by bike then that's the way that it says 10 minutes and it quite optimistically says 20 minutes Charles and Charles would I suppose if you went along Grove Lane on a bike you could get there in 20 minutes I've never done that though so um I hope you enjoyed this video from outside George Cross station starting in Charles and Peter the largest village in Buckinghamshire without a railway station please do feel free to like subscribe and comment and um from the slope the slope that takes you away from George Cross station goodbye