A sunny Buckinghamshire Walk

Beautiful day today so after ringing for Sunday service we picked up Ted and headed for West Wycombe to do a walk. The walk starts at the foot of a hill on which this Church and Mausoleum stand.

The Church of St Lawrence, which is largely 13th Century, is topped by a Golden Ball big enough to seat 6 people and rumoured to have been used by the famous Hell Fire Club of which Sir Francis Dashwood was the founding member. (The Hell Fire Caves are situated at the bottom of the hill) The Tower has a 14 cwt ring of 8 Bells which I rang on quite some years ago. I dislike the Church as I feel it is ugly outside and in, but that's just my taste!

One of the Hell Fire Club members is quoted as describing it as

A Temple built aloft in air
That serves for show and not for prayer

The Dashwood Mausoleum was built in 1765 and is constructed of Portland stone and flint. The Mausoleum was built on the site of an Iron Age Hill Fort and contains the urns with the ashes of the Dashwood family.

We had a lovely walk with a stop at The Red Lion for lunch and then back through the beech woods above Bradenham before returning to West Wycombe and calling in a Mum's for a cuppa on our way back home.