Chalfont Common

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Going to school

I walked past this clock every day on my way to school. Down past the clock on the left was a news agent where I learned to shoplift. Almost every day I would steal from them and never got caught. I also started stealing from the Handy Stores at the top of Gold Hill common, anyone remember that place? When it was getting knocked down I found an old plaster wall picture which I took. I visited my mother in 2006 and she still has it hanging on her wall and she was 81 at the time. In the early to mid 60's we had some great winters and we would sledge down the common and sometimes right out onto this ...read more here
A memory of Chalfont St Peter contributed by Donald Macdonald

Learning to ride a bike

We found an old bike that had no chain and no brakes. Every day after school we would get the bike out of the gorse, where we had hidden it, and take it in turns to free wheel down this slope. Then push it back up and someone else would have a go. I would have been seven.
A memory of Chalfont St Peter contributed by Donald Macdonald

A Bren gun

Gold Hill common has an upper flat grassy area and then a sloping area, which leads down into the town, which is covered with scrub, not the town of course. This photo is right on the edge of the upper part. In 1963, when I was a boy of eight, the army came and laid on an exhibition, I guess this was a recruitment drive. They carried out a mock battle with half tracks and guns firing blanks and yellow smoke billowing slowly across the common. If you take the main footpath from Layters Green Lane (?) across the common, the swings and stuff will be off to your left, there was/is a hawthorn tree to the right of the path ...read more here
A memory of Chalfont St Peter contributed by Donald Macdonald

Whitethorn Morris dance at Merlin''s Cave pub

The lovely village green and pond at Chalfont St Giles are next to a splendid pub called Merlin's Cave.  This is a very popular summer evening venue for Morris Dancing and the dancers and musicians can soon draw a crowd of onlookers from both villagers and passing motorists.

For many summers one of the local morris sides which has danced here is Whitethorn Morris - often performing as guests of other dance sides including Grand Union Morris and Lord Paget's.  I played my piano accordian as leader of the Whitethorn Band and on occasion had nine or ten musicians which at times outnumbered the usual team of eight dancers!  Our morris band included drums, accordians, melodeons, whistles, and ...read more here
A memory of Chalfont St Giles contributed by John Howard Norfolk