Walking to Hambleden ...

Sunday morning (17th) we walked from the marina at Mill End into the village of Hambleden about a mile away ...

but before we set off we went to see if the Thames was still rising ... and it was!  At the weir here there are actually three steps down ... you can see two of them here in my blog post last week but today only the top step is visible.

The original Hambleden Manor (above) was incorporated, in 1725, into the building above which overlooks the cricket ground and called Kenricks for Rev. Scawen Kenrick.

Fine houses line the road on our left from Mill End into the village

St Mary's Church in the distance ahead

and to our right, wonderful views of the Chilterns

Fabulously old kissing gate takes us into Hambleden village

There has been a church on this site since Saxon times although the lichgate through which I'm looking above is 19th century ...

and the building we see today is mostly 13th century Norman

The Lady Chapel with a similar brightly decorated ceiling to that in the one over the alter

Looking back down the Nave towards the bell tower where the oldest bell was cast in 1415, the year of Agincourt, and up at the more simply decorated roof

Leaving St Mary's we follow the church wall ...

The Stag and Huntsman (left) and the Hovis house, seen in As Time Goes By  staring Judy Dench and Michael Williams screened by BBC 1992-2005

The current Hambleden Manor dates from 1603/5 and was build for Emanuell  Scrope 12th Baron of Bolton who later became the Earl of Sunderland.  It was altered and extended in 1830 and later in the 20th century.

The plaque at the side of the gate reads ...

James Thomas Brudenell

Lord Cardigan

Led the Charge of the

Light Brigade

Born here 1797

Returning to the kissing gate to cross the two fields ...

where the sun is trying valiantly to break up the thick clouds ...

as we make our way home for lunch.