Mix 96 Balloon

If you were out walking your dog, or perhaps going for an early morning jog this morning, in Upton at 7:25am, you may have found yourself looking up into the sky to see the Mix 96 balloon. What a peaceful way to see Buckinghamshire? The puff of the burner hardly registered much louder then the bird song below, (at least from the ground) as it gently passed over the houses in Upton Road.

I was looking at the various sites that advertise balloon flights in the area, and I've concluded it was likely from the company Champagne Flights I could be completely wrong, (I usually am) but I base this detective work on the following criteria;

1) Their launch site is near Hardwick, which is of course North of Upton, and according to the BBC weather page for Aylesbury there was a North North Westerly wind this morning, which presumably would have directed the balloon Southerly towards Upton.
2) On their website, it says they can travel up to 10 miles, which puts Upton easily within their travelling radius.
3) The balloons take off just before 7am, which also puts it within the right time slot as well...

Zooming in on the picture I counted a total of three people in the box, with a possible fourth on the other side of the burner, out of view. According to the Champagne flights website, with this number of people involved, (obviously excluding the pilot) this would cost £125 for each person-in case you were wondering...

Simon Mayne's Trial

I was given a fascinating leaflet about Dinton Hall this afternoon, which amongst other details contained a transcription of part of Simon Mayne's trial.

Following the restoration of the monarchy, the Royalists now had a hit list, of everyone who had contributed to Charles 1st's death. On that list was Simon Mayne, who was at the the time, the Lord of the Manor in Dinton, and who was one of many who had signed the king's death warrant. At first he had spent some time successfully hidden from his pursuers, in a secret chamber at Dinton Hall underneath some stairs leading to the attic, before eventually surrendering himself up to the authorities. Once arrested, he was then committed to the Tower of London. His trial took place at the Old Bailey on the 16th October, 1660. Simon Mayne had a poor defence, and proved very evasive when questioned by the Counsel. His plea essentially was that he was ill at the time, and that he had been reluctantly bullied and coerced into the affair by his wife. An extract of the trial follows;

"Did you sign the warrant," he was asked, "for summoning the court? And did you sign the warrant for the execution of the King?"
Mayne: "I did sit in the court."
Counsel: "Did you sign the warrant for execution?"
Mayne: "My Lord, I knew not of the King's bringing it up. I was not on the Committee."
Counsel: "We do not ask you that. Look upon the warrant and see if your hand and seal be not to it."
Mayne: "My Lord, it is my hand."
Counsel: "Then, my Lord, we have done."

The jury found Mayne guilty, and he was sentenced to death.

Grey Squirrel vs Scary Cat

This is a photograph of a grey squirrel that had just been chased up a pole by a cat in Upton this morning-just outside Homestead Close. The squirrel waited a full five minutes until it was safe enough, before running along the cable to the next pole...where it's believed he then did a dance, and stuck his tongue out at the feline predator below.

Beautiful Sky

At last, after four days of rain.....

Who really was the Dinton Hermit?

Probably, most of us have at least some understanding of who John Biggs was. Perhaps we've seen the pub sign with the image of the Dinton Hermit swinging above our heads as we headed off down Water Lane in Ford, or we've taken the trouble to look up the entry, 'Dinton Hermit' in some online encyclopedia, or maybe like me, you simply asked a villager about the curiously named house called Biggs Cave? Whatever we know of John Biggs, he is a man of fascinating character, and even today, he is still able to capture enough interest, to easily qualify for inclusion in a book such as, "Eccentrics: A Study of Sanity and Strangeness," which was published just a few years ago.

So where do we start? Well, in most encyclopedia's you'll get some variation on the following information: The Dinton Hermit's real name was John Biggs, and he was a clerk to Simon Mayne, who was the Lord of the Manor in Dinton at the time. Biggs was baptised on the 22nd of April, 1629 and he died in 1696. It's believed by some that Biggs was the mysterious hooded executioner of Charles 1st, and as a consequence of being so prominently involved in such regicide, he thereafter lived the rest of his life as a hermit, full of remorse and dependant entirely on the charity of villagers.

While that is interesting, and it is captivating,...certainly if accompanied by the intriguing picture of him wearing his patchwork quilt clothes, along with the unforgettable and brave fashion coupling of a twin pointed hat and a set of huge clown-like shoes, (which probably enabled him to do his party piece of leaning over at a ridiculous angle, without falling over), there is actually as you would probably expect, considerably more information available.

One source adds, "He lived in a cave, [and] had been a man of tolerable wealth, looked upon as a pretty good scholar, and of no contemptible parts." The text also includes the fact that he, "never asked for any thing but leather, which he would immediately nail to his clothes. He kept 3 bottles that hung to his girdle, viz. for strong and small beer, and milk."

The Handbook for travellers in Berks, Bucks, and Oxfordshire, published in 1860 confirms that he not only lived in a cave, but it was underground.

In Chambers Book of Days, a reference is made concerning a letter of Hearne the Oxford historian, dated February 12th, 1713, which describes the Dinton Hermit's shoes in detail. "Each of these shoes is not merely composed of patches, like a beggar's cloak, but it presents a load of such patches, layer above layer, to the amount, it is believed, of many hundreds of individual pieces." (One of the shoes is in the Ashmolean museum and the other apparently, was kept at Dinton Hall.)

The account goes on to reveal that every summer John Biggs would adjourn to the woods near Kimble. It says that he, "was little over thirty at the time of his retirement, and he lived to 1696, when he must have been sixty-seven...The man was perfectly inoffensive, and conduct so extraordinary is only to be accounted for in his case by supposing a slight aberration of the intellect, the consequence perhaps of disappointed hopes."

Other accounts reveal that Biggs however, was also, 'by relation, very lewd if he could entice women into his cave, and the people of Dinton were many times frightened by him."

But, the question is, did John Biggs actually execute Charles the 1st? You'd think so given how often it's mentioned. However, the argument that the executioner would have been given sanctuary and anonymity on one of the regicide's estates, is compelling, but not exactly convincing. In all probability the King was executed not by John Biggs, but by Richard Brandon, who was the usual executioner at the time. The Chambers Book of Days, states that when Brandon was questioned by Lord Capell about the death, Brandon confirmed that he was the real executioner. Further to that he even showed the axe that he'd used, and when questioned whether he was even afraid, he answered with the following, "They made me cut it off, and I had thirty pounds for my pains..."

Upcoming Events

Monday 9th June
Wine & food tasting evening at the Seven Stars PH in Dinton. At 7PM the evening will start with a Champagne aperitif, with 5 courses to follow, all with wines to compliment the food. £50 per head.
Saturday 21st June
Dinton School Summer Ball. 7PM on the School Field. Ticket Price £48 per person. Tickets available from the School Office.
Sunday 22nd June
Dinton Open Gardens. Eight Houses will be participating this year. The gardens will be open to the public from 2-6PM. Adults £5. Children free. Teas will be available at the Village Hall.
Monday 25th August (to be confirmed)
Dinton Village Fete.

Goldfish Bowl Cow.

Today, while stealthily approaching the fence surrounding one of the fields in Westlington Lea, with the intention of taking an undisturbed picture of the tranquil scene before me, (picture the sun filtering it's light down through the overlooking trees, onto a beautiful green field, deep in the heart of Buckinghamshire, while a number of cows lie on their sun loungers, sipping away at Pina Colada's & reading country life magazine). My plans however, to capture such an idyllic scene were completely foiled by a Jersey Cow,...because in the few seconds it took to get from my vehicle to the fence, this cow had raced like Linford Christie from the middle of the field to get to the fence first, before proceeding to poke her nose right into my camera-like she was just about to eat it, resulting in the said gold fish bowl-like image that you see before you. (Click on the picture to see the full gold fish bowl effect).

Plane Crashes in Ford, 1944

This memorial in Ford, marks the death of two crew members of a Wellington bomber that crashed on a training flight at the vilage of Ford at 01:55 hours, on the 9th January, 1944.

Grey Heron

The Grey Heron or Ardea cinerea (if you speak Latin) shown in the picture, was seen today standing motionless for what seemed like hours on top of a house rooftop in Upton Road, trying his best not to be noticed.
Herons can usually be found in School Lane, Dinton, where you can see them patiently and expertly stalking their prey before proceeding to empty the fishing lake of all the fish-much to the owners displeasure.

One of the more curious things about a heron, is that despite being one of our largest common birds, surprisingly many still nest in trees! Watching the branches of a tree nearly buckle in on itself, under the weight of a large heron that thinks of itself, as actually being quite light, is one of natures more amusing sights.

Oliver Cromwell

In a website I was looking at concerning Dinton Church, it made the intriguing assertion that it was likely Oliver Cromwell actually worshipped there-when he visited his friend Simon Mayne, the Lord of the Manor.
Even though Cromwell only ruled for five years as Lord Protector, his controversial legacy is such, that even 350 years after his death, his name still stirs up strong feeling. During those five momentous, turbulent years, Cromwell overturned Parliament, signed the death warrant of Charles 1st, fought bloody battles in England, Ireland & Scotland, turned England into a Republican Commonwealth....and also it seems, visited Dinton Church.

Village Stocks

The Dinton village stocks, seen opposite School Lane is only a copy. (The original can be seen in the entrance of Dinton Church.)

Dinton Hall

The two tone clay roof of Dinton Hall took a year and a half to complete, and contains over 60,000 roof tiles. It was shortlisted in a national renovation ceremony in 2004.