FULMER NEWSLETTER - Fulmer Village

Suddenly we were plunged into darkness. All the lights had been turned off. Our eyes
slowly adjusted to the gloom and we could just discern the huge mass of the building
and its soaring domes. After a while, far above us, a single light came on. It was high in
the dome above the altar, illuminating Christ Pantocrator seated in glory. The reds
and blues and blacks of his figure stood out against the brilliant gilding of the
background mosaics and the sepulchral gloom of the nave. Then two more lights came
on, illuminating the disciples and gospel-writers. Then another light, and another, and
another. We held our breath as the full panoply of figures and stories emerged from
the darkness to left and right and above. I was reminded of Keats’s sonnet ‘Much have
I travelled in the realms of gold’. The atmosphere was numinous.
As we returned to the Aegean Odyssey we were on a high, a high at sea level. Thank
you, Voyages to Antiquity, for making such a rare experience possible. And thank you
for the whole voyage.
FULMER MEMORIES FROM PETE YOUNG
Nicholas Barber
As some readers may remember, Pete played the part of his father in the 400 th Anniversary
play, Marmaduke, last October 2010, in St James Fulmer. Since then he has provided us
with detail of his life in Fulmer in the 1940’s and onwards. It is lovely to include this piece
especially as in this 50 th issue we are especially looking back in the past. If anyone can
shed light on the two residents Pete mentions please let us know - Editors.
The Watersplash was our Seaside when we were kids. We used to catch sticklebacks, and
redthroats, in the little ditch on the Gerrards Cross side, and build a dam at the back of the
Footbridge to make the water deeper. That really was our seaside as many of us had never
seen the sea. The first property on the left inside the gates to Fulmer Rise was occupied by
an Indian Prince; he would come to the village, sit on the seat, and quite often would
produce sweets or a block of Ice Cream to be shared between the children. Mabel Rodgers,
or my Mum,would share them out. This was during the war when sweets and ice cream
rarely could be obtained. The word soon got around if he was seen near the village seat.
The other item of interest about him, he had a ovely large gold ring on his little finger with
a large sapphire stone, and he would light a match, so the reflection would shine like a star
in the stone. He would tell us, ‘It is the Star of Bethlehem’. Joyce Howard the film star
lived in the house at the bottom of Cherry Tree Lane
This was all before Fulmer Rise was secured off, no M40, no traffic and the woods were
loaded with wild flowers, which Villagers would walk to see - snowdrops, primroses
yellow and pink violets, wild daffs, Loads of bluebells, and in the fields either side of the
water would be cowslips, milkmaids not forgetting the clusters of Garlic.