VV_June July Web 20-compressed

Photographs: David Pitron
radiology screenings transferred and routine
admissions to the National Spinal Injuries
Centre at Stoke Mandeville suspended.
Military personnel were trained to drive local
ambulances while 200 recently retired officers
rejoined Thames Valley Police. The police
closed its Wycombe and Amersham stations to
public visitors. Transport for London said
passenger numbers were 95 per cent less than
normal and Chiltern Railways and London
Underground issued a joint timetable from
Amersham. On the Thames, power-operated
locks were switched off to deter non-essential
travel. Bus services were further reduced to
seven a day between Penn and High Wycombe.
The new Buckinghamshire Council unitary
authority came into existence on 1 April - a real
baptism of fire. It held its first meetings via
video conferencing. One of its first tasks was to
send details of a Government grant scheme to
6,500 small businesses. It offered suspension of
council tax payments to those without income
because of the crisis.
The council also organised community hubs
where volunteers delivered food parcels to the
increasing numbers of people struggling with
the lockdown. It succeeded in providing
temporary accommodation for the homeless that
wanted it. There were no Big Issue sellers on
the streets - for the first time the magazine was
available in shops. Public Health England
instructed that only a handful of very close
relatives could attend funerals. Local collections
for face masks were made as reports of a
shortage of personal protection equipment
www.pennandtylersgreen.org.uk
Village Voice June/July 2020
(PPE) began.
With more people shopping locally, the shops
that could open in the village really rose to the
challenge. Kings Ride Supermarket, the Village
Shop on the Green and Joe Gleeson’s butchers
all extended their hours and offered home
deliveries - gestures much appreciated. Neither
VV nor the parish magazine were hand
delivered.
The Penn & Tylers Green Open Gardens
event for June was cancelled, and Hazlemere
Fete, the longest continuous community event
in the area (it was first held in 1860) cancelled
its August Bank Holiday gathering. The
“Springwatch” bird count on the common was
also abandoned. The peace that had descended
on the village, now largely devoid of traffic,
train and aircraft background noise, meant that
birdsong was more prevalent than ever.
6 April to 12 April
At Sir William Ramsay School in Rose Avenue
staff made aprons, gloves. goggles and visors
which they donated to local medical centres. At
Holmer Green School staff used their 3D printer
to produce visors and headbands for Wycombe
Hospital. The local ambulance service requested
disposable seat covers from local garages and
businesses.
The Easter weekend was one of the hottest for
years. The village was busy with people
exercising but all keeping a social distance. The
police said they had to disperse some groups in
the area but didn’t go into details.
For what was thought to be the first time in its
840 year history an Easter Sunday gathering
was not held at Penn Church - an occurrence
that not even the Black Death could achieve.
The clergy at Holy Trinity, Penn and St
Margaret’s, Tylers Green recorded special
Easter services to be viewed online. Local
hospitals and emergency services were
inundated with gifts of Easter eggs.
As Prime Minister Boris Johnson was taken
into intensive care with Covid-19, the former Dr
Challoner’s School pupil, Continued on p.37
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