Valentine’s Day (2025)

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14th February

Well actually, a TWO-day celebration, this year, as we headed for Buckingham and the White Hart Hotel for a romantic day and sleepover. 💑💑. It’s 10.30 and we’re off!

But before all that, an opportunity to explore the town of Buckingham. We arrived just before 11.45 and although the town seemed quite quiet, the main (300-space) town car-park was almost full!

Adjacent to Waitrose and just 70p for 3 hours was a bargain – but for cash lovers, you’ll need to find somewhere else as it was ‘card-only’! 😒. What is it with the weather at the moment? It’s absolutely freezing today here in Buckingham (just the same as back home) so it was a good idea we packed gloves! 🥶🥶

The Chantry Chapel

11.45am: Our first stop?A short walk to The Chantry Chapel in the town, looked after by the National Trust.

Parking for this location would be challenging, with only a small car-park immediately outside ‘featuring’ a very rough surface.

Outside, it was very pretty, nestled in amongst the more modern retail units surrounding it on most sides. Inside, it was quite small and there wasn’t that much to see. When we arrived, the Chapel was visitor-less, but the three Volunteers on duty made us feel very welcome, and we virtually got the whole of the Chapel’s long history delivered to JUST us – and the coffee was excellent too! Perfect! 👍

The Chapel had enjoyed a varied past! It had been a school (1552 to 1907) and a hospital and was restored by the iconic Gilbert Scott in the 1870s (who was also responsible for Midland Grand Hotel at St Pancras Station, the Albert Memorial, and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London – amongst many other places). These days the Chapel is sadly, a shadow of its former self where its main attraction is the second-hand book collection. A shame really, as it was all very well conserved and based on our experience, a very welcoming place.

We had a thorough look around, enjoyed our beverages just as the place began to fill up (but they turned out to be the next NT Shift reporting for duty!)

Buckingham Gaol

12.16pm: I do love it when they spell ‘Gaol’ with a G! It used to be the way all us Brits wrote it, but in recent years, the ‘J’ has become the norm! Bloomin’ Americanisms!!! 😒 – and don’t get started on ‘autopsy’? It’s ‘post-mortem’ (shall we say my office at 2?’) – that one’s for Endeavour fans only!

What a fantastic-looking building! Very baronial! I would imagine that any ‘crim’ would enjoy being in here! (err, no!!)

It immediately felt like it was worth the £8 as there was so much to take in

Once inside, having parted with our OAP £8 each fee, it all became somewhat tardis-like and seemed to go on for miles! (no bad thing as far as we were concerned!).

Rumour has it Hereward the Wake was imprisoned here, whilst on the other side of the cell door Lord Cobham of Stowe provided most of the funds to realise the town’s ‘dream’ of a ‘proper gaol’! Again, Gilbert Scott was involved when the semi-circular front was added to the design for the new incoming Superintendent – talk about ‘living above the shop!’ 😊

In later years, with the felons now housed elsewhere, what did they do with the gaol? Top marks for variety through the years… it became a parking place for fire engines, an ammunition store, a public toilet, a café and an antiques shop. Phew! Quite a track record!! The local Council eventually decided to sell it, but the natives were restless and set up a Trust and took over the running of the place. That was in 1993 and it seems to be going strong today although when we made a donation, we were told that it was the first one she had ever received! 🤔. In happier news, in 1997, the District Council supported an enhanced Tourist Information Centre on-site and added a glass roof over the exercise yard in 2000.

Oh, and a final note… anyone heard of currency called an ‘Angel’ and ‘Half Angel’? Well, we hadn’t!! 🤔

Yes, it was all new news to us (best I could recall was a farthing!). Apparently in mediaeval times coins were minted when needed and gold and silver were often melted down and made into new coins. The one above is one of only seven known to exist and the ONLY one on public display anywhere. Who knew? More information HERE.

Our final stop in the Gaol was the Prison Exercise Yard and in what seemed like a concession to the snowflake generation now had a glass roof over it! 😁. In truth, it was all very commercial and the space could now be hired out for various meetings/events.

All-in-all, a very interesting visit with far more to see than we thought. It wasn’t all ‘prison-related’ and included some significant information about archaeological finds in-and-around the area. Off for a walk around the town next…

There isn’t a large number of shops here, but at least only a FEW were boarded up! In fact, those that were trading all seemed to be busy and that contrasted directly with back home where ‘tumbleweed’ is becoming the dominant presence in our town 🤔. The absence of a McDonalds and other fast-food (ahem) ‘staples’ of many, many towns these days suggested this may have been deliberate, giving the town a strong feel of a bygone age. If they’d filmed BBC’s ‘Larkrise to Candleford‘ here, they probably wouldn’t have needed to change very much (and that sounds like a good thing!) No surprise then, that the author – Flora Thompson – lived in the area! Every day a school day, ehh?!?!

Buckingham Parish Church

1.05pm: Our next stop involved a short walk to Buckingham Parish Church in the town. Very church-like from the outside, but once inside…

…with all the seating removed (we’re not sure why, but there was a lot of equipment around the perimeter – maybe a standing-only concert???) it looked completely different and offered a great sense of wide open spaces.

As we wandered towards the altar, it all became much more ‘church-like’.

Lunch!

1.45pm: With the promise of ‘generous portions’ (according to most online reviews) for tonight’s celebratory meal we chose to eat light.

We stumbled across the imaginatively titled ‘Cornwall Place Kitchen’ in err, Cornwall Place, near where parked and close to the town’s Waitrose. What it lacked in creative company names it more than made up for with its food offer. Very friendly service was accompanied by the simplest of menus where our chosen nibbles tasted amazing! 😋😋

How could a simple toasted sandwich taste so good!? 👍👍. Thanks folks, that was an excellent light-lunch. 😋

The White Hart Hotel

2.50pm: Time to check in! Here we are at the White Hart Hotel and our bed for the night.

Again, car-parking was challenging, with just a single space left in their adjacent car-park. Luckily (given that it was controlled by a third-party) the Hotel has an arrangement and a simple recording of your reg number at Reception relieves you of any parking fees.

Checking-in was super-easy and after a very warm welcome, we were heading for room 12! Sadly, no oxygen nor ropes were supplied for our ascent, as we tackled an almost vertical staircase that led to our room. Once we got our breath back, we were soon unpacking in our very well-appointed room.

Yes, we’re very pleased with choice. Online reviews had commented that some of the rooms were ‘very dated’ but ‘refurbishment was taking place’ – ours felt and looked like it had been! 👍😊

Turkish Restaurant

6.45pm: Off for the short walk to ‘Mey‘ one of the many Turkish Restaurants here in the town.

6.45pm: Well, first impressions were good! It was packed!

We were given a large table by the window with plenty of room. They’d put petals on the table and the service was prompt and polite! What could possibly go wrong?

Sadly, it was all downhill from there, and I’m simply going to put our experience down to ‘bad luck’. The restaurant itself was massive, and it was packed! The food certainly LOOKED the part – the plate was attractively presented, and the portions were massive and probably could have fed most of Kettering. An impressive menu was matched with sensible prices too! The staff were lovely – courteous and attentive – and full of smiles on this the most romantic of nights. However, no-one could have possibly tasted our food before it was plated-up, because it tasted so bland – and Turkish food is never usually short on flavour, is it? ☹️☹️. Even the Chips were disappointing!

And then on came the live singer! Great tunes, ruined by the obsession with the volume being on 11, and making it impossible to have any sort of conversation – including the opportunity to give the Chef some feedback! More fundamentally, the entertainer wasn’t very good, and was regularly off-key (to our ears, anyway) 😵‍💫. We skipped Dessert for fear that the windows might shatter at any moment. Oh God… Music too loud… bland food… I AM really getting old! Shoot me now!! 😧

7.45pm: Surely then, it wasn’t a good sign that we were in and out in less than 45 minutes! But, as I previously commented – it was busy! No-one else seemed to be having a problem with the food and the singer was going down well with the audience! Yep, it’s obviously US!

To end on a positive note, it WAS a Valentine’s Day that we’ll remember, and that’s perhaps, just how it should be! We wandered back to the Hotel, reflecting on the experience! ❣️

It’s Valentine’s Night and a threesome is planned! X-rated too!😮

Ann, me and an episode of Endeavour! 😁 (Series 2, Ep 1) – thanks heavens for ITVX! 😂🤣😂🤣

10.05pm: Nighty Night! 💤💤

15th February

Good morning all!

10.00am: After a great breakfast at the Pub here in Buckingham, we headed for Bletchley – but not Bletchley Park – instead, the nearby National Museum of Computing. It was to be our first visit there. Luckily, we were inside as the weather was rubbish (again!) – think it’s rained for the past 9003 days! ☹️

National Museum of Computing

10.35am: Here we are at the National Museum of Computing. It was only a short 20-minute journey here and we were soon parked and ready to enjoy what the Museum had to offer.

“We’re the independent Charity housing the world’s largest collection
of functional historic computers”

Unless you know that the best route in ‘the final mile’ is to head for the Bletchley Park entrance (why would you?) then the differing post-codes online, at the time of writing, will make it an interesting journey. We finally found the place but we assumed that the deception was deliberate to make it harder for the Nazis if we were invaded! 😕

10.50am: It’s £10 to get in or £7.50 if you’re an old ‘un! There’s no ‘life’ on the tickets as there is next door at Bletchley Park – once you’ve used them today, they can’t used again. That was a shame, but I guess they need the money! I got the impression that even though they are very close to all the attractions at Bletchley Park, they operate as a separate entity.

That aside, it was definitely a good day to be inside as it was chucking it down outside to the promised and lived up to the threatened 3℃! We didn’t plan to cover every room here today, as I’m sure we’ll be back again as there’s so much to take in!

In fact, one Volunteer commented to me:

“If you don’t leave with a headache, you haven’t really seen enough!”

So, just an overview today with a few photos from what’s on offer…

If computers aren’t really your thing, then there are plenty more bits of tech on offer guaranteed to help you reflect on bygone days. Sliderules, Calculators, Personal Organisers are all proudly displayed nestled amongst the larger exhibits. I certainly felt a warm glow seeing all those Nokia phones from a time when they were at the top of mobile phone development.

It soon became obvious that the earlier comment from the Volunteer about ‘headaches’ was a reality – there’s so much detail on offer, it’s impossible to take it all in during a single trip.

From smaller applications such as the above “Rubik’s Cube Solver built from Lego’ to the rather larger (and probably better known) ‘Colossus’ computer, it was all a heady reminder of the ingenuity and cleverness of mankind.

Within the hour, we both felt the promised headache coming on – and we took that as a good sign! I’m definitely coming back to look at it all again in more detail. Outside it was still raining and that slowed the journey home, but by midday we were indoors, unpacking

And so…

What a great weekend! Even though the weather literally put a dampener on things, I think we made the most of it. Discovering Buckingham was a joy! (and I can’t think why it’s taken us so long to ‘find it’). It may not ‘have all the shops in all the sizes’ but it was fun exploring the central retail area of the town. From the cultural perspective, both the Chapel and the Gaol ticked a lot of boxes for us, whilst the accommodation and the friendly service at the White Hart Hotel added to our positive impressions of this small market Town. The only disappointment was the Turkish restaurant last night, but let’s be generous and put it down to a ‘blip’.