POSTCARD FROM BUCKINGHAMSHIRE

Bob Barton goes in search of the cherry to top off his visit, revives fond childhood memories of carpentry with Grandad, and is transfixed by the variety of houses

- Bob Barton

Cherry Pie Village sounds like something you’d expect to find in a theme park, rather than within a few minutes’ drive of the M40 motorway.

Seer Green is a well-manicured place, nestling on the edge of the Chiltern Hills and once surrounded by acres of cherry orchards. The place was renowned for its “chuggies”, as the locally grown black cherries were known. The first Sunday in August, after the harvest was in, was a day for celebrating. It was known as Cherry Pie Sunday.

Sadly, I couldn’t find a single cherry pie in the locality. The barman in the Jolly Cricketers sensed my disappointment. “We don’t have them on our menu but our chocolate brownies are popular. The orchards were over there [he pointed] but were gone before my time, replaced by housing.” He added: “Locals still talk about the cherry days.”

Down the road in Chalfont St Giles, I bought the last cherry crumble of the day in the bakery after first checking whether there was a pie version – there wasn’t. “Our crumbles are homemade on the premises and especially tasty with double cream,” said the server. “I remember going chuggy scrumping in the orchards as a girl but they’re all gone now.”

St Giles’s little shops provided a pleasant diversion. The greengrocer had a big basket of ripe cherries outside, though not British ones (what did I expect in February?). A customer informed me both this shop and the adjacent bakers and butchers had appeared in the 1971 Dad’s Army film. “And Captain Mainwaring’s ‘bank’ was across the road it’s now Costa Coffee,” she confided.