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.
Denne historien er fra May 2023-utgaven av Best of British.
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Denne historien er fra May 2023-utgaven av Best of British.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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THE FEW ON SCREEN
Steven Taylor looks at the Battle of Britain across film and TV
Table Service
Rachel Toy looks at the history of Ridgway Homemaker tableware
Hever Forever
Claire Saul studies the newly refurbished Boleyn Apartment at Hever Castle & Gardens - a castle fit for a queen
Shining a Light
Tony O’Neil tunes into the history of the last manned lightvessel
The Man With the Goldeneye
Film stills photographer Keith Hamshere describes how he came to enter the world of James Bond
THE ORIGINAL GOLDEN BALLS
lan Wheeler looks back on 70 years of Tiger comic and Roy of the Rovers, and chats to the man who edited and oversaw both titles
To Play the Queen
Chris Hallam looks back on the life of one of the UK’s best known lookalikes
POOLING RESOURCES
Martin Handley looks at what life was like after the Vernons Girls
POSTCARD FROM= SUSSEX
Bob Barton indulges in pleasure piers and fairground delights, as well as fulfilling a long-held ambition to visit the home of Rudyard Kipling
Oh, Miss Jones
Chris Hallam looks back at the origins and legacy of Rising Damp, ITV's most successful sitcom