OUR
Beautiful Bucks
This month Hiya Bucks visited ...
Great
Missenden
This month we visited Great Missenden, a village in the
Misbourne Valley in the Chiltern Hills. Located between
Amersham and Wendover and with direct rail links to
London Marylebone, Great Missenden is an affluent and
increasingly popular town that remains picture-perfect
and the perfect place for a family day out or a relaxed
weekend trip.
The recent film release of The BFG has re-ignited children’s author
Roald Dahl’s popularity. Many people will know that Great Missenden was the home of Roald
Dahl, and is now the home of the Roald Dahl Museum, but it wasn’t until we did some more
research that we discovered how much influence Great Missenden had in the creation of
Dahl’s stories. Many of the scenes in the village inspired the drawings in his books. Opposite
the museum, at 70 High Street, is the actual window that Dahl imagined as Sophie’s bedroom
at the ‘snorphanage’, where the BFG blew his dream bubbles.
At 64 High Street, the Red Pump Garage features in Danny the
Champion of the World. Great Missenden Library was where
Matilda borrowed her books in the popular story, and outside
there is a dream-catcher jar as part of the nationwide BFG
Dream Jar Trail, which finishes at the end of August.
Dahl is buried in the graveyard at the Church of St Peter and
Paul on Church Lane. Look closely and you will
see some giant BFG footprints in the graveyard,
as well as a special poem written in the concrete
around the base of a big tree by his grave.
All of this, combined with a visit to the Roald Dahl
Museum, makes for a thrilling day out for both
children and adults alike! www.roalddahl.com/
museum
Don’t forget – 13th September marks what would
have been Dahl’s 100th birthday! To find out more
about Roald Dahl Day, visit www.roalddahl.com
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