but just a mile or so to the north of St Helier lay Penn village, arguably
unchanged in centuries; historic, peaceful, traditional, ‘conservative’, pretty,
and undeniably ‘chocolate-box’ England.
Penn Road in Robert and Emily’s time would have been considerably less
developed than today. A drive along the few miles of leafy lane nowadays
finds it packed with fine homes often with spacious gardens, tennis courts and
swimming pools. But the characterization of the area in Robert and Emily’s
time is best described in terms of those who chose to live there.
A contemporary was Enid Blyton, who from 1938 lived at ‘Green Hedges’
just off Penn Road, a name chosen for her in a competition by the children
who read her books. Another children’s author, Alison Uttley, of ‘Little Grey
Rabbit’ fame, moved to the area during the second world war. The two ladies
however did not get on; Uttley describing Blyton as ‘a vulgar curled woman’,
1
an observation which in its turn provides a characterization of many of the
‘locals’ who were articulate, who spoke their mind, and were always careful to
preserve that which they held dear. The poet Robert Frost came to
Beaconsfield in 1912 and remained there until his death in 1963. In the 1950
and ‘60s the popular singer and film actor Stanley Holloway and his family
lived in Penn village, as later did the eminent philosopher Sir Karl Popper,
and the novelist Elizabeth Taylor lived here from the 1940s. But the area was
also littered with the echoes of historic residents such as Edmund Burke, the
philosophical founder of modern conservatism and Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of
Beaconsfield. Some maintained that the Quaker William Penn (of
‘Pennsylvania’ fame) regarded Penn as his ancestral home, and over the
centuries, many of the landed families of the area had close connections with
the various ‘Royals’ of their time receiving ‘grace and favour’ in terms of
property and privilege which persists amongst them to this day. Robert and
Emily spent a long retirement at St Helier from which we can only assume
that here, they were content. They made friends in both Beaconsfield and
Penn, but Penn village seems to have been held in special affection by them.
The name ‘Penn’, which applied both to the village and to the wider
Parish, is probably an Anglicization of the ancient Brythonic
2 word ‘pen’,
meaning ‘head’ or ‘top’, the village standing on a promontory of the Chiltern
Hills some 3 miles NW of Beaconsfield. The eleventh century church of Holy
Trinity
3 dominates the tiny village, and from its tower—or so residents would
have it—a dozen counties can be seen. Much of the village today is just as
Robert and Emily would have known it. Now designated a conservation area,
the oldest building is Holy Trinity
3 with its late 12th Century nave, 14th
Century Tower and 15th Century ‘Penn Doom’, a 12-foot-wide painting of
the Last Judgment on oak panels and one of only five surviving wooden
454
D. Sheppard
unchanged in centuries; historic, peaceful, traditional, ‘conservative’, pretty,
and undeniably ‘chocolate-box’ England.
Penn Road in Robert and Emily’s time would have been considerably less
developed than today. A drive along the few miles of leafy lane nowadays
finds it packed with fine homes often with spacious gardens, tennis courts and
swimming pools. But the characterization of the area in Robert and Emily’s
time is best described in terms of those who chose to live there.
A contemporary was Enid Blyton, who from 1938 lived at ‘Green Hedges’
just off Penn Road, a name chosen for her in a competition by the children
who read her books. Another children’s author, Alison Uttley, of ‘Little Grey
Rabbit’ fame, moved to the area during the second world war. The two ladies
however did not get on; Uttley describing Blyton as ‘a vulgar curled woman’,
1
an observation which in its turn provides a characterization of many of the
‘locals’ who were articulate, who spoke their mind, and were always careful to
preserve that which they held dear. The poet Robert Frost came to
Beaconsfield in 1912 and remained there until his death in 1963. In the 1950
and ‘60s the popular singer and film actor Stanley Holloway and his family
lived in Penn village, as later did the eminent philosopher Sir Karl Popper,
and the novelist Elizabeth Taylor lived here from the 1940s. But the area was
also littered with the echoes of historic residents such as Edmund Burke, the
philosophical founder of modern conservatism and Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of
Beaconsfield. Some maintained that the Quaker William Penn (of
‘Pennsylvania’ fame) regarded Penn as his ancestral home, and over the
centuries, many of the landed families of the area had close connections with
the various ‘Royals’ of their time receiving ‘grace and favour’ in terms of
property and privilege which persists amongst them to this day. Robert and
Emily spent a long retirement at St Helier from which we can only assume
that here, they were content. They made friends in both Beaconsfield and
Penn, but Penn village seems to have been held in special affection by them.
The name ‘Penn’, which applied both to the village and to the wider
Parish, is probably an Anglicization of the ancient Brythonic
2 word ‘pen’,
meaning ‘head’ or ‘top’, the village standing on a promontory of the Chiltern
Hills some 3 miles NW of Beaconsfield. The eleventh century church of Holy
Trinity
3 dominates the tiny village, and from its tower—or so residents would
have it—a dozen counties can be seen. Much of the village today is just as
Robert and Emily would have known it. Now designated a conservation area,
the oldest building is Holy Trinity
3 with its late 12th Century nave, 14th
Century Tower and 15th Century ‘Penn Doom’, a 12-foot-wide painting of
the Last Judgment on oak panels and one of only five surviving wooden
454
D. Sheppard