This church is notable for its unusually small size and its age. A Saxon church, Huna’s Church, stood on this site, but was completely replaced in the 12th century by a Norman church, much of which still stands today. The church was altered and improved in the late 15th century, giving it its present perpendicular style aspect, but has been little altered since. The parish was very small, and remains so to this day.
Notable feature inside include a wall painting, seemingly of the Royal Coat of Arms from the Elisabethan period, some very old oak pews, and the wagon-style nave ceiling with carved wooden bosses, all different. Those interested in such things can purchase a booklet about the church. Services are monthly.
Month: January 2012
Red Bull Home Run, Milton Keynes
In view of the large predicted turn-out, I decided to travel by train to the conveniently sited CMK railway station. I didn’t arrive too early as the weather was clear but cold and I was hoping a promised parcel might turn up.
I arrived about 15 mins before the show was due to start and found that a very large crowd was already lining the track about 4 deep on both sides. (Some reports put the attendance at 60,000). Accordingly this isn’t so much a report on the Home Run (there are some excellent amateur videos on Youtube) as a report on the difficulty of seeing or photographing anything.
I was hoping to position myself near one of the giant TV screens, but the one nearest the station was throughly obscured by tree branches and the next one was across the road from a long Press stand on the trackside, so that was no use either.
I positioned myself a few hundred yards from the railway station and hoped for the best. In the end, I got to see the Red Bull stunt biker Chris Pfeiffer, the F1 car driven by Mark Webber, the Red Bull NASCAR saloon driven by David Coulthard, the F1 car driven by Sebastian Vettel, and finally both F1 cars and drivers driving side by side. In each case (except the stunt biker) I saw them for about a second as they whizzed past. To get a photo in such a situation it is necessary to start pressing the shutter before the audible but unseen car appears, a near impossible task.
A F1 car is noisy, but less ear-splitting than I expected. The most exciting noise was made by the NASCAR driven by Coulthard.
After that I went home to de-frost, passing up the chance to visit the paddock or see a static F1 car display in the shopping centre. Reportedly, retail takings were up.
