We asked our readers on Facebook to complete this sentence: you know you're from High Wycombe when...
Here's what you said:
1. You love a bacon badger (Paul Brooks) and you know that a bacon badger is NOT a badger! (Pippa X Steve Richardson)
If you’ve never tried a classic Buckinghamshire bacon badger, you’re missing out! Most people from the town will know the bacon badger is a steamed suet pastry pasty, filled with onion, potato and bacon (and fortunately, there’s no badger in sight).
2. You can do a hill start (Susie Caroline)
You won’t get very far in this town if you aren’t a master at clutch control. If you learnt to drive in High Wycombe, driving anywhere else is surely a breeze.
3. You cringe whenever you see James Corden (Ben King) OR you have a strange fascination with him! (Robyn Connelly Smith)
Whether you love him or hate him, before making it big in America, James had humble beginnings here. He was born in High Wycombe, grew up in Hazlemere and went to Park Middle School and Holmer Green Upper School as well as Jackie Palmer Stage School.
4. You moan about the hills when it snows (Tracy Pays)
We can’t help but think of the viral video of a car sliding down Hatters Lane in the snow – and an exasperated resident’s complaints that this happens “every year” when it snows. You’re either an expert at navigating the treacherous snowy hills around the town, or (sensibly) you leave the car at home.
5. You have a penchant for posh chairs (Kim Russell) and you get excited when you come across an antique Windsor chair (Sue Boswell)
One of the things you can be proud of High Wycombe for is its amazing furniture industry that dates way back to before 1700. The town was once well-known for its chair-making – in fact, it was the chair-making capital of the world and the Windsor chair was the most famous product of the trade.
6. You roll your eyes at the mention of Mr Cod (Scott Lee)
If you’re a member of the High Wycombe Facebook group, you’ll be well aware why Bridge Street chip shop Mr Cod is on the list, as well as the next one…
7. You know the "shop opposite Primark" (Gary House)
Both mentioned regularly in the group and it’s become a bit of an in-joke. Need we say more?
8. Neales are taking you home at 4am (Mark Hillman)
The High Wycombe taxi company of choice among readers, it seems!
9. Someone mentions the Murray’s clock and you get all nostalgic (Jane King)
The clock inside the Murray’s department store, which was on White Hart Street, used to rise up and down with the lifts in the 1960s and was often decorated.
A lot of readers had fond memories of Murray’s, and the clock specifically. Susan Brown said: “It was a lovely clock, a lovely yellow clock that moved up and down and was decorated at Christmas. I can feel a tear in my eye just thinking about it!”
10. When you used to shop for sweets from the Murray’s pick and mix carousel in the late 60s (Misty Joy)
The pick and mix machine was a favourite for many kids who were dragged round the department store by their parents!
11. You support Wycombe Wanderers (Sharon Stevenson)
Come on you Chairboys!
12. Dennis VS Charlie (Warren Thatcher)
Kebab van wars in the Cornmarket every evening – everyone has their favourite.
13. You think about spending Saturday afternoons flicking through the second-hand records in Percy Priors (Susan Brown)
The town used to be blessed with some amazing record shops (another one that was mentioned by readers was Scorpion Records), but Percy Priors, which used to be in White Hart Street, and then also on the upper floor of the Octagon Shopping Centre when it opened.
14. You used to go to The Golden Fleece pub (Monica Maclean)
High Wycombe has sadly lost some amazing pubs. The Golden Fleece was a firm favourite among readers. It used to be on Hatters Lane but was replaced by Tesco Express.
15. You used to get a Jay’s Pizza after a night at the pub (Michael King)
In many people’s eyes, Jay’s was the best place to get a pizza. It used to be on Desborough Avenue, near the Wendover Arms. Sadly, it shut down and many people have been longing for a Jay’s pizza ever since.
16. You remember the London Road summer sewer stench (Gav Morton)
Yuck!
17. You head out of town a couple of miles either direction and engulf yourself in beautiful countryside (Gary Caulfield)
What can we say, we’re blessed to be surrounded by incredible AONB in the stunning Chiltern Hills.
18. The Octagon Shopping Centre was a good place to shop (Kerry Attridge)
The Octagon was formally opened on October 6, 1970, by the Duchess of Kent after four years of construction. There were plenty of different shops in there over the years – Sainsbury’s, Murray’s, Boots, Timpson’s, Holland and Barrett, Keens Model Shop, BHS, Woolworth’s, Our Price, Fads, Chelsea Girl, the White Horse Buttery cafe – do you remember any more?
19. You miss the Litten Tree, The Toad and Pure nightclub (Danielle Macdonald)
The Litten Tree pub was on Frogmoor, as was The Toad at the Emporium. Operated by Eldridge Pope, it opened around 2001. It was once where Butlers is now. Many young people will also remember the Pure nightclub at Octagon Parade. It closed down in 2011 after the owners went into administration, but remarkably, nothing has happened with the building since and you can still see the Pure signage out the front.
20. People say “Carrot” and you think of a guy playing a harmonica before you think of the vegetable (Leanne Dormer)
Carrot was High Wycombe’s “lovable rebel”, also knows as Gordon Lumsden. He was a legendary High Wycombe busker and everyone knew him in the town. Hundreds of people turned out to pay their final respects to him in January 2010 after he passed away at his flat in Chairborough Road, aged 44. At the time, a makeshift memorial was established outside Lloyds bank in White Hart Street, where he used to play harmonica.
21. Someone mentions Howard Jones (James Robinson)
The musician was an eighties icon and his parents lived in Downley. When he was young, he went to Royal Grammar School. He told the Bucks Free Press in 2002 that at the height of his success in the charts, he was getting “van loads of mail arriving in Green Street every day… it took six people to sort it”.
His debut album, Human Lib, went straight to Number One in 1984. His second album, Dream into Action, went platinum in America launching his music worldwide. He toured all around the world extensively finally breaking into Japan's charts in the early 90s.
Howard's piano obsession as a youngster led to songwriting, and his first hit, New Song, was written on top of West Wycombe Hill. He started out as a solo artist performing in the clubs and pubs around the town.
22. You pass the chalky hills (Shaida Parveen)
Ahh, passing through the M40 chalk cutting near Stokenchurch – you’re nearly home!
Any others you think should be on this list? Comment below!
Originally published in 2022.
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