Firstly apologies for the lack of content and thank you for your patience it has been a challenging summer both at work and at home and I have been frazzled. In practice this means I have about 5 partially written articles waiting to be finished for you I will get them out…
I have now lived in High Wycombe for just over 4 years, when I first started my current job and moved to the area the general consensus was that Wycombe was a ‘grey’ place. To the point that there is an ongoing joke at work that Dulux have a paint shade called Wycombe grey, they don’t but maybe they should as to some extent Wycombe is a grey place. Maybe having grown up in Winchester I am spoilt with it having the beautiful Cathedral, the water meadows and St Catherines Hill, pair this with the cobbled streets, historical architecture and things like the Christmas market and it’s a definitely different from High Wycombe.
However High Wycombe has started to grow on me, not in quite the same way as I will always love Winchester but I am slowly finding that it does in ways have a fair amount to offer. In fact I think if I were more affluent or could afford to have a house with a garage in High Wycombe I could see no issue with settling here longer. However unless I find a rich partner in crime this is highly unlikely and not being able to properly settle here is the most likely reason at some point for me looking for a new job and lifestyle. One thing that has helped my opinion on High Wycombe is that back in May I moved closer to the town centre, to a point where I have spent more time walking around the centre of the town more than ever.
The appeal of High Wycombe to most is that it is within a sensible commute to London to it’s east whilst on it’s north and west sides you are minutes from the beautiful Chilterns. A classic London belt town in that sense, with high property prices for poor quality houses, the average house price here being around 14 times the average salary a single above average salaried person here will struggle to be a small 2 bed flat even with a 30% deposit.
Walking around close to the University it is clear that the town is working to pedestrianise the core areas, there are nice cut throughs, benches and new buildings going up (more up market small flats)that have more colour and character than those around them. There has also been a long standing petition to uncover the river Rye that runs under the town, which I personally think would probably make a massive difference to High Wycombe. I think if you were looking at it from a traffic and planning perspective it would be wise to also establish a ring road. At current the A404 and A40 run right through the centre of the town and trucks on steep hills just splurge out damaging particles into the air.
The improvements that have been made are having a difference and therefore High Wycombe has grown on me, I don’t think I will ever be at a stage where I am calling it a beautiful town but I can now see more of it’s merits and I think it has more to offer than it may first seem. For this reason as I walked back from the town centre today I came up with an idea, what if I were to try and capture another view of High Wycombe to share with the world over the next year.
So here is the challenge, over the next year I am going to take photographs around High Wycombe each month I will then pick a favourite from the month. Collating 12 Pictures at the end of the year that I think show the best of High Wycombe. Maybe even make a calendar…
LazyModernTraveler 