As readers know, Joyce Grenfell spent most of her adult life in Taplow. For the much shorter time that he was here, she was friendly with Walter de la Mare, and in one of her books of reminiscences she says that he told her the following earthy joke (her expression). A lady who was suffering from constipation went to see her doctor and said: “I just sit there, but nothing happens.” “Uh huh,” said the doctor, “are you taking anything?” “Only my knitting” she replied.
Although our society is not involved in this, there is no doubt that the Memorial Service has become one of Taplow’s major events. Little wonder, when it is so meaningfully and movingly led by Rev. Alan Dibden. In 2004 the church was packed, as usual, and the same question arose as at the Village Green Party: where do all these children come from? Of course many of them live in nearby villages, but not all of them. Perhaps Hitcham and Taplow do tend to be havens for older people, but looking around St. Nicolas Church of 14th November, you might have questioned it.
According to one national newspaper, a speed camera can be dangerous if it distracts a driver from concentrating on the road ahead. There may be some truth in this, but it doesn’t seem very relevant in this area, where there are very few speed cameras, but lots and lots of notices which have the apparent objective of intentionally distracting the driver’s eye. You will remember that the editor of this newsletter photographed some of these along the Bath Road recently - they seem to be at the rate of about 100 to the mile. Can we stop them? Of course this is a national problem, not a local one, but what do readers think? Most of us might be delighted to ban those which say “Bed Sale” or “Pine Sale”, and even the notice on the Bath Road which everybody ignores advising “Reduce Speed Now”. But what about signs which read “Cliveden” or “Church Fete”? Perhaps speed cameras should be banned because they distract from notices!
Talking about speed cameras brings us back to a problem which is both local and national. What can be done to deter drivers from speeding on rural lanes? Most such drivers seem to be decent citizens but fail to learn at school that damage on impact is not proportional to the speed, but to the
square of the speed. Consequently when they drive down Berry Hill, although it is obviously still a 30 mph zone south of Russian Roulette Corner they speed up to 70 mph or more. Unlucky for other drivers because when you leave Saxon Gardens (which is where I live) you can’t see far up Berry Hill. The first attempts at traffic calming in this area were of questionable benefit; would speed cameras do any better ?
