Hidden Henley

Did any readers watch repeats of that classic locally-filmed comedy The Vicar of Dibley during this Christmastime? Or perhaps some people reading this received a card with the special edition Royal Mail stamps featuring scenes and characters from it. The village is well known both in it’s own right as well as a filming location where Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Goodnight Mister Tom, Bridget Jones’s Baby, Calendar Girls, some Harry Potter, Killing Eve, Midsomer Murders and many more – as well as that immensely popular series featuring Dawn French. The picturesque Chilterns village of nearby Turville has only a few fortunate residents but plenty of visitors, yet I wonder how many who visit the famous church notice the old stone coffin in my picture?

This coffin is over 700 years old and was discovered under the floor near to the pulpit during a restoration back in 1901. Being made of stone, the original burial must have been of someone wealthy or of a high social standing in the area, and was also taller than average back then. The church guide says “The coffin contained two separate burials. The second was thought to date from the 16^th century. It was a female body with a hole driven through the skull. It was suggested at the time that here was a successfully hidden murder of long ago”.

Not fiction but reality. “Truth is stranger than fiction” as the saying goes!