The village of Hambleden is in the southwest corner of the county of Buckinghamshire in England, and is sited at the foot of the Hambleden Valley some 4 miles West of Marlow in Buckinghamshire, 3 miles east of Henley in Oxfordshire, and on the North bank of the River Thames.
The village name is Anglo-Saxon in origin, and means ‘crooked or irregularly-shaped hill’. It was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Hanbledene, though previously in 1015 it was known as Hamelan dene. The civil parish also includes the villages of Fingest and Frieth, and the hamlets of Colstrope, Mill End, Parmoor, Pheasant’s Hill and Skirmett. At the 2011 Census the population of the parish was 1,445.
The village has a history dating back to Roman times, and despite it’s small size has had a number of famous residents over the years. Because of it’s rural charm and close proximity to London it is a popular film location, as indeed are the other small villages and hamlets of the Hambleden Valley.
Some notable films shot around the village and up the valley include Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Sleepy Hollow, The Monuments Men, An Education, and numerous episodes from TV productions of Agatha Christie’s Poirot series, Inspector Morse, Lewis, Endeavour, Midsomer Murders and various others of that ilk. Higher up the valley, admittedly just over the border into Oxfordshire, the adjacent village of Turville has often featured in films and TV series also, such as Went the day Well?, Calendar Girls (admittedly the only scene not filmed in Yorkshire, but the windmill from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is clearly visible in the background), and the very popular TV series The Vicar of Dibley.
My interest in Hambleden village stems from when I lived in nearby Marlow. With our young daughters, my wife and I would enjoy circular bicycle rides and picnics in the surrounding countryside, and the village shop in Hambleden was always a popular destination for an ice cream. On the edge of the village is a short row of flint cottages, with a large communal vegetable plot at the end belonging to the cottage inhabitants. Throughout the seasons the vegetable garden is a photographers delight with a colourful variety of home-grown vegetables and colourful ornamental flowers on display.
Over the years I have tried to capture the delights of this small plot throughout the seasons in all weathers and all lights – bright sunny days to gloomy and chilly frosty days in winter, and even in the snow when it becomes quite monochrome. It also became my ‘testing ground’ every time I had a new camera or lens, or when the light was spectacularly different such that I could justify jumping in to the car and driving from Marlow to try and ‘catch the light’… there have been a lot more failures than successes!
It isn’t the easiest scene to capture – there is a bright blue plastic container used for water just outside the frame on the left hand side, the height of the bramble hedge in the foreground can get quite annoying, the runner bean poles in some years are simply in the wrong place for a good photo composition, and sometimes the colours don’t do much for the overall harmony of the image, but when it all comes together, it really does seem to be a truly idyllic English cottage garden.
For me this image is the epitomy of the traditional English cottage garden with its densely packed mix of ornamental and edible plants. The photograph was taken using a tripod, and patience waiting for the light when the sun went in. The day was bright but generally overcast with a ‘close’ atmosphere, just enough for the red of the hollyhocks to stand out amongst all the greenery. Too bright and sunny with blue skies would have given a very harsh light with strong contrast, but the clouds fill the sky rather than leaving a bright and distracting void, and the golden yellow of the wheat field in the background on the right balances with the cottage rather than leaving a large dull swathe of greenery. The rows of vegetables in the foreground serve to draw the viewer in to the garden, in to the mass of ornamental flowering plants and to the cottage beyond – one wants to explore further and see what else is being grown in this wonderful garden?