Epic Adventure to Sniggs Alley & the Oldest Pub in England (4K)

Right, I need to go into this branch of WH Smith's in High Wycombe which is really where the journey today, the adventure today actually begins. All will become clear very soon. We're looking for the fantasy section but they don't seem to be labelled. This is not the Terry Pratchett book that we need for today, which is a shame. Some of you may already have worked out what today's walk is, not specifically but broadly. It's not just an epic classic adventure today, it's not just an adventure to another world, it's an adventure to a parallel world, the disc world, the disc world of Terry Pratchett who is from this area of High Wycombe which is where I'm from. Terry Pratchett grew up near Beaconsfield, I think he grew up in Forty Green, went to school in Holtzpah. I was born in High Wycombe, grew up in the village next to Holtzpah, Weave and Green and we'll unpack all this as we go. But there's a location in the disc world and I think it's the only one which is mirrored here in our world and we're going there. And the significance of that branch of WH Smith's back there is not only of course it would have been Terry Pratchett's branch of WH Smith's as well and some of you might be going hang on a moment, Terry Pratchett, have I heard of him? Terry Pratchett sold over a hundred million books, a hundred million books in his lifetime, sadly passed away in 2015 from early onset dementia and there's a really poignant documentary on the BBC about that part of his life but he was the best-selling British author of the 1990s, over a hundred million books, most of those books were part of the disc world series. And I went into that Smith's in 1987, in the summer of 1987, just after I finished my O-levels and I was reading the David Eddings Belgariad series, loved them, consumed them, was reading one a day, finished the series and I was bereft with a long summer holiday ahead of me and ended up at a really pivotal moment in my life, a real kind of sliding doors moment if you like and I went into that Smith's to see if they had anything else and somebody said yeah well have you read any Terry Pratchett? This is 1987 so I'm not sure how many Discworld books there would have been, maybe four or five by then, the first one Color of Magic 1983, this is four years later. I go in and I pick up one of them, I'm not sure which one and it had like, it was funny, had a lot of humour in it and I liked humour but then I liked fantasy and I liked my fantasy straight with no jokes and so I put it back on the shelf and I didn't pick up a Terry Pratchett again until I think it's two years ago and I instantly loved it, I thought god how different would my life have been if I had Pratchett in it from the age of 16. I've made quite a few videos around High Wycombe they're on my channel here so I'll put a playlist below where you can watch them, in fact really this channel effectively starts with a project I did here with my sister, we did that project 2004-2005 and then I started this channel as a way to kind of share some of the documentation from that psychogeographical project remapping High Wycombe and this rather grand building here just on the edge of the town centre was the High Wycombe Technical High School which is where Terry Pratchett went to school after he passed his 11 plus, it's also where my dad went to school as well after passing his 11 plus but my dad's a bit older than Terry Pratchett, well significantly but they did share a teacher from primary school and I guess they must have shared teachers thinking about it from here from the from the tech as my dad calls it and here we have the wonderful old medieval ruins of the hospital of St John the Baptist which dates from 1180 just in the grounds of the tech and our walk is really starting along the old main London to Oxford road High Wycombe being pretty much exactly halfway between London and Oxford and we've got a walk of about two and a half miles more or less along this road along the A40 to get to the start of our walk the location we're really looking for this is obviously the start of the walk but you know what I mean the target location is 2.3 miles from here the more bucolic route to our location I'm holding it off because I'm going to tell you in a minute properly but the more bucolic route is there across the Rhine along the back but I did that walk a year ago I've done it several times and it's been but I did a walk along the River Wye which is there just in the foreground the other side of the road is the River Wye and I walked all the way along there from its source out to where it makes its confluence with the Thames that was a walk I did last May almost exactly a year ago actually but I'm just gonna I think I'm just gonna pound it along the road and all of that over there is really quite extensively covered in other videos and it's one of these things where I've just grasped the nettle late in the day about one o'clock I was at home I was like I'm gonna do the walk I'm gonna walk up Sniggs Alley so it's about four o'clock now sunset's at half eight and this was a walk suggested to me by Nick Green via a comment and I knew the name Sniggs Alley but I just hadn't made the link to Pratchett and it's a place in his fictional Discworld the parallel Discworld where the Discworld series takes place in the city of Ankh-Moorpork I think that's how it's pronounced Ankh-Moorpork the principal city of the Discworld and it's a street in Ankh-Moorpork Sniggs Alley I think I read somewhere that it's the only one which the name is directly taken from a place on earth because it would have run near Pratchett's house and it's a it's a beautiful walk I do know it I just didn't know that was what it was so I think what we'll do is walk up Sniggs Alley through Discworld up to the ancient village of Penn and I think we'll turn then for Forty Green with one of the pubs that claims to be the oldest in England and from there we will go to Beaconsfield so a great day lies ahead. The sacred River Wye King George V pub it's signed for Loudwater over there which is the location of Terry Pratchett's Sniggs Alley in this world hopefully at the other end of it we'll emerge into the Discworld right this is a kind of crucial point in the walk as we try to find Sniggs Alley the difficulty is it's not called that on a map and it's sort of um but it's one of those things that people it's known to the locals as Sniggs Alley of which Terry Pratchett was one also my dad so I'm going to follow my dad's directions which include a reference to Hancock's yard of course Hancock's yard isn't there anymore it's his friend his friends who owned it I worked there actually as a builder's yard but um now it's a Tesco's there's an alleyway opposite that that will take to Sniggs Alley so that massive Tesco's down there is the site of Hancock's builder's yard and this is the footpath opposite dad said it's called Folly's place this must be it actually I don't know this footpath I'm not sure I've ever been up here before maybe once in 1997 but I'll overlay this as a screen grab because you won't be able to see it from the screen but dad says the footpath opposite Hancock's yard Burley house which I just passed back there which I know some of you be going ah Burley house is famous but you can't see anything from the road footpath across the train line to the field with Larkins orchard on the far side could join Sniggs Alley Pratchett lived at Forty Green okay this is the footpath that leads towards Sniggs Alley and this is what I needed today to be out somewhere like this one of the first really lovely warm days of the year it's 10 past five and we'll be walking into the sunset in the hills in the Chiltern Hills I'm not sure what this plant is here but it's completely consumed the uh the path but I'm gonna have to crack through it but unfortunately for me it's the first day of short season so yeah I'm gonna feel it but I don't know well I can't see an alternative really I feel like hacking through those giant plants like that is exactly the kind of Pratchett like scenario that Rincewind the Wizard and his magical luggage would have had to have gone through I'm already worried that this is not the right it's very overgrown I guess it's because it's been wet and sunny I'm also wondering whether it's the right way that was one of those beautiful moments where I wish I was wearing a body cam because just in the that thicket there I just saw a deer looking at me quite a big deer actually it scuppered off into the undergrowth a lovely moment when I uh looked at this walk on the map I thought that's a relatively straightforward walk straight up but actually the footpath I've taken up down that side of the field thinking I'll just carry straight of course that's parallel to the road the path now loops around this horse field so I'll carry on round and then I go up that side so actually yeah it's fine it's all good I think so I hacked through those giant weeds for nothing but it has given me a beautiful view of the valley from up here which I suppose I would have gotten anyway but um funny hey funny there are other ways to get to Sniggs alley in fact my dad says you know I could have done this walk in reverse and got off the train at Beaconsfield and joined at Forty Green which is where Pratchett lived I believe as a child and where the walk will not end I'll go back through there to Beaconsfield I'm now walking through some hawthorn bushes which again the legs are getting a fair old christening today aren't they but um it's just beautiful to be out here in the fields that's kind of had the urge to do it and I thought if I'm going to go out in the fields and do a walk I'm going to take you with me and I might as well make it meaningful and do this so first one of the summer and look here we go proper gates proper Bucks County Council footpath sign and this is exactly the time of day we would have done walks like this when I was a kid growing up and sort of like late afternoon early evening fantastic railway bridge I thought we went under the railway line now we go over it wow so beautiful this is just half an hour by train from London from Marylebone just spoke to my dad on the phone he just returned my call he confirmed this is the right well actually so stick to your left but I can't the fact he didn't instantly recognize this field from my description does worry me a little bit but he said he told me where Sniggs alley actually starts where this footpath becomes Sniggs alley up here at Dearham's farm it's marked on all the maps should be no problem and he said I've got to have a pint at the royal standard of England in 40 green which is a pub that claims to be the oldest in England there are several that claim the same thing there's a lovely little lamb over there hiding behind its mum it's a very sweet scene there is a vehicle a fully fledged vehicle in the undergrowth there you see it I'm sure there's a tractor or it could be a car anyway that I think on the other side of that vehicle is Sniggs alley I take that as a good omen you have to excuse the pun for those of you that get it so here it is Sniggs alley a place of legend the place exists in both our world and the disc world now if ever I were going to use that tiny planet feature that makes the world go round on my 360 camera it's going to be here so those of you that don't like it you have to forgive me here it's completely justifiable and this is from sorcery he could have kept going he could have walked up the stairs out into the street got a pizza from the Klatchian takeaway in Sniggs alley and gone to bed this doesn't mention about there in High Wycombe Sniggs alley is a place in Pratchett city of Ankh-Morpork I think that's how it's pronounced Ankh-Morpork there is a BBC adaptation of some of the novels called The Night's Watch I think it's called or The Watch they're just called The Watch which was I loved it it's brilliant got cancelled after one season so I can find that it has the correct pronunciation of Ankh-Morpork but those of you that know the Discworld series will know Ankh-Morpork is a place of vice a den of iniquity a place of crime and corruption and sort of really smelly place the Ankh is a river nothing like the crystal waters of the river why back there so Sniggs alley the real Sniggs alley this one you know it's interesting that he took the name I guess he was just thinking of the name it's a good name it's a great name it is a great name so as we walk along here we can think that Pratchett would have walked this way as a as a teenager I guess there's something vaguely Pratchett like about all the the flock of birds is it crows or rooks I was getting confused they're all swirling around that tree I guess it must be a rookery I'm supposing of course the Chilterns has become the land of the red kite thanks to a brilliantly successful effort to reintroduce them and now they're like sparrows but I haven't seen any today so I don't know what's going on there what's going on over here it looks like is that people coming down the hill on a bike or is it some grown-ups in a pram seems quite unusual maybe it's just perfectly normal it's just yes I'm imagining disc world reality just two people riding a bike across the field here the path splits I think this is the direction we want to go in it takes us to Penn and then that way I would say must take us back down towards Holtzberg Woburn Green where I grew up so I think we want to keep going up to Penn and then Forty Green that's the idea let me check the map though so carrying on up here there is a little bit of a dilemma I just spoke to my dad on the phone again this is Sniggs Alley all the way up to Penn I believe and that was my idea was to go up to Penn then basically come back but I just noticed there's a footpath to the right that goes up to Forty Green and dad says that's where Terry Pratchett lived and so he would have come into Sniggs Alley from that path so kind of give me a dilemma now do I take that path to Forty Green or do I go up to Penn just to kind of walk back to Forty Green dilemma it's 10 past six by the way that's the path to Forty Green over those fields there and this is the continuation of Sniggs Alley up to Penn oh what a dilemma let me sit down and have a think about it my mind has been made up I uh yeah I'm going this way my mind was made up by a young lady who's coming down the path I said I don't know what to do do I carry on up to Penn or do I go up this way she went oh it's really nice up there she'd go up there it's exactly what my dad said so there you go we've been to Sniggs Alley we've seen Sniggs Alley now we're following Terry Pratchett's footsteps back to Forty Green the walk he would have done I guess as a teenager and as a young man working for the Buxford Press that's how I'm pitching diverting off Sniggs Alley up to here I kind of feel this is what Rincewind would do but then again Rincewind gets into all sorts of bother ah this has got to be the way what a stunning view from up here absolutely stunning I'm now on the Chiltern Way for a short section we're just going to turn down this field here towards Lude Farm which is the name I remember from childhood interestingly this is the Berkshire Loop of the Chiltern Way so I guess Berkshire isn't that far away I didn't realise the Chiltern Way went into Berkshire definitely the right decision to come this way cutting across the fields to Forty Green and the Royal Standard hopefully fantastic kind of chalk track it's going to lead us across the fields wow because I spend most of my year tramping around London which I love love it more than anything but I have to remember sometimes that I am a child of the Chilterns I grew up here these very hills the village where I grew up is just well we looked over it earlier when there was those beautiful views and the folding valley I grew up down there so I need to get out here a couple of times a year re-engage with that part of myself you know I'll be back in the industrial states before you know it or around the city of London looking for holy wells that's coming up see that's the kind of signage that I really need because I might have carried on along the track there but I probably would have done they're saying no you've definitely got to go down there problem is it just deferred the dilemma you carry straight on I think I can turn left and now I don't want to go left because I'm going straight back up to Penn but do I go across that field there or do I turn right here I think I go straight on but I'm going to check the map just in case yes this is the uh the correct way to go has to be look at it such a beautiful footpath just passing through a little strip of woodland now it's seven o'clock around seven o'clock anyway as I come up to 40 green just go along this little lane now that should take us to the royal standard where I think we're obliged to have a pint that was part of the motivation for coming this way I won't lie so here's the royal standard of England which claims to be the oldest pub in England how many times have I mentioned that in this video but it's also where I spent my 18th birthday the actual day of my 18th birthday in there with my family like it says there on the sign that over 900 years has been a pub here so who would dispute that that's where I sat on my 18th down there well that was um incredibly restorative lovely pint of Chilton's pale ale and now I'm gonna try and find my way back to Beaconsfield it's not very far to be honest with you it's about a half hour walk I've forgotten just what an amazing old pub the royal standard is and I heard the staff they're appealing for a tourist place it's full of Americans it's full of toys which is obvious it's close to London and actually a lot of American people live around here my dad was gardening in this area a lot of time he would end up gardening for American families that were working for large American companies corporations and they would inevitably end up living around Beaconsfield Gerald's Cross that kind of thing such a fantastic pub though such a fantastic and it really when you're in there it really feels oldie worldie and I remembered the table that I sat in on my 18th birthday uh yeah it's incredible I am now awash in nostalgia and memory which I won't bother you with if you came here for Pratchett I would have thought and this is where Terry Pratchett grew up this is Forty Green we will sort of I think we'll see the village possibly my memories of this area around here mostly at night I'm in a car being driven because I never drove obviously as a kid as a teenager we'll take a footpath at some point from Forty Green directly to Beaconsfield yeah I nearly recorded a pub chat there I thought it's not really it couldn't really I couldn't really do it it was a quiet pub I thought no it's not the vibe lots of people having sort of nice dinners there in those woody interiors so this is the village of Forty Green and we're going to go up Forty Green Road just up here up Forty Green Road and then we're going to turn off for a footpath which I hope is here the funniest thing if you've been watching just happened I got a really lucky escape I stood there in that in that hedgerow filming the Forty Green sign and a bee flew up the sleeve of my shirt and got stuck in the sleeve of my shirt and I could hear it buzzing around inside my shirt so I quickly just tried to lift my sleeve away so it could fly down and it went into my shirt so then I was like I hear this bee panicking and buzzing inside my shirt I thought stay really calm so I had to then completely unbutton my shirt whilst bending forward and lifting my shirt up to allow the bee to fly and it took it a while to find its way out I'm thinking at any moment I'm going to get stung obviously I'm thinking where do I not want to get stung I mean anywhere but you know that was quite that was quite funny and luckily I managed to not get stung the bee escaped and flew off into the night right I think this is my footpath here so this is the footpath I feel like I've walked down here I feel like I walked down here on a video but I can't have done can I I don't think so this footpath takes us into Beaconsfield Newtown now dad said apparently Terry Pratchett mentions Hogback Wood in his memoir I don't know how dad knows that but um yeah so I think this must be the wood that he mentions I think or I think Hogback Wood is actually further down but we'll take it as that and actually here's a shot for the Pratchett fans of what there is of 40 green it's a pretty it's a pretty small village I think that was the path that leads down to Hogback Wood apparently mentioned by Terry Pratchett but this is the path I need to take to take me to uh Beaconsfield Newtown and Beaconsfield station this is an amazing path worth it just to come up this way no wonder Terry Pratchett wrote such epic stories it's eight o'clock by the way yes so this is Hogback Wood Terry Pratchett mentions in his memoir I think dad got that reference from the BBC documentary which I think is still on the iPlayer if memory serves me right we go along this delightful footpath here which I think eventually brings us out right up to Beaconsfield station these streets are so quiet not a sound not a sound around just the sound of the birds some strange bloke and a cat walking through the alleyway this is such a lovely path that cuts through these little kind of cul-de-sacs and suburban streets it must be the original path that ran through the woods that was saved when they built the housing here that's all I can imagine isn't that a wonderful bit of I don't know if it is serendipity where the footpath comes out right near Beaconsfield Newtown it brings us out to here to Beaconsfield library actually and Terry Pratchett apparently always listed his education as being at Beaconsfield library I doubt it was this one this looks like a fairly modern one doesn't that bearing in mind that I think he was born in 1948 but even so it's lovely to come here to Beaconsfield library isn't it lovely I walked away and thought you know what I'm going to look through the window to see if there's any reference to Terry Pratchett and what should I find on the wall here one of the wonderful Maud Milton's brilliant mosaics many of you hopefully will know but Maud will have seen the video I made about her practice she was making the mosaic roundels for the London overground she's a brilliant brilliant person Maud a resident of Walthamstone and here is one of her fantastic mosaics murals made with the community using words relevant to the area and of course there is Terry Pratchett I'm going to sign off here because we're just coming into Beaconsfield Newtown and I know some people will go you say Beaconsfield it's Beaconsfield I just grew up saying Beaconsfield I'm an oik um yeah because it's coming up to 8 30 sunset's going to get dark in a minute I might try and find some another pint but the problem Beaconsfield old town there's no pubs sorry problem with Beaconsfield Newtown is there's no pubs there's sort of some bars or a wine bar but there's no actual pub the pubs are all in the old town which is where I used to drink between the ages 16 and 18 that was my yeah happy years Beaconsfield station's basically just dead opposite it's 50 yards from where I am so thank you so much for joining me on that walk what a lovely ending seeing Maud Milton's mosaic there isn't that beautiful bump into her mosaics everywhere I go um that was a glorious walk for me I hope you enjoyed it too I need to do those kind of things where I just go on an impulse and uh oh it's beautiful thank you for you watching these videos thank you for indulging me and that's a bit of a crazy ride sometimes isn't it we're in the city of London looking for lost remman rivers and then we're walking where else were we where were we last I don't even remember London loop and we're walking the regents canal I have no idea where we're going to be next week I have some ideas but I've no idea actually there'll be a pub chat probably before you watch this one I won't waffle on now I'll say goodbye thank you for joining me on this walk and I won't forget to say I look forward to joining you on the next walk wherever that may be I should do those t-shirts that wonderful person made me a design I never put them on the t-shirts I need to change the merch supplier that now I'm doing admin the Beaconsfield station's over there it's over the meadow over the stream it's where I am going and where I have been it's been a long day now it's time for a beer and now for home of course I must steer it's over the meadow over the stream I hope you are pleased with what you have seen