Buckinghamshire at its best - Great Hampden Church

Afternoon walk today over the fields from Great Hampden to Great Hampden Church and Hampden House.

The name Hampden owes much of its fame to John Hampden, member of parliament for Buckinghamshire, who famously stood a mile or so from here in 1636 and stated his refusal to pay his Ship Tax to Charles 1.  A parliamentarian during the Civil War, he was killed at the Battle of Chalgrove Field near Thame in 1643.

Great Hampden Church stands a distance from the village, and appropriately was one location for the film Cromwell in 1976.  Hampden House behind it was used by the Hammer Film Studios as a gothic location for a number of its films.

All goes on around here!