Archives Month: February 2020

Our village lies on a small plateau in the beautiful beech wooded Chilterns; whichever way one approaches the village a hill has to be climbed, and until the times of motorised transport very few houses were built, thus making a very small close knit community...The whole of this area was once covered by thick forests, which were run over with thieves and vagabonds...

Andy Dean, one of our Woodlanders volunteers, has found all kinds of treasures in his private archives, including this account of bodgers’ lives and work written by his grandmother, Alice Dean who became the family historian. Alice starts by describing watching her father-in-law, Richard Dean, working his pole lathe.