IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Bradenham Road, HIGH WYCOMBE, HP14 4EX

These isolated houses, built where nothing was before, appeared on maps in the 1920s or 30s, when at a guess planning rules were laxer.

Bradenham Road (A4010) heading up to the railway bridge.

The A4010 passing beneath the Chiltern Line. In the foreground is part of an older and lower bridge.

You can also see the line of the railway and, to the left of the houses, the bridge over the A4010. Woodland crowns most of the high ground above this valley, with arable fields on the lower slopes.

A southbound train. The footpath crosses using a level crossing before climbing through Great Cookshall Wood.

Looking north along the Chiltern Line from the level crossing on the footpath below Great Cookshall Wood. In the middle distance, to the right of the track, you can see the parapet of the bridge over the A4010.

This brick built bridge carries the Chiltern Main Line over the A4010 road at West Wycombe on its way from High Wycombe to Princes Risborough. It was built in the early 1900's as a replacement for the old Wycombe Railway bridge. The Wycombe Railway was a single track formerly broad gauge railway between Maidenhead and Oxford. The line was rebuilt as part of the Great Western/Great Central Joint Railway built from Northolt to Banbury to cut journey times from Paddington to Birmingham. It also provided the Great Central with a second route from Marylebone to the north. Today's services run from Marylebone to Birmingham Snow Hill. The construction of the bridge is interesting in that it consists of 5 separate brick arches built on the skew across the road, clearly shown in the photograph. The abutments of the old bridge can be seen beyond the new one.

The Chiltern Line crosses the A4010. Signed as a low bridge, but this applies only to the sides of the arch. The central part has a road clearance signed as 16'-3" which should be safe for all usual traffic.

The A4010 here (Bradenham Road) heads northwards towards the Chiltern Hills. Autumn time brings strong hues from the trees above the open farmland below (by the road). A great stretch of road, not too busy out of "rush hour" - although now sadly, no longer de-restricted.

This shows the southern end of a row of ten semi-detached houses that line this stretch of the A4010 to the south of the railway bridge. Arable fields occupy most of the low-lying countryside in the valley between Wycombe and Risborough.