HADDENHAM, UK – A friend of mine describes his village as ‘oldie woldie’. I’ve never heard the expression before. It means ‘old fashioned’ or ‘old styled’. Sounds very English. So I was excited when he asked me to come and visit his village and see for myself.
Haddenham is just 15 miles outside of Oxford and it took me approximately 40 minutes to get to from Marylebone Station in London on Chiltern Railways which just so happens to be very nice (a lot of trains in the UK are scruffy and grimey). The return journey was £24 which is fine but rail journeys have increased in price over the past year. I almost missed my train because I slept in late and because the DLR train was not running today (railway lines are often closed on weekends for works).
The village of Haddenham is small and there’s no traffic light. It has about two pubs and that’s about it. But it’s pleasant to walk around for a morning.
A lot of the homes had names to distinguish them.
It’s really quite a sweet place, don’t you think?