Falcon, Denham, Buckinghamshire

 

The run from the Bear on the Barge to the village of Denham is just over a mile but the road (and subsequently accessed South Bucks Trail) are reminiscent of my beloved Central Georgia around Athens with the thick forest hiding industrial agriculture operations beyond. It may have just been the humidity (which was very high) or the slight whiff of decay in this swampy corner of the countryside but it made me a little homesick.

 

 

My target was the Falcon, one of three watering holes in the conservation area of the village (where I believe EVERY building is Grade 2 listed). I’m saving the Swan for a meal as it is really the most foodie of the three, but the Falcon and the Green Man were toss-ups for this visit.

The Falcon benefits or suffers from the Grade II status depending on how you look at it: it either doesn’t have to or isn’t allowed to put in wheelchair access so the stair climb to the entrance (and another to the toilets) can be daunting for some ambulatory visitors and impossible for the chair-bound (or chair riding? I don’t know the current politically correct terminology).

 

 

 

I carried a Sharps Coaster out to the garden to cool off a bit and realised the night was already closing in on me. Shit, this is the worst time of year in a lot of ways: it still feels like summer but the daylight is falling away at the fastest rate it will do all year. At least in Winter it is supposed to be dark early.

 

 

 

It was slow in the bar and the landlady had come around to talk with the couple of drinkers inside. The chef had picked up a few things for the evening service from storage out beyond the garden. The Falcon is a comfortable place to hang out, but I needed to find my way to Uxbridge down unfamiliar paths which I will have to come back to for A40 underpass graffiti and better photos of the trail sculptures: