We felt there should be a strong emphasis on the development of a local partnership and our bid was submitted. To our delight, the DfEE were obviously impressed and offered us £15,000 for the project, more than our own estimated costs. In hindsight, however we now feel that our original timescale of one year was unrealistic, as more time is now needed. As the project developed, it was also clear that despite the best-made plans, the project was going to be much harder to manage than we had originally anticipated.

We started the project by building up our knowledge about the areas that we lived in, focusing carefully on our village. I visited the County Museum in Aylesbury, only to find that very few documents or photographs about Grendon Underwood were in existence. So, it was clear that we would have to look elsewhere in order to provide this information.

As luck would have it, a Miss Annie George, who had lived in the village of Grendon Underwood for over 80 years, had a huge collection of slides and stories with which she would often entertain the villagers, and she was prepared to share her vast knowledge and resources with us. Her great nephews attended our school, and the family were really supportive of the project that we were attempting.

Click on photo to hear Miss George

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