Mike Dewey

The article revisits a 2016 Marlow nostalgia piece about Charles Culliford Boz Dickens, the lesser-known son of Charles Dickens. It discusses his major works, particularly Dicken's Dictionary of the Thames, a detailed Victorian guide containing history, travel information, timetables, maps and advertisements, including several pages on Marlow. The piece also notes the book's rarity in its original 1887 edition and its connection to Queen Victoria's 50th jubilee and Dickens's son's 50th birthday.

The former toll-house beside High Wycombe’s London Road cricket ground originated with the 1718 Beaconsfield-to-Stokenchurch turnpike and was rebuilt in 1826 in a neo-Gothic style. After toll collection ended in 1867, it served as a residence, cricket-club dressing rooms, storage space and an air-raid wardens’ post. Neglect, wartime damage and a 1974 car crash left the Grade II listed building in ruins; restoration funding was denied and it was demolished in 1977. Its surviving materials were later transferred to the Chiltern Open Air Museum, where the toll-house was recreated, preserving part of High Wycombe’s transport and local history.

Jacob Popp, a High Wycombe newsagent, repeatedly defied early-20th-century Sunday-trading laws and was fined after being prosecuted by the town’s police court. Recollections from his granddaughter and local residents portray him as a popular, distinctive character whose shop attracted Sunday customers from across the area. His family continued running the newsagents for decades after his death in 1939, and a series of humorous trading cards commemorated his prosecutions between 1901 and 1908.

The article traces solar-energy research from the 1970s oil crisis to modern photovoltaic panels, focusing on work by the Fulmer Research Institute in Stoke Poges under a Calor Group contract. It details the institute’s solar laboratory, experimental domestic-heating systems and demonstrations at Milton Keynes, including the 1981 Ideal Home Solar House. It also outlines earlier discoveries by Edmond Becquerel and Charles Fritts, the development of silicon cells at Bell Laboratories, and the subsequent rise in photovoltaic efficiency and household adoption.