Hidden Henley

THE picturesque Chilterns village of Turville has only a few fortunate residents but plenty of visitors yet I wonder how many see some of the curiosities inside the church.

The village is well known as a filming location, having featured in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and The Vicar of Dibley.

In the church there is a coffin that may be more than 700 years old and was discovered during restoration work in 1901. It contained two skeletons, one of which was a female with a hole driven through the skull, perhaps indicating she had been murdered. As the coffin is made of stone, the burial must have been paid for by someone wealthy or of a high social standing.

The old tenor bell was made at the Whitechapel Foundry in London’s East End in 1620 and was retired during some upgrading work in 1996.