Visit Buckinghamshire


Visit Buckinghamshire: Lowndes Park, Chesham.
Although I was born in London and consider myself something of a Londoner at heart, I actually grew up in the leafy English county of Buckinghamshire. As per Thomas family tradition, we lived all over the county. Which makes me realise I was a bit of a nomad even as a kid.

Visit Buckinghamshire.
We first came to Buckinghamshire in the early 1980s when I was just two or three years old. My dad had got a job working at a leisure centre in the historic village of Chalfont St Giles. I have zero memories from that time and in any case our stay totalled just eighteen months.

Visit Buckinghamshire: Chalfont St Giles.
Photo courtesy of Timo Newton-Syms.
We then relocated to the market town of Chesham. This was the first of two stints in what my old friends and I call The Chesh. Firstly, we lived in a little council house in Woodland View. There, I have memories of playing with my best friend Daniel and attending Waterside Primary School.

Visit Buckinghamshire.
A decade or so later, between 1994-1996, we lived in the town’s Poles Hill neighbourhood. Just a short walk from Chesham Park Community College, where I achieved staggeringly average A-level grades.
Those were some of my fondest teenage years, which included the arrival of my brother Cory and the unforgettable summer months of Euro 96.

Visit Buckinghamshire: The War Memorial in Chesham.
In between the two Chesham periods, us Thomases were based in Old Amersham. We lived in a little council house on School lane, next to St. Mary’s Primary School.
Easily the most magical years of my childhood, I wistfully recall games of bike spreaders on Barn Meadow and building camps in the woods down by Mill Stream.

Visit Buckinghamshire: Old Amersham.