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This gallery of old and new photographs of the Chilterns gives some fascinating insights into what has changed, and what hasn’t, in our local countryside and villages over the last 70 years. It was created as part of the celebrations of the 40th anniversary of the designation of the Chilterns as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The original photos were taken by various photographers in the 1930s for the book Chiltern Country by H J Massingham. In 2005 the Chilterns Conservation Board commissioned the Chiltern Society’s Photo Group to re-take many of the photos in the book from the same viewpoints. The results highlight some of the issues facing the Chilterns today and raise a few questions. How well protected is this much-loved area? What will the Chilterns look like in another 70 years?

Please email us your comments – we’d love to know what you think the photos reveal. Are there any countryside issues that concern you?

looking down towards lewknor, oxon, from the chiltern escarpment

ivinghoe beacon from the south

whiteleaf cross, near princes risborough

looking across the risborough gap from whiteleaf hill

chalk ramparts near edlesborough, beds

gray's beech at burnham beeches, near slough

the wormsley valley, near stokenchurch

hambleden, near henley-on-thames

bix bottom farm, near henley-on-thames

west wycombe

view over the wye valley near loudwater, high wycombe

the church and manor house, bradenham

rural lane near jordans

the green at chenies, near amersham

cholesbury common, near chesham

bowerdean farm and its valley near high wycombe, before and after development in the 1930s
 
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You can see more pairs of then and now photos of the Chilterns on the Chiltern Society Photo Group’s website.