Rum & Reggae on the Rye 🍹

Good morning, Wycombe!

It’s the Wycombe Pulse. Your local newsletter that’s rapidly closing in on 5,000 subscribers. Got any ideas for how to celebrate? A giveaway? A party? Tasteful human sacrifice..?

This week, there’s plenty to get excited about:

🍹 Caribbean vibes on The Rye
📸 A free nature photography workshop
🕺 Ecstatic dancing in the woods (yes, really)

Plus: a brand new Wycombe-themed Wordle game, mindfulness morning for kids, beer and gin galore, wine tasting, live music, and heaps more.

Let’s dive in...

🍹Taste of the Caribbean: Food & Drink Festival
📍The Rye | 🗓️ Saturday 9th August | 🕰️ 10am-8pm
An enormous food and drink festival celebrating all things Caribbean — expect loads of different restaurant and street food traders, live music all day, free children’s activities, eating competitions and cooking demos. See you there!

⛪🟡 St Lawrence Church Festival
📍St Lawrence’s Church | 🗓️ Sunday 10th August | 🕰️ 2pm
The iconic Golden Ball is opening its doors for tea and cake this Sunday, inviting you to explore the beautiful church, its history and plans for a more sustainable future.

🧒 Kalmer Kids
📍The Lambing Shed, Walled Garden | 🗓️ Saturday 9th August | 🕰️ 9-11am
A mindful morning of creative wellness for kids — with yoga, sound baths, and nature-inspired play.

🍷 Sips & Stories: A Winery Tasting
📍Daws Hill Vineyard | 🗓️ Friday 8th August | 🕰️ 6.30pm
Join winemaker Holly at Daws Hill for a relaxed tasting and chat about English wine, the vineyard’s story, and a taste of their current vintages. Just £10.

🚨999 Emergency Services Day
📍High Street | 🗓️ Sunday 10th August | 🕰️ 10am-4pm
Let your little ones meet real-life local heroes from the police, fire and rescue service, ambulance service and even Search Dogs Bucks. Plus vehicles, live demos and more.

The Wycombe Wordle 🤓

If you’ve never played before: you get six guesses to figure out a five-letter word. Green = right letter, right place. Yellow = right letter, wrong place. Grey = nope. A mini puzzle for your morning coffee.

But in this version, the answer will always be something Wycombe-related — a landmark, a local legend, a bit of history…

Just a fun way to test your local knowledge and warm up your brain.

Let me know how you do — especially if you get it in one. I’ll be impressed... and slightly suspicious.

Click here to play.

🧘 Wellness Moments

• Sound Healing & Gong Meditation at Penn Street Village Hall on Friday 8th August at 5.30pm.

• Girls Just Want To Have Fun Evening at Downley Community Centre on Friday 8th August at 7pm — an Italian themed pottery painting evening for local women who want to make new friends and have fun.

• Sunset Sound Bath on The Rye on Tuesday 12th August at 7.30pm.

• Drink & Draw at the Mad Squirrel on tonight at 8pm — guided painting with a drink.

• Waterstones Book Club at the Front Room on tonight at 6.30pm — discussing The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden.

• Full Moon Wild Ecstatic Dance and Cacao Ceremony in Wendover Woods on Saturday 9th August at 7pm — a wild, barefoot and free somatic journey.

Summer Holiday Fun

Stuck for ideas to keep the kids entertained? Here’s a round-up of creative, crafty and outdoorsy workshops happening locally. Perfect for curious minds, messy hands and a bit of mid-holiday magic ✨

• Outdoor Nature Photography Workshop in Gomm’s Wood on Friday 8th August at 10am — a special workshop for 14-18 year olds where you can learn how to enhance your nature photography skills.

• Matilda Workshops at the Roald Dahl Museum every Tuesday to Friday — this week, you’ll be making Mr Wormwood’s Junkyard Cars and next is Goodies and Baddies: Clay Creations.

• Summer Scroll Saw Crafts at Axminster Tools, Cressex on Tuesday 12th August at various times — a woodcraft workshop where kids can have a go at scroll saw art.

• Easely Does It Family Workshops at the Walled Garden — lots of different family painting and crafting workshops to enjoy.

• Family Writing Workshop with Will Burns at the Roald Dahl Museum on today at 11am — explore the local woods with poet Will Burns and get inspired with your creative writing. You’ll be creating your own family poem by the end of the workshop.

• Fairy House Decorating Craft Workshop at Hughenden Manor on Tuesday 12th August at 2pm 🧚

👶 For Really Little Ones…

🖐️ Sing and Sign: Charity Summer Tasters in Wycombe 🎶
Looking for something meaningful (and musical!) to do with your little one this August?

On Tuesday 12th August, the team from Sing and Sign South Bucks are running charity taster sessions at the brand new Fir Trees Nursery on Micklefield Road, Wycombe (formerly Little Dragons). It's a fantastic opportunity to explore baby signing while checking out this newly opened nursery space and meeting the team.

There’s no set fee — just a voluntary donation to Cancer Research UK, supporting Jen & Zoë’s Shine Night Walk fundraiser 💜

👶 10am: for babies 6+ months
👶 11:15am: for babies 0–6 months

📍 Booking essential via: linktr.ee/SingandSignSouthBucks
Let your little one discover the joy of signing — and support a great cause at the same time!

Entertainment

• Beer, Gin and Cider Fest at The Squirrel on Friday 8th and Saturday 9th August — expect amazing local drinks, mouth watering BBQ and live music, plus a bouncy castle for the kids.

• 90s Summer Terrace Party at Trilogy on Saturday 9th August from 2-6pm.

• Pub Quiz at The Crown Penn on tonight at 7.30pm — hosted by Paul, a Penn local, free to enter and a £50 bar tab up for grabs…

• Karaoke Night at the Front Room on Friday 8th August at 7pm.

🛍️ Business News: Farewell to the Air Raid Shelter Café

The unique and much-loved Air Raid Shelter Café and Tea Room closed its doors last week — and they didn’t go quietly. Their parting words included a sobering reflection on the state of retail in High Wycombe.

Two points really struck a chord with me: the idea of opening up the River Wye as a transformative feature for the town, and the potential for pedestrianising Frogmoor. Imagine a town centre that people actually want to spend time in — not just dash through on the way to M&S or for a new passport photo.

There are glimmers of hope. The Eden Centre is becoming a destination in its own right — with go-karting, mini golf, and some quality new stores. But step outside and things start to feel... confused. Recent additions to a prime stretch of the High Street include a corner shop and a halal food market — both useful and valued, but is that really the best use of Wycombe’s central thoroughfare?

I visited Cheltenham last weekend and was struck by the contrast — a town centre you choose to go to, just to wander, shop, eat, explore. When was the last time you did that in Wycombe?

What do you think? Could we reimagine our town centre as a proper destination? What would it take?

🐶 Dog of the Week

Introducing a brand new (and highly important) section: Dog of the Week.

First up — it’s only right that I kick things off with my own beloved gremlin, Pancakes. Also known as Pooch, Paul, and Paul Pooper (don’t ask). She’s nearly 15, blind, deaf, and increasingly bald — but still the queen of the cuddle, and the most devoted kitchen floor cleaner you’ve ever met. Especially after the kids have eaten.

Think your dog deserves the spotlight? Send me a photo and a few words and they could be next week’s Very Good Dog 🐾

Sports and Activities

⚽ FOOTBALL

• Wycombe Wanderers vs Stockport County at Adams Park on Saturday 9th August at 3pm.

• Leyton Orient vs Wycombe Wanderers at BetWright Stadium on Tuesday 12th August at 7.45pm.

🏃🏻‍♂️ RUNNING

• Run Dorney Lake in Windsor on Saturday 9th August at 9am — 5k, 10k and Half Marathon routes available.

• Parkrun 5km on The Rye (meet at the Lido) at 9am on Saturday.

• Junior Parkrun 2km on The Rye (meet at Pann Mill) at 9am on Sunday.

• Risborough Run In The Park 5km at Wades Park on Sunday at 9am.

🏏 CRICKET

Check out all the fixtures and results for HWCC this week.

Community Events

• A Summer’s Evening at Funges Meadow on tonight at 6pm — join the Chiltern Rangers to help with a variety of practical conservation tasks.

• Wycombe Food Hub’s 5th Anniversary Celebration at All Saints Church on Saturday 9th August at 6pm — a multi-faith service followed by a cheese and wine reception.

• Buckinghamshire Archives Drop-In at Wycombe Museum on Tuesday 12th August from 11am-2pm — drop in and have a chat with archives staff about family history, collections, building history and more.

We hope you've enjoyed this week's edition of the Pulse!

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Until next Thursday...

Steph

Publisher and Editor, Wycombe Pulse