HS2 rail link: Hundreds of historic houses will be ruined by the new high speed line | Mail Online

HS2 rail link: Hundreds of historic houses will be ruined by the new high speed line | Mail Online

There are few English villages more idyllic than Chetwode in Buckinghamshire, just on the Oxfordshire border. The Grade I listed priory church of St Mary and St Nicholas was built from the remains of an Augustinian priory founded in 1245. In its chancel window is England’s oldest heraldic stained glass, showing Henry III’s coat of arms.

In the nave, there’s a plaque to John Betjeman’s father-in-law, Field Marshal Lord Chetwode. In the churchyard, you can’t hear anything apart from the sound of birdsong.

But this week, Transport Secretary Justine Greening confirmed that the HS2 high-speed train line will now go ahead — and once it is up and running, you won’t hear a bird around here for love nor money. Any vicar taking a service in the church will, as the trains pass, have to bellow out his sermons at the top of his voice.