‘It’s been beyond difficult’: earthworks of HS2 take toll on Chilterns residents

Locals complain of a changed landscape, flooding, dust and disruption as rail project cuts through area of outstanding natural beauty

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Margaret Bunce used to look from her cottage window over a swoop of fields of wheat and small copses. Now when she opens her curtains each morning, the rural valley between Great Missenden and Wendover is dominated by the concrete and earthworks of HS2.

Orange-clad men and their yellow diggers and dumpers are building cuttings and viaducts to take the high-speed railway on its path through a swath of the Chilterns area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB), now known as a national landscape.