In the 1940s, Betjeman also wrote and illustrated a story for his children, entitled Archie and the Strict Baptists, in which the bear's sojourns at the family's successive homes in Uffington and Farnborough are fictionalised.
There were also excursions by train from London to Bristol and, through “Metro-land”, to Quainton Road; Lycett Green unveiled a commemorative plaque at Marylebone station to mark Betjeman's fond association with the railways.
He contributed scripts to the ITV series, The Good Guys with Nigel Havers and Keith Barron, and a stage play, Summoned by Betjeman, starring Robert Daws, was performed at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford, the Royal Theatre, Northampton, and Clwyd Theatr Cymru.
He had worked briefly for Horace Plunkett, a position he had pushed Betjeman out of (1929).
The Church of St Edward (1903), described by Betjeman as "a mini-cathedral of the Arts and Crafts movement", was built from local materials by local labour, under the direction of Randall Wells, clerk of works at All Saints, Brockhampton-by-Ross.
It is believed she introduced Princess Margaret to Antony Armstrong-Jones in 1951 and although she herself never married, Elizabeth Cavendish did form a close relationship with the writer and future Poet Laureate, John Betjeman that same year and was called by Betjeman's daughter, Candida, her father's 'beloved second wife'.
Thorold also wrote the last book in the series, Nottinghamshire in 1984, published the same year that Betjeman died.