Buckden - a Huntingdonshire Village

A HISTORY OF ST MARY’S, THE PARISH CHURCH 125 of fitting blackout curtains in the church’s vast windows would be prohibitive. And to aid the war effort, the iron railings from around the tombs in the churchyard were removed in December 1941, and sent for scrapping. The boys of Tollington School, Muswell Hill, London were evacuated to Buckden Palace on 1 September 1939 and remained until July 1942, when the worst of the Blitz was over. Some of the Old Boys still visit the church with fond memories of being marched over for Sunday service. And we have to thank their Headmaster, Dr F. W. M. Draper, for some early deciphering of the Churchwardens’ Accounts and research into the lives of the bishops. The Churchwardens’ staves are particularly noteworthy, with silver heads hallmarked 1946, and donated by Major and Mrs Duberly in memory of their son. The inscription reads, ‘Remember 2 nd Lieut. James Duberly, Scots Guards. Killed 18.6.44’. Lieut. Duberly, with many of his comrades, was at worship in the Guards Chapel at Wellington Barracks, London when it was struck by a V1 flying bomb. The emblems to the stave tops are of a dove (a copy of the Winchester cathedral dove: this stave is for the ‘Vicar’s warden’) and a he-goat (or buck, symbolic of Buckden, and this belongs to the ‘people’s warden’); nowadays, of course, both wardens are elected annually by the congregation. Once more, Buckden men had sacrificed themselves for their fellows, and in order that they were not forgotten their sixteen names were recorded on two piers beside the First World War Memorial. In 1947, the cross was moved to align with the church tower so as to make the area more symmetrical, and a small entrance to the memorial was created in the church wall. After the Second World War The congregation must have got used to having services in the tower during blackout periods, as it was decided in 1948 to make a permanent room of that space; and a few of the remaining 1886 pew backs were utilised to make the screen and doors. That same year, Mrs F. C. S. Green gave two large, silver family dishes (hallmarked Edinburgh 1842) in memory of her husband, a churchwarden from 1913 to 1945. They serve a useful purpose every Sunday, as alms dishes. The Coronation chalice and its matching paten, purchased by the congregation in 1953, are also used most Sundays. In Coronation year, too, the children of the church had their own collection and they provided the silver Baptism Shell, used to this day for christenings. Between 1955 and 1959, the roof received quite a lot of attention: the north aisle roof was replaced in its entirety and in identical form; it contained no carved work. During this time the clerestory, the upper stone level of the nave, had its windows replaced. An anonymous church member, who had brought it home from Oberammergau, donated the well- carved wooden Crucifix above the pulpit in 1957. Many remark on the pleasant statuette of the Virgin and Child above the porch. This is in memory of the Rev. Hugh Atkinson (1931-1950) and was sculpted by Eric Winters in 1962, to replace the statuette removed over four hundred years earlier. Although the churchyard had been closed since 1883, there were many in the congregation who expressed a desire to have an area where they or their loved ones could be laid to rest within the consecrated grounds of St Mary’s. Accordingly, a faculty was granted, in 1990, to permit the interment of ashes in a small area of the western churchyard. The Millennium Bell To celebrate two thousand years of Christianity the church members met in early 1995 to discuss appropriate ways of sharing their faith and reaching out to the village and others. The decision was taken to raise funds to replace the 1637 oak bell-frame, which was loose in its supports and causing the tower to move when the bells were rung, and also to provide a meeting hall, kitchen and toilet facilities for village use. Fundraising started in earnest and by 1996 sufficient funds were in hand to commence the first part of the project, the bells. It was decided to go ahead with the bells to ensure that they would be ready in time for the year 2000. The contract was awarded to White’s of Appleton to remove the current five bells and transport them to their works, where they would be retuned and rehung in a new steel frame. Additionally, to celebrate the centenary of the Ely Diocesan Bellringers’ Association, they very generously offered to cast a new sixth bell for Buckden. The bells were removed on 2 December 1996 and cleanup operations were undertaken by volunteers in the old bell chamber to remove decades of dirt and leave Thomas Parnell’s oak frame of 1637 (original cost £38) in good condition and in its proper position. The Bellringers Association bell was cast at the Whitechapel Foundry on 6 February 1997 and all six bells were test assembled in their new frame at