Buckden - a Huntingdonshire Village

LIVING OFF THE LAND 151 Park Farm Peter Mailer The second world war brought an increase in arable farming at the expense of mixed and livestock farming; its dominance remains. Another once important local farming industry, basket-making, is now remembered only in the name of The Osiers. Basket-making provided work for women in particular and jobs were much sought after. Osiers were grown in the village until the mid-twentieth century, after which the withies were sold to firms which made fish and lobster pots. Increasing mechanisation demanded bigger fields, and hedges were removed, often with a government grant. There are now rarely any cattle or sheep to be seen in the parish. The horse was the main source of agricultural power until the 1930s. At Park Farm, the first Mr Cranfield had been an enthusiastic user of steam power since his arrival in 1858; yet, ironically, Park Farm was one of the last to give up its horses for tractors. (In the late twenties or early thirties, the late Bill Voss learned to plough with horses in a Park Farm field just to the west of the Great North Road. Being only about thirteen or fourteen at the time, he could drive his horses and control the plough but hadn’t the strength to turn at the ends. One or other of the men who were also ploughing in the field had to come along and help him. These men earned about £2 per week.) Today’s farming is dominated by larger farms and by techniques that would have surprised our ancestors. But the acreage of cultivated land in Buckden has actually diminished. It has been eaten into by the sand and gravel industry (the worked land being more likely to be restored for wildlife habitat or leisure use than for food production). New housing has taken land both at the edges of the village and within it. Where there is still pasture, it may well be given over to horses or ponies. These are ridden for pleasure, not kept to provide power on the farm, or draw stagecoaches or carry bishops. Other recreational activities have also claimed land: for playing fields, sports areas, and a large village hall. Finally, let us remember that a substantial stretch of land (including part of what was once a large allotment field in Hardwick) now lies under the A1 dual carriageway and its verges. Fifty years of change: a more detailed look at the last half of the twentieth century by Robin Gibson Until the middle of the twentieth century Buckden was a parish of farms and horticulture. Apart from the garages, the hotel trade and some gentry, most of the population were involved in these rural activities or supported them by, for example, blacksmithing. Some of these activities are described below. Arable Farming The London schoolboys evacuated to Buckden remember very well their work in the harvests of 1939 to 1942, but the equipment they used bore little or no resemblance to that now employed. They would also find a much narrower range of crops being grown today. Flax, for example, was once grown to provide both linseed oil and the fibres used in the manufacture of linen (which was much in demand until nylon arrived). But it is rarely seen these days, and harvested only for its oil. In wartime, when the whole plant was required, special machines were used for pulling the flax, but evacuee Ken Odell has found no example of these machines surviving anywhere in the country. The boys left graphic descriptions of harvesting peas, beans and potatoes by hand, although they seem to have escaped ‘Brusselling’, that most arduous of winter tasks. By the late 1930s, potatoes were being sent to Spitalfields market in London by lorry. One winter, Ken Odell hitched a lift home in one of these. He was picked up at 1.00 a.m., and endured a two-hour journey to the outskirts of London. The experience of riding in an unheated truck followed by a three mile walk in snow is not one he relished!