Buckden - a Huntingdonshire Village

LIVING OFF THE LAND 154 Buckden Marina: land for leisure 1 by W. B. Carter (Brian Carter has written extensively on the River Great Ouse, and is the author of two well- received books on his experiences as a young naval officer during and after the D-Day landings.) In 1949 I purchased the property known then as The Paddock, owned by Mr Robinson, which was an old granary. The old cottage had originally been a public house called The Three Mill Bills . A mill bill was a type of chisel that was used for resurfacing mill wheels. A Mrs Sabey owned the cottage before Mr Robinson. She used to hire a rowing boat from the Huntingdon boat builders Childs & Hall every summer but, due to her religious scruples, would not allow it to be hired on Sundays. During the war, many trees had been cut down to construct airfields, and the trees were dumped on the land which later I made into a caravan site. Mr Robinson started a log business, and would go round the villages selling sacks of logs at 1/6d a time. He also was a great one for buying up old cars, giving some of them the kiss of life but the rest made the place look like a scrap yard. All the trees and the cars were removed, and I lived in a small caravan while the cottage was made habitable, the 1947 floods having come as high as its letterbox. My idea was to start a small boatyard, hiring punts, rowing boats and one motorboat. There was an old chalet and an army hut which I converted into holiday accommodation, mainly for fishermen. It was the rent from these that enabled me just to keep my head above water, for with few people owning cars and the place being somewhat out of the way, the boat hire side made little revenue. Over the years cabin cruisers started to appear on the river, and I built the first slipway on the Ouse and those coming to use it often decided to moor with me, so gradually up to thirty cabin cruisers were moored in the basin, and the business started to get on its feet. When Grafham Water was planned, W. & C. French, the contractors, needed a large quantity of gravel and it was decided in a combined operation they would dig the adjoining field making it a marina to my design. In 1964, in less than two years, I had the marina in good working order and all the work making landing stages, car parks, tree planting etc. was done by my own small staff, and only the large workshop was built by outside help. It was constructed purely as a boatyard with all the facilities a marina should have. My main object was to make it a quiet place where people could keep their boats and also carry out any maintenance or repair work, so an engineer joined the staff (which was only three). I was awarded the 1970 European Conservation Award by the Duke of Edinburgh and also the Sand and Gravel Award, but removed the letters from the plaque saying it had been a disused gravel pit. In the early days the marina held just over a hundred boats, and about two-thirds of them on a fine Sunday would cruise the river system. Today the number leaving the marina is probably less than 5%, as is now found in most marinas. It is notable that the number of people cruising the river today is about the same as records show in 1970. The reason for this is probably because then boat owners generally used their craft for the holidays. Today holidays abroad have taken over and boats are somewhere to visit at a weekend—used more as a weekend retreat rather than to cruise what must be one of the prettiest rivers in the country. The Buckden Bun The following recipe was one of several compiled by Elizabeth Peplow of The Hoo for the fundraisers of St Mary’s Church. It makes twenty-four buns 112g (4oz) self-raising flour 2 eggs 112g (4oz) margarine 2 tsps cinnamon 112g (4oz) caster sugar 50g (2oz) currants few drops of vanilla essence 50g (2oz) sultanas 50g (2oz) ground almonds Put all the ingredients except the fruit and ground almonds in a large bowl and beat with an electric blender until smooth and creamy. Fold in the fruit and ground almonds. Put the mixture in greased bun trays or paper cases and bake in a hot oven (200 C /400 F /Gas 6) for approximately ten minutes until they are golden brown. 1 The property referred to in this article lies between the Ouse and Mill Road, where the latter bends sharply just before the Offord and Buckden flour mills bridge.