Buckden - a Huntingdonshire Village

GARDENING IN BUCKDEN 158 It appears that the committee was determined to set a high standard from the beginning, as in some classes none of the entries attracted a first place and in others no award was made at all. The quantities required in some classes were very ambitious. A schedule for the show showing the first in each class reveals that the family names of some of the winners are to be found in the village today. There were no cups or trophies to be won; the only trophy I can find any record of was the rose bowl presented to Mr F. C. Sydney Green in 1906 in recognition of his services as secretary. The way the shows were organised reflected the divisions in society, which were much deeper than today. Just as cricket then had its Gentlemen and Players, so the shows’ two main sections were for Amateurs and Cottagers, a division that held until 1939. A few years after the first show, another section was added for amateurs living in the county other than at Buckden ‘whether or not they employ a gardener’. Unlike today, competitive classes for gardeners were the main rather than the sole attraction on offer. As part of feast week, the show took on something of the air of a fete. Not only was the band in attendance, but there was a baby show and sports in which the young could show off their speed and agility and their elders gamely make fools of themselves. Some of the events were positively dangerous. In 1925, the local paper reported on a ‘serious accident’ during the blindfolded wheelbarrow race, when Miss H. Stanyon, who was ‘driving’ Percy Smith, steered him into a head-on collision with another barrow, one of the Robinson family. Mr Smith’s eye was badly cut and Mr Robinson was knocked unconscious. No doubt. the mortified Miss Stanyon had to run the gauntlet of some gleeful mutterings about ‘lady drivers’ as she sought the refuge of the tea tent. The last show before the Second World War was an outstanding one, called by a local paper ‘a red letter day in Buckden’s feast week’. There were 700 entries, a record number and 150 more than the previous year. For all the forebodings of war that were already in the air during the summer of 1939, it is doubtful that anyone realised this was to be the last show of the society, and the end of the society itself. It was purely a show society, though it organised entertainment also, and except during the war years between 1915 and 1918, had put on a show every year since 1893. Buckden Gardeners and Fertility Association The war which killed off the Buckden and Diddington Horticultural Society, led directly to the formation of a new association. It was clear that the country was going to in desperate need of home-grown food, and a big ‘DIG FOR VICTORY’ campaign was started. Villages and allotment holders were encouraged to form societies to buy seeds, lime and fertilizers through one agency to save manpower at all stages. In Buckden there were also some gardens belonging to those called up which were cultivated by the older men who were still here. In 1942 the Buckden Gardeners and Fertility Association was formed. It soon became known as Buckden Gardeners Association, though this title was not formally adopted until 1958. Commercial activities The association made annual bulk purchases of seed potatoes, lime, soot and fertilizers, all of which it sold at little above cost price. The greatest order of seed potatoes ever submitted was for over sixteen tons. The village was also able to buy many tons of soot each year, an indication of the quantity of coal being burned in factories. Soot is, of course, a valuable source of nitrogen. Temporary storage was a recurring problem. Some of the places used were Day’s the butchers, The Hoo, and Top Farm. Mr Furbank was one farmer who lent a tractor and trailer to cart the potatoes from Buckden station. For many years after the war, members frequently raised the idea of expanding the association’s commercial side, but this only became a practicable proposition in 1977, with the erection of a large shed on the parish council allotments (then sited where the houses of Wolsey Gardens and Beaufort Drive now stand). The committee rapidly realised there was a demand for many more lines than the ones traditionally traded in, and the number of items in stock grew rapidly, expanding by nearly three times in a single year. Today the association still have an annual order of seeds and seed potatoes, but about 100 other items are available during the active garden season, and others can usually be got in very quickly, making useful savings for the members. The return of the shows The first post-war show took place in 1947. It was divided into two sections but this was no longer a class divide: one section was for members only and the other open to all-comers. Sixty years on the whole show is open to all, but there is a section reserved for anyone who has not won a cup or other trophy. In 1959 a Dahlia and Chrysanthemum Show was held for the first time. There were 45 entries, but in 1960 it grew to 81 entries. This show was held for the next twenty years. A Spring Show was held in 1965 and is still a main show in the programme, held at the beginning of April. The Summer Show had been failing from lack of interest. This was probably because it was a victim of the growing affluence of the i960s