Buckden - a Huntingdonshire Village

EDUCATION IN BUCKDEN 176 Two world wars were bound to affect the running of the school. The first passed without comment in the Log Books until 1916 when the uncertificated teacher was called up. (After the war the managers refused to reinstate him.) Shortages began to bite soon after: ‘Poetical Reader not to be supplied (War Economy)’ (1917).The shortage of coal immediately after the war was more serious because the Girls’ school had to close several times when the temperature was near or below freezing point. The children probably enjoyed other aspects of wartime economy: ‘Oct 12 th . In accordance with a request from Government the School had a half holiday to gather blackberries. 79 lbs were gathered . . . 1253 lbs of chestnuts have also been collected.’ Extra holiday was also granted for potato picking. The day peace was announced has a dry notice in the Log Books— ’Nov 11 th . Half-holiday on receiving news of the Armistice.’ —but the real story, as told by a pupil of the time, is much more lively. The children were hard at work when the windows were suddenly darkened, and when they looked up it was soldiers from the Military Hospital at the Towers, who refused to go away but like Pied Pipers led the children off to celebrate with bonfires and fun in the Palace grounds. The Second World War was prepared for long before it arrived: plans were made in case of evacuation as early as September 1938. A year later the Headmaster recorded solemnly: ‘ Sept 11 th . School opened today under historic conditions.’ The school did not after all have to host evacuees: ‘Some 200 boys from Tollington Secondary School, Hornsey have been brought here and are now resident on the village. These will be using the Towers as a school and so our building is not required and normal hours will be worked.’ 1 There were some private ‘refugees’ admitted. Helping with the potato harvest was again sanctioned, and other diversions included, intriguingly, on 30 July 1943, ‘Police -Sergeant Cragill visited the school this morning and demonstrated and spoke about various bombs to the Senior and Junior Girls and Boys.’ To mark the end of the war, the local education authority gave each child one shilling to buy a celebratory ice- cream. Perhaps emboldened by this relaxation of austerity, the School Managers pressed for a school bus service for the older Buckden pupils who attended Brampton School and Huntingdon Grammar. In spite of the setbacks of war and disease, the overall picture of the twentieth century was one of progress. Medical inspections began. From January 1935 the school participated in the ‘Milk in Schools Scheme’. It cost a halfpenny for a third of a pint. A former pupil remembers that the milk did not come, as intended, in a hygienic little bottle complete with straw; the children dipped their cups into a communal 1 In Chapter 17 some of the Tollington boys remember their time in Buckden. The Girls School c 1928 Alice Whitmee Back Row: 1 Dorothy Waring; 2 -- Richardson; 3?; Prudence Sabey? ; 5? Centre Row: 1 --Richardson;2 --Bull; 3 Prudence Sabey?;4 ? ;5 ? ; 6 Win Livett; 7 Doris Papworth; 8? ; 9 Vera Livett; 10 ? Front Row: 1 Doreen Richardson; 2 – Stocker; 3 Len Bozeat; 4 Vivian Waring; 5 --Stocker; 6 Dorothy Milner; 7 --Bull?; 8 Emily Newman; 9 Jessie Haynes; 10 –Richardson?