Buckden - a Huntingdonshire Village

13 unpromising start to his education, he ended up going to university. *Sarah Trimmer (1741-1810) was a Sunday School reformer and writer of children’s books; some of her works, including the scriptural catechism and the perhaps less intimidating story of three birds called Dicksy, Flapsy, and Pecksy, remained in print for over a hundred years Miss Cartwright gave up teaching to become housekeeper to the Cranfield family (q.v.), one of whom had been her pupil. One of George Cartwright’s sons, John, followed his father into the hotel trade, becoming an innkeeper in Huntingdon. Something of George’s passion for coaches was passed on to another son, George junior, albeit in less dashing form: the boy grew up to be a London omnibus driver, a job he was still doing into his 70s; he ended his days in St Anne’s Home, a branch of the St Pancras Workhouse. His son, George W., known as William, was a carman, that is, the driver of a horse-drawn van or tram. Catherine of Aragon: see Katherine of Aragon Cavell, Nurse Edith Louisa (1865-1915) is well known for her heroism in the First World War when she ran a Red Cross hospital in Brussels. For assisting British and French soldiers to escape to the Dutch frontier she was arrested, tried and killed by firing squad. She was a cousin of Mrs Kathy Coles, who lived in the double-fronted house adjacent to Lucks Cottage. A woman who considered purchasing the house in the 1980s reported that it still had earth floors. Cawcutt, Ann. ‘I have a scarce little tract by a Cawcutt of Huntingdonshire,' wrote Herbert E. Norris, benefactor of the Norris Museum in St Ives, ‘[and] as it is little known and rather an interesting account of two persons, mother and son, I give the title’: ‘A MOTHER’S PRAYER ANSWERED Being PARTICULARS Of a remarkable MANIFESTATION Witnessed by ANN CAWCUTT OF STIRTLOE HUNTS ON SATURDAY 4 TH AND SUNDAY 5 TH FEBRUARY 1865 AS NARRATED BY HERSELF’ Ann Cawcutt (née Eaden) was the wife of John, who worked his way up from labourer to farm bailiff. They lived in Bowyer’s Farm House, Stirtloe, and had three children: Charles, John and Ann. The manifestation which Mrs Cawcutt witnessed was of Charles, of whose death at sea she had recently learnt. He had been on board HMS Bombay , a teak-built line-of-battle screw steamer that caught fire and sank off the coast of Uruguay in December 1864. The cause of the fire was never determined, but it spread so rapidly that the order to abandon ship had to be given only seventeen minutes after the alarm had first been sounded. Just over ninety of those on board perished. In her vision Mrs Cawcutt saw her son in the company of Christ. He told her that though he had found a watery grave, her prayers had moved God to deliver him out of the hands of the devil and that his spiritual salvation was assured. After urging her to tell the rest of the family and ‘my sinful companions’ to follow him to Heaven (i.e., lead godly lives), he left her with the comforting thought that she would soon be dead and reunited with him. Her last glimpse of him was of a hand and arm waving to and fro out of a small cloud. That Charles had indeed perished may be inferred from the fact that he never appears in any of the subsequent Buckden censuses or parish registers. However, nor does his name appear in the official list of those who died. This may simply be a transcription error, though none of the Charleses listed has a surname at all similar to Cawcutt. Or it may be that he joined up under an assumed name: the reference to the ‘sinful companions’ he had left behind in Buckden, suggests he might have been a bit of a bad lad who had seen the error of his ways (with some help from his mother) and decided to make a new life for himself. Ann lived almost another ten years, dying a few weeks short of the anniversary of Charles’s death; within twenty- four hours, her husband was also dead. Their grave is in St Mary’s churchyard, not far from the westernmost path. cemetery . St Mary’s churchyard closed in the summer of 1883, to be replaced from 1 September by a new cemetery in Lucks Lane. The first burial, which took place on 20 October, was of Florence Morley, an infant of 3 months and 4 days. The cemetery was administered in turn by St Neots Rural District, Huntingdonshire District Council and Buckden Parish Council. Its maintenance is part of the duties of the parish handyman, but for several years there was a dedicated cemetery supervisor or keeper. Cemetery Lane appears to have been briefly used as the name of that part of Lucks Lane that runs past the cemetery. census, dates of. Beginning in 1801, and excepting 1941, a census has been held in Britain every ten years. The first four censuses were little more than simple head counts of the population. In 1841 the first modern census was held. Each householder was required to complete a census schedule giving the address of the household and for each individual residing in his or her accommodation, and their name, sex and occupation. In 1851 householders were asked to give more precise details of the places of birth of each resident, to state their relationships to him or her, marital statuses and the nature of any disabilities from which they may have suffered. Apart from a few minor changes the basic structure of the census schedule did not change until 1891. Householders were then asked how many rooms (if less then five) their family occupied. Additional occupational data were collected and, in Wales, people were asked to say if they spoke the Welsh language. “Cemetery Lane” Barry Jobling