Buckden - a Huntingdonshire Village

BUCKDEN: A CLOSING MISCELLANY 219 Although most dancing was to records (the forerunner to the disco but much more sedate), there were a number of live bands: The Squadronnaires (before they were famous), the band of the USAAF, the Fire Brigade, George Green’s Blue Rhythm, Ernie Bonham (a blind pianist from St Neots) and Jack Abraham. Mrs Partington was a favourite vocalist. JW Mr Kilvert’s Buckden harem T he word Bugden appears only twice in the Oxford English Dictionary, each time in a quotation about the bishops’ palace. The first, which mentions Katherine of Aragon, is part of an entry defining the meaning of ‘life’. The second supports the definition of ‘quaedam’, a rare and obsolete word which describes the associates of one of Buckden’s least appreciated visitors, Richard Kilvert. The Star Chamber sent Kilvert to Buckden in 1637 to enforce payment of a fine levied by Charles I on the bishop of Lincoln, John Williams. John Hacket, the bishop’s devoted memorialist, claimed that Kilvert wreaked havoc on the palace estate, selling every movable object in the place, felling timber, killing deer and drinking the palace cellars dry. According to Hacket, only £800 of the estimated £10,000 he raised was ever accounted for. The rest he squandered on the ‘baggage and loose franions’ who made up his seraglia of quaedam —the harem of wanton women which he maintained at the palace for three summers. 1 The War Memorial Playing Fields by John Hebblethwaite and Horace Haynes ‘ T he Library? You want Vineyard Way, then first right into Burberry Road and you’ll find the car park at the end’. Walk often along Church Street and you’ll get used to acting as a human sat-nav for drivers who pull over and demand directions to the Playing Fields/ Village Club/ Millennium Centre/ Bowls Club/ Library/ Tennis Club/ Play Group… ‘There should be signs,’ they grumble as they pull away. ‘There are,’ you say, but to yourself so as not to aggravate, ‘look: ‘Village Hall.’ What more do you need?’) So having established just where the centre of village life lies, let us take a closer look at the history of those all-important playing fields, here described by John Hebblethwaite—who once made the mistake of calling them the recreation ground—and Horace Haynes, who put him right, politely but firmly: ‘It’s not a recreation ground; it’s nothing to do with the Village Hall; and in no way at all was it paid for by the sale of the old Rifle Range! You got it wrong, John.’ I’m sorry, Horace, let’s put it right then; Horace never pulls his punches! So started the correction of matters and proper dedication of the War Memorial Playing Fields following a misleading article in the Roundabout. A committee of interested parties was formed, including those who knew the origins, and so came together Dai Davies, Ernie Dudley, Horace Haynes, Frank Mace, Percy Pepper, Jack Riseley and myself, then chairman of the Village Hall Trust; and so started many get-togethers in Percy Pepper’s bungalow on Cranfield Way. They were convivial, social evenings, when the Trust Chairman listened to many nostalgic stories and experiences of old and wartime Buckden from those who were actually there at the time. Since the early 1920s, the old Rifle Range (now the site of the Burberry Homes) had acted as the venue for village entertainment and dances most nights of the week. Come the Second World War, such events took on even more significance as lads and lassies converged on Buckden from their various air bases in the locality—English, Irish, Scots, Welsh, Poles and Americans. Funds were gradually accumulated and various options considered, before deciding that this money should go towards establishing both a sports field and a children’s play area for Buckden. We learned how some funds never arrived with the Treasurer (the committee found out that the servicemen had been paying 3d. per night for bike storage and safe keeping, but the committee was only receiving 2d) and how a post-war War Memorial Playing Fields Committee was established to invest the funds and look for suitable land. The Towers Field was owned by the Edleston family and was eventually given to the Bishop of Northampton, who in turn gave it to the Claretian Missionary Society. It was decided that the field now under Manor Gardens was too wet, but eventually land was targeted in the old vineyard, and a small area secured for a children’s play corner; this is now the car park at the front of the hall. Frank Mace was a driving force, visiting and working with the National Playing Fields Association in Cambridge, liaising with solicitors, and treading a tortuous path through the negotiations. After various open meetings, and two attempts, ten acres of land adjoining the play corner was finally purchased, and the War Memorial Playing Fields Trust was set up by the Minister of State in 1947. 1 The OED also has one reference to Buckden , but it is the one in Yorkshire.