Buckden - a Huntingdonshire Village

30 (there is now an electricity sub-station on the site). The parish council assumed responsibility for the building’s upkeep, repainting its doors in April 1901. Many years later, in the 1970s, the pump was bought by Buckden resident Brian Carter. For his story of what happened next, see Mr. Carter’s contribution to C hapter 21 ‘ Remember when ....? ’. Second World War. In 1941-2, a National Fire Service station and garage was built in the grounds of the Towers, probably from a kit of parts and largely by the firemen themselves. From photographs it appears to have had a brick front wall with a roof of corrugated iron or asbestos. At the rear was a pre-fabricated mess room with a pool or billiards table. Known as the NFS recreation hut, it was sometimes used for dances. The equipment allocated to Buckden comprised a medium pump, a light pump and two trailer pumps. The first two were towed by box-type vans but the trailer pumps were capable of being towed by a car commandeered when required. A photograph shows a staff of twenty-nine including six women but at least one other member is not visible. The officer was Frank Woodhouse of Field House. There are no records of what fires were attended but Alice Whitmee of Diddington recalled telephoning to report a fire in a barn in her village. Since she was one of the staff, the fireman on duty thought that she was joking. It was suggested that he get outside to look. The glow in the sky provided the proof that the call was genuine. As a change from fires, see explosion. fish ponds. There are two ponds, one in the grounds of the Towers and the other further south in the Valley (q.v.) beside the village playing fields. The two are joined by a stream, now culverted for most of its length . Both have been cleaned out, the latter in 1990 by ‘Mac’ and his friends known as Waders Anonymous. A painting of the restored Valley by Australian Eileen O’Meara is reproduced at plate PB2.5.2 . The Waders were rewarded by gaining joint first place in the Conservation Section of the Cambridgeshire Village Ventures Competition in 1991. A cheque for £175 came with the prize and was spent on extending the footpath around the Valley. The pond in the Towers’ grounds was originally three ponds belonging to the Palace: one for carp, one for tench and one for pike. Like the dovecotes and the deer park, the ponds were there to supply the bishops’ lavish feasts. In 1812, these ponds (by 1924 combined into one and labelled The Canal q.v.) were the scene of an accident that could easily have ended in tragedy: see Hodgson, John . football in one form or another was probably being played in Buckden even before the first inflated pig’s-bladder came bouncing along the great north road at the feet of the children of the camp followers trailing along behind the Roman legions. The first indications of there being a formal team, however, appear in newspaper reports in 1894, the date that the present football club takes as marking its foundation. Initially the side was called the Buckden Reading Room Team; the early reports don‘t say who was the captain, but we know that the centre-forward was the village doctor, W. H. Hillyer, who was also the Reading Rooms secretary. In 1898 he broke his collar-bone in a match against Catworth. Fox, Joseph: see Allen, William fox-hunting. Buckden was within the country ridden over by the Cambridgeshire (now the Cambridgeshire with Enfield Chace Hunt). The hunt met regularly at several places in the parish, including The Towers, Stirtloe, Buckden Manor and Park Farm (whose occupier in the early 20thC, Henry Cranfield, was an enthusiastic hunter). It also met at the George where the quaintly eccentric landlord ‘old George Cartwright’ would host the traditional end-of-season hunt breakfast. Buckden Station was another popular site for the meet. The spread of the railways hugely increased the popularity of hunting (and racing) by making it easy for riders, horses and followers to come from a distance. It also provided injured huntsmen with a relatively comfortable journey home, especially those wealthy enough to have the stationmaster telegraph their doctor and order him to be waiting to meet them off the train! Friar John de St Giles (fl. 13thC) was a Dominican theologian and one of the most eminent physicians of his age. For how he came to be in Buckden in the late summer of 1253, see Chapter 14: Medical Practice in Buckden. Frost, Henry (1829-1905) Buckden-born farm worker who passed his whole life in one of the Mill Street (nowMill Road) cottages between the Anchor and the Quart Pot public houses. He collapsed and died suddenly after fetching a pail of water on a hot July evening. At the inquest held next day in the Silver Street pub, the White Horse, Dr Williams ascribed his death to a syncope, brought on by the close, thundery heat. Henry’s neighbour, William Riseley, described it rather differently, with an almost Shakespearean vividness: ‘He just twittered his lips, and he was gone.’ Henry, who grew excellent currants, probably worked on nearby New Farm (later Low Farm). He was married for over 50 years to Susannah [sometimes called Susan] Bason, also of Buckden. She outlived him by six years. By 1901 there were three Mrs H. Frosts in the village, one of whom came joint first in the Married Women’s 100 yards at that year’s Buckden Friendly Societies’ Athletic Sports. This is unlikely to be either Susannah (by then aged 72) or Mary Ann Frost, 60 year old wife of Henry’s nephew. The most likely candidate is therefore 28 year old Southoe- born Amelia Elizabeth [Ashford], wife of Henry’s nephew’s son, Harry. Furbank’s corner is the local name for the junction of George Lane and the High Street, so called after the corner shop, Anne Furbank. It was previously known as Papworth’s corner, Gale’s corner or simply Watkins. Date and source unknown. The Cambridgeshire Hunt leaves the George Hotel. Note the dovecote in the background. Alice Whitmee