April 2021

14 Buckden Roundabout April 2021 The Early Years Articles always wanted! Are you a budding writer? Buckden Roundabout is always looking for articles to be included in the magazine. • Maybe you have something interesting to share about the history, geography or nature of the village? • Do you run a local group, society or activity (that is essentially non - commercial) and are looking to either attract new members or raise the profile of the group? • Do you have a short - story, poem or fan fiction to share? Whatever the topic, send your articles to editor@buckdenroundabout.info for consideration. The Parish Council - Early Years Mains water, sewerage and electricity come to Buckden The new council, under the able leadership of John Linton soon established a pattern of meetings and work. Most activities were caried out by committees, the first being Parish Property, Footpaths and Open Spaces (including care of the cemetery and sanitary matters) and a Technical Education Committee. The latter set up a wide ranging programme of educational courses: to start with all instruction was given by councillors. The initial subjects were veterinary science and farriering, bookkeeping, domestic economy, bee keeping and poultry keeping. This range of useful subjects clearly indicates the skills and trades of the councillors. At later dates bread - making, cookery, ambulance, basket making, shoemaking, carving, vo- cal music and sick nursing were added. The early councilors obviously had a busy life and were, hopefully, multi - talented. In 1900 military training and rifle shooting were added to the syllabus, a response, no doubt, to the second Boer War which had begun the year before. The number and responsibilities of these committees changed to meet circumstances over the years. At the turn of the twen- ty - first century they were: Planning, General Purposes, Fi- nance, Allotments, Footpaths and Road Safety. As we shall see in later chapters Planning and Roads, especially the A1 became important areas for the Council to consider. Modern council- lors are doubtless grateful that they no longer have to run edu- cational classes. Full Council meetings were short, mainly taking account of the various committee reports and recommendations. Some of the agenda items would be familiar to today ’ s councillors. There was concern about the condition of footpaths and stiles, the management of trees and the continued worsening state of local road surfaces. There was urgent discussion about the maintenance of the many brooks running through the village and the unsatisfactory condition of closets and vaults which ran into open sewers and ultimately into the brooks. The council had taken over from its predecessor the parish fire engine and hearse. These responsibilities continued until the late 1930s. The village also maintained a ‘ bathing place ’ and a hut on the River Ouse, which was not given up until 1952. Overseers and constables were still appointed (although both had been phased out in many parts of the country): the over- seers until the 1920s and the constables until just before the second world war. The residual responsibilities for the church were handed over to separately appointed church wardens. In 1907, in spite of the fact that there was no piped water to the village, the council reported that “ with the exception of isolated cases there was a fair supply of water to the village. ” Even in 1934 both Brampton and Buckden turned down a dis- trict - wide water scheme. At a public meeting the voting was 122 against the scheme with only 42 in support. As late as 1949 the council was urging the retention of the village pump because many villagers had no mains water and it would be a good standby for those who had. There was no sewerage sys- tem and complaints about the dumping of ‘ night soil ’, especial- ly in Lucks Lane, and the pungent smell, were still being voiced in 1958 when main drainage for the village had been complet- ed. The scheme had first been agreed in 1950. The third utility was equally slow in coming to Buckden; in spite of having electric street lighting there were ongoing dis- cussions about electricity for domestic use as recently as 1948. Looking some years ahead of our story, during WW2 a large group of schoolboys and their teachers were evacuated from the comfortable suburb of Muswell Hill to Buckden. There were aspects of their new life that came as a shock. The mem- ories of two schoolboys sum up their experiences “ Water still came from a manual pump over the kitchen sink and whilst we did enjoy the benefits of electric lights, the loo was a tiny shed at the end of the garden. The sanitary arrangements applied to most of the village and the ‘ night - soil ’ buckets were emptied once a week by a council worker who made the rounds with a horse drawn metal tank on wheels. It was rumoured that at the end of the week the tank would be emptied into the river at Offord ”. The other wrote “ It was a passage back in time. There were long stints of pumping water, doing homework by oil lamps, farms where they still used horses. Few of us were aware that only 60 miles from London there were villages without electric- ity, mains water and sewers ”. Next month I shall tell the story of the Council during the years leading to the second world war - Terry Hayward