August 2023

13 Buckden Roundabout August 2023 History and Wildlife Samuel Pepys House in Brampton A visit by the Buckden Local History Society The BLHS visited Pepys House in June 2023 and were shown around by the Chairman of the Samuel Pepys Trust. Once owned by the Montagues of Hinchingbrooke House and passed to Sam- uel in 1661 on the death of his uncle Robert Pepys, the house was a home often visited by Samuel, both when he was a stu- dent at Huntingdon Grammar School during the Civil War and then later when his uncle Robert lived there. Built around the end of the 16 th century as a modest yeoman ’ s home, the core of the house is a long rectangular timber framed structure with a cross wing of unknown date. A second parallel wing was added in the 18th century. The entrance of the house is to the north. Here in the hall, there is a large brick and timber fireplace. The room is fur- nished with a dining table given by a descendant of Will Hew- er, a great friend and confidant of Pepys. It is here that Robert, Samuel ’ s uncle was laid out after his death in 1661. It is said that the summer heat resulted in an overpowering smell which demanded that the casket was removed to the garden for the remaining of his laying out, guarded by servants for fear of body snatchers. Although Samuel never lived full time at the house, he visited often and mentioned the house in his diaries. One of the most interesting entries was dated October 1667, following the Dutch attack on the Royal Navy in the River Medway. He had tried to save his possessions by taking them from his London home to a safer place, his gold coins he buried in the garden at Brampton. When he returned to find them later in 1667, he had forgotten the exact location of the burial and his diary describes his distress as he frantically digs up his garden in the dead of the night. Eventually, after sleepless nights worrying, and more digging he was satisfied that he had found almost all the coins and he returned to London with them hidden under his carriage seat. Samuel didn ’ t think much of Buckden or Brampton, complain- ing of “ the badness of the drink, the ill opinion I have of the meat (food) and the biting of the gnats at night ”! The house continues to be let and we were fortunate to visit when the house was vacant between tenancies. The Pepys Club hope to make the house more available to the public and schools in the future. - Nicky Gibbs The Wren If you ’ re walking along an over- grown path and you catch a flash of a reddish - brown ball scudding across in front of you, fol- lowed by an explosive burst of joyous birdsong, you ’ ve just encountered a Wren. Not often seen, the Wren is our com- monest breeding bird with a population estimated at over 8 million pairs. It comes from a family of 88 species, of which all but ours are confined to the Americas. Although only a single species is found in Europe, there are six ‘ races ’ one covering mainland Europe, one for much of the UK and four endemic to various islands, to wit the Shet- lands, Fair Isle, the Outer Hebri- des and perhaps the most fa- mous the St Kilda Wren. This energetic little bird cannot be attributed any specific habi- tat but is best described as a bird of nooks and crannies, boul- ders and banks, hidey holes and thick vegetation wherever they occur, and explains its scientific name, Troglodytes troglo- dytes, ‘ cave dweller ’. This habit of sculking can be most proba- bly attributed to its favourite food of minute insects, spiders, mites and ants, not creatures easily hunted in the open. It is this food source that exposes the Wrens greatest weakness, numbers can be decimated by cold weather. Finding small insects is difficult and heat loss in such a small bird, weighing the same as a £1 coin, is high. Strangely for such a solitary and anti - social bird the answer is communal roosting, and the Wren takes it to extremes. A roost was discovered in Norfolk in a 6” by 6” by 4” bird box that contained over 60 birds. Another behaviour taken to extremes is nest build- ing, rather than a pair building a single nest, the male builds several nests (the record being 12) and then allows the female to choose her favourite. The locations of these nests can be bizarre as well. Records exist of Wren nests in a floral cross on a church pulpit, in the mouth of a prize pike hanging on a garage wall and in the pockets of jackets and trousers hanging on washing lines. One pair suc- cessfully raised chicks in a nest located 8” away from a working circular saw. I have my own experience of this eccentricity, a few years ago we went out in the works Landrover. On return we noticed a pair of Wrens frantically hopping around near to where we parked the vehicle. On stopping these birds immedi- ately disappeared beneath the vehicle, where a careful inspec- tion revealed a nest with young located inside the rear chassis member. Presumably the incubating parent had enjoyed trips out onto the nature reserve, but were a little anxious when the chicks ‘ went solo ’. The Landrover was thus out of action for a couple of weeks until the chicks fledged. - Gregory Belcher This photo courtesy of Joefrei. Other photos by the author