Buckden - a Huntingdonshire Village

WHY IS BUCKDEN HERE? 82 impervious to water, and forces it to flow outwards and eventually form springs, which if left alone would trickle away into the gravel or down to the river. The last glacial of the current ice age receded about twelve thousand years ago. The mineral soil was not long without any cover once the recession had started. As the temperature of the earth rose, tundra (a plain with a frozen subsoil, supporting only limited vegetation) was rapidly followed by hardy shrubs and trees; these in turn were replaced by pine forests and, eventually, deciduous forests of oak, ash, lime and other species. Humans lived in Britain long before this exploitable landscape appeared. The early river Great Ouse flowed across what is now the North Sea to join the estuary of the present river Rhine. There was a land bridge joining Britain to the continent, and the English Channel had not yet come into existence. During the mildest interludes of the ice ages, early continental humans had therefore been able to walk to Britain, hunting and fishing for food on the way, and settle here until driven out by the return of glaciation. The discovery in Vineyard Way of a hand axe probably dating from between 400,000 and 200,000 BC suggests that some may have made it as far as Buckden: see Acheulian hand axes in the A to Z Section, and the opening of Chapter 2. When Buckden was finally permanently settled, we shall never know, but it may have been by people who arrived some ten thousand years ago, following the river as the easiest way of penetrating the country. We may imagine the surprise of the first group to emerge from the forest and find fresh running water, well above the river, but with dry land above and below the springs. Water! Water, the first essential to life, the first thing which even today space scientists look for on other planets to see if there is a possibility of life. And here, with the water, were the other necessities for a comfortable life. The forests would provide firewood, materials with which to build shelters, and a habitat for game animals. The gravels offered an easily cultivable soil to stir with a digging stick or other simple tool, to supplement the meat and fish they caught. Water, then, the treasure in a landscape created by the ebb and flow of the great ice sheets of the glacial periods, was probably the reason for Buckden becoming, and surviving as, a permanent settlement. Over the centuries, its population rose to about 1000 and then stabilised, so we must assume that the water supply would only sustain that number. The population expanded to its present level of 3000 only after piped water reached the village in the last century. But even today, the village still has a line of springs and wells, where the underlying Oxford clay comes nearest to the surface: a vivid reminder of why Buckden is here.