Buckden - a Huntingdonshire Village

THE HISTORY OF BUCKDEN 86 Meanwhile Buckden, with its palace and its main road, could not fail to be affected by the national changes of the sixteenth century. The religious changes under Edward VI, Mary and Elizabeth Tudor brought changes of occupants to the palace, though, as is suggested above, this probably had little effect on the everyday lives of the villagers. The main difference was that after the Reformation the diocese of Lincoln was much smaller, and so Buckden became more popular and more frequently used as an episcopal residence. One result of this is that when in 1588 the country was threatened by a Spanish invasion, the bishop was very much on the spot and he seems to have enjoyed an active role in organizing the local preparations to resist the Armada. On 22 June 1588 he issued a proclamation from Buckden in his own name and that of Henry Cromwell, appointing soldiers to serve under Oliver Cromwell in case of invasion. (Both of these Cromwells were ancestors of the famous Civil War leader.) This prototype Home Guard never had to act, but the provisioning and drilling undoubtedly caused much local excitement. Stuart Buckden The political and religious developments of the seventeenth century were reflected in the vicissitudes of the palace. Bishop Williams (1625 - 42) undertook large-scale improvements. It is worth quoting his biographer Hackett, if only to compare his opinion of our local climate: ‘He came to his seat of Bugden at disadvantage in winter; and winter cannot be more miry in any coast of England than it is round about it. He found a house... . rude, wast, untrimm’d, and in much out of the outward dress like the grange of a farmer ... This bishop did wonders in a short time . . .’ He also provided some entertainment for the villagers, though rather against his will or intention. In 1631 he allowed ‘A Midsummer-Night’s Dream’ to be performed in the palace grounds for the local gentry. The play began at 10 o’clock on a Saturday evening but did not end until the small hours of the Sunday morning. For thus desecrating the Lord’s Day the archbishop of Canterbury decreed various penalties for the participants, and a Mr. Wilson, who was blamed for instigating the project and who had played Bottom in the play, was ordered to sit in the stocks at the Porter’s Lodge for the whole of the next Tuesday wearing his Ass’s head and a placard round his neck: ‘Good people, I have played the beast And brought ill things to pass, I was a man but thus have made Myself a silly Asse.’ One way and another Bishop Williams certainly livened things up. The Civil War and the period of the Protectorate was by contrast a period of destruction so far as the bishops’ estate was concerned. When it was over and Bishop Sanderson was appointed his biographer Walton says he found ‘a great part of it demolished, and what was left standing under a visible decay’. He initiated restoration work and his successors spent a great deal of time at the palace – Bishop Barlow, who died in 1691 and is buried in the churchyard, was known as the ‘bishop of Buckden who never saw Lincoln’. But village life in general carried on, apparently little affected by national politics. That at least is the conclusion drawn from the fact that in 1649, the year Charles I was beheaded, Buckden was busy with the restoration of the church roof, as is recorded in a carving on the rafters (see Chapter 5). This impression is confirmed by reading the Churchwardens’ Account Books, where parish business was recorded through the Civil War and it hardly seems to have caused a ripple. The major loss seems to have been the ringing of the church bells: they were silent all the time Oliver Cromwell was Lord Protector. However at the Restoration in 1660 they were rung three times on the same day: for the coronation, to mark the king’s birthday and in thanksgiving. The Account Books show the everyday concerns of the seventeenth century. The Churchwardens were responsible for levying a Church rate from all but the poorest parishioners, and for a range of other activities, some of which seem a little bizarre today. They encouraged the killing of vermin, for example, by payments. A hedgehog was worth 2d., incredibly – we welcome them nowadays as eaters of smaller pests, but in those days they were believed to rob humans by sucking milk straight from the cows. By way of comparison: 18 dozen moles were only valued at 13s. 6d. in 1641, and a fox’s head at 1s. in 1645. Another sign of awareness of what we now call ‘ecology’ was the exaction of fines for the chopping down of trees, though these were valued according to their practical uses: an ash tree felled might mean a fine of 2d., for example, while a willow (useful for basket making) was valued at 8s. The Churchwardens also had responsibility towards the poor, to wandering beggars and to any who suffered misfortune, as by fire for instance. In addition they administered the Charities which were significantly added to during the seventeenth century. The parish registers add precious details ... or sometimes they infuriatingly fail to do so! There is a baptism entry for 2 June 1637: ‘Rebecca Taylor daughter: caetera quis nescit (everyone knows the rest)’ If