Buckden - a Huntingdonshire Village

THE HISTORY OF BUCKDEN 93 evidence that as the twentieth century drew to a close, Buckden, with all its changes, was still rooted very firmly in its past. Millennial Buckden The years either side of 2000 have seen Buckden continue to adapt to a changing world. The relentless expansion of Cambridgeshire’s economy has put Buckden under pressure to provide new housing, resulting in a large development on the allotment field between the A1 and Silver Street, smaller developments within and without the built-up area of the village, and the conversion of office and other business premises (including a pub) to residential use. An increasing demand for social housing has led to two sites being developed in partnership with housing associations, one expressly intended to help Buckden people stay in their own village. Housing with support has also been provided through private investment at King George Court, built in the grounds of the George Hotel. Road safety remains of concern as traffic continues to grow on both the east/west and the north/south axis of the village. Speed reduction and restriction measures have been introduced between the school and the green, and on Perry Road, Mill Road and the approaches to the A1 roundabout. The parish council remains deeply concerned about the consequences for Buckden’s road users of such proposals as the development of Alconbury airfield and the building of a new A14 relief road between Ellington and Fen Drayton. Buckden continues to support a remarkable range of shops for a village within easy driving distance of three major urban centres and almost on the doorstep of two market towns. Some businesses have changed hands but continue in the same trade, others have changed hands and the nature of their business. Only a few enterprises have ceased trading entirely. The rapidly accelerating processor speeds of personal computers gave the village a new generation of cottage industries, on which the arrival of high-sped internet access (broadband) at the Buckden exchange in June 2003 has had an impact similar to that which, in the nineteenth century, the railway had on Buckden’s millers and fruit growers, enabling them to reach profitable new markets. Buckden is lucky not only in its shops, but in its possession of a pharmacy, post office, doctors’ surgery, dental surgery, school and sports facilities. The millennium brought Buckden a substantial new village hall, the envy of many a larger parish, with its meeting and recreation rooms, a fine new stage, and space for the county library branch. At an end, finally, 1 are the long years of mineral extraction in Buckden, and also in Diddington, its neighbour to the south. They leave behind a changed landscape along the lowlands in the Great Ouse valley, with large areas of traditional farmland replaced by wetland and reedbed habitats. But on the whole, Buckden still stands in a largely unspoilt countryside, albeit an arable one with very little now to be seen in the way of livestock. Within the built-up village, too, most of its remaining green areas have escaped development in the last twenty years, and the parish council actively encourages the replacement of an ageing tree population. Like any modern town or village, Buckden has its identity problems: older residents remember a smaller, more cohesive community where Feast Week and May Day, coronations and jubilees, weekly dances and fundraising events, were celebrations in which everyone would join: joyously, loudly and publicly. Today people are less inclined to take spontaneously to the streets 2 ; through their cars, televisions and computers they have more opportunities for self-contained entertainment. Modern life tends also to discourage socializing across the age divide. To that extent, a genuine community spirit manifests itself less frequently (the last time, perhaps, being a mass meeting in the mid-1990s that saved the library from closure). But if the big events rarely stimulate a big response, the urge to be involved has certainly not disappeared: in Buckden, the community is still strengthened by the day-to-day involvement of those who care for others: voluntary car schemes for patients, the Neighbourhood Watch, the churches, those who run groups for the elderly. Unfortunately, the enthusiasm of volunteers has to battle not only against public apathy but the fear (sometimes justified) of bureaucracy, litigation and the need for costly public liability insurance. Buckden is not unique in facing such concerns, and remains for most of its inhabitants a village well worth the living in. Or, as one resident said, looking round him in Lucks Lane cemetery, ‘Not such a bad place to be dead in, either.’ 1 Well, for now, at least. 2 And would probably be arrested if they did. Or run over.