Buckden - a Huntingdonshire Village

BUCKDEN’S BUILDINGS 96 in 1932, edited among others by Sidney Inskip Ladds, the Ely Diocesan architect; his records are held in the Norris Museum, St Ives. In 1968, the architectural historian Nicholas Pevsner recorded significant buildings in Buckden for Bedfordshire and the County of Huntingdon and Peterborough in his Buildings of England series ; and the latest and most comprehensive survey was carried out for the Department of the Environment as a resurvey List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest in 1983. This final survey was to produce the list of buildings (or structures) that by Act of Parliament were to be protected from inappropriate alteration or demolition. There are 63 listed buildings in Buckden, four are grade I, two are grade II* the remainder are grade II. The four grade I, nationally outstanding buildings, are the church, the Great Tower, the inner gatehouse, and the curtain wall of the former Palace of Buckden. The grade II* buildings are the Manor House in Church Street and the outer gateway of Buckden Palace and boundary wall. This chapter is an overview of the historic buildings in their Buckden setting and is not a detailed architectural description of each building. The Church of St Mary the Virgin The earliest surviving building in Buckden is the church, which like the bishops’ palace, has been altered and rebuilt several times from the twelfth century. The chancel was probably extended in the late thirteenth century to conform with the latest liturgical requirements, but when the whole church was largely rebuilt in the fifteenth century, the sedilia and priest’s doorway in the chancel were reused and with a base to an arcade pier are reminders of that late thirteenth century date. The rebuilding of the church was carried out between 1436 and 1449 by Bishop Alnwick. The very fine Perpendicular tower appears to be independently constructed, and must be earlier than the rebuilding of the chancel and chancel arch and the aisle arcades and aisles which are contemporary with one another. As the tower does not align with the nave and aisles there is some debate as to whether there had been a change of plan after it was built for widening the church. This may be due to the proximity of the palace moat on the north side. If this was the The plan of Buckden from the report from Royal Commission on Historical Monuments of 1926. N.B. The RCH numbering is not the same as the numbering on the village plan on pages vi and vii.