Buckden - a Huntingdonshire Village

BUCKDEN’S BUILDINGS 99 dug before the frosts of winter and was tempered and cleaned ready for brick making in the spring. The brick makers worked in open hovels and possibly formed 1000 bricks a day using open wooden moulds. Two or more assistants prepared the clay and carried the green bricks to the hacking yard to be dried. After drying in hacks they would have been fired in clamps nearby using wood as fuel brought in from the woodland on the estate. The clamps were constructed on the ground with channels for the fuel covered by discarded bricks at the base, then the green bricks would be placed diagonally on edge about two inches apart and packed with fuel to a height of 14 feet; the firing may have taken two to three weeks as the bricks are remarkably uniform in colour showing that experienced brickmakers were involved. The moulded (shaped) bricks for the openings are a lighter red possibly because they had been made from a more refined clay. The bricks that were overburnt have a blue/black bloom and were used in the diaper work decoration. The Four Coaching Inns The four coaching inns, the George with its forge, the Lion, the Vine and the Spread Eagle were improved in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to accommodate travellers from the Great North Road. The Lion was established by the late sixteenth century and has a great fireplace and a magnificent ceiling of oak beams with a carved boss of a Lamb inscribed with ‘Agnus Dei’. It has had many alterations; the former fifteenth century jettied facade was rebuilt in both the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It may have been a courtyard inn similar to the George. The Vine was rebuilt in the eighteenth century and has a contemporary stable range attached to it on the west side; the outbuildings have been demolished for present day development. The George originally had a courtyard plan with galleried wings. It was re- fronted in two separate periods in the eighteenth century when the two timber-framed wings of earlier dates were retained. Alterations have been made to the brickwork of the imposing main facade of thirteen bays but the original three storeys with recessed windows and central double entrance remains. The south wing was re-fronted in about 1925, an indication, perhaps, of a flourishing trade brought about by the tourists and commercial travellers who fuelled the post-war revival in motoring. 1 The Spread Eagle further along the High Street was altered in the early eighteenth century from a seventeenth century coaching inn: its timber-framed north wing was retained (and later used as a shop) while a new main range with projecting bay windows was built. This inn closed in 2003, and both the main building and the outbuildings were converted to residential use. Traditional Buildings Timber framing was the preferred method of building in Buckden until the late seventeenth century when timber became scarce and often salvaged timber was used. This has given rise to a later belief that timbers with unusual features were ships timbers, which is not true. There are records of great timbers coming from the King’s Forest of Weybridge, for the rebuilding of the Palace in the late thirteenth century, but generally timber for building came from the local parks, woods or hedgerows. When the Ouse was opened to navigation in the seventeenth century timber was imported from the Continent, and timber- framed buildings complete for erection may have been imported from a timber yard then. The surviving timber-framed buildings of Buckden date from the early fifteenth to the late seventeenth centuries. The methods of timber framing had evolved over several hundreds of years and had regional characteristics. The roofs were either crown post roofs or side purlin roofs constructed without a ridge piece in Huntingdonshire and East Anglia. The wall frames were built with posts and tie beams (post and truss construction), with studs and braces forming the exposed pattern between each timber-framed bay, and these became straight braced with interrupted studs in the seventeenth century. The carpenter selected the trees from the woodland for the timber that was needed for posts and rafters etc., and prepared the timbers in the framing yard, marking the joints with Roman numerals. The types of joints used can be dated: they were all pegged with wooden pegs that were cut to shape and baked before use so that they could swell into the peg holes holding the joints tightly. The carpenter constructed the frame; the joiner constructed the windows and doors, the staircases, and panelling for the best rooms. The farmhouse or cottage usually conformed to a traditional width of approximately 16 feet (a rod, pole or perch). The main room or the hall was usually square in plan and may have been set out first on the ground with extra bays for the parlour and service rooms (dairy or pantry) on either side; the cross passage was included in the hall on the side of the service rooms. The foundations were dug to a depth below the top soil and a plinth was built from field stones or stone rubble, above which the ground sill would be laid and the timber frame erected in sequence. The timber frame was constructed in green oak and would have 1 ‘ After the First World War a large floating population of ex-servicemen reportedly took up travelling in preference to returning to the routines of office work.’ French, M. (2005) Commercials, careers and culture: travelling salesmen in Britain 1890s-1930s. Economic History Review 58(2):pp. 352-377.