Buckden - a Huntingdonshire Village

A HISTORY OF ST MARY’S, THE PARISH CHURCH 111 Buckden was not spared the Black Death in the mid-fourteenth century, its population like many in Huntingdonshire perhaps being halved. Neither was the church a safe haven, with four vicars dying during an eight-year period. Buckden’s Thomas à Becket (well….almost) Could this church have become another Canterbury Cathedral, a place of national pilgrimage? Probably not, but on 20 June 1358 it came close. Bishop John Gynwell of Lincoln did not approve of King Edward III’s wars in France and refused to support them financially. When Edward became desperate he sent three of his knights, Thomas de Stukley, John de Tolly and Robert Bayour with a sealed letter demanding funds from Gynwell. The knights found the bishop on his knees praying before the altar of Buckden church and when he refused to accept the king’s letter they threatened him ‘with long knives’. Gynwell continued praying and the knights, perhaps fearing a repeat of the Becket episode 188 years earlier, left him in peace. However Edward never forgave him, and the bishop’s last years were spent in obscurity. The Great Rebuilding 1432-1440 William Gray, a wealthy and powerful man, was translated from the see of London to Lincoln in 1431. King Henry VI was ten years old, and his protectors had been fighting wars in France trying to keep hold of his possessions there; indeed Joan of Arc had been burned at the stake only the previous year. Soon Richard, Duke of York, would become Henry’s protector in England, and the Wars of the Roses would start in earnest twenty years later. But meantime Gray, nearing the end of his years, sought a lasting legacy. ‘Of his many manors Buckden seems one of the most favoured’ and he was a great benefactor to the church building ‘as appears by his arms, which I have seen, in a great many of the windows there’ (Browne Willis, 1730). Indeed, when we look around the church, a great deal of what we see today is the work or design of Bishop Gray, so much so that if he were to walk into the church today he would feel quite at home, and no doubt very pleased with his legacy. Work started in 1432 and it seems that the south aisle was built first, followed soon after by the south arcade replacing the thirteenth century nave wall, then the chancel arch and the higher levels of the tower and spire. The building was constructed of limestone rubble with some cobbles and ironstone. In places an effort has been made to lay the stone in courses but frequently it is irregular; the corner dressings, windows and the steeple are of Barnack limestone from Lincolnshire. Finally the north arcade and aisle were completed, although it may be that this north side was not completed until perhaps thirty or forty years later. 1 We shall return to this in a little while; certainly even now among older villagers, the story is told that the son of the man who built its southern sister built the north aisle. 1 There is a recent contradictory opinion concerning the date of the north aisle; an historical architect from Cambridge University believes that the north aisle windows are about 100 years older than the south aisle, dating them to c. 1330 rather than the 1480s. This does not materially affect the overall story of the church, in fact it makes it a little more exciting as we explore the building’s history. The Nave during Feast Week 2008