Buckden - a Huntingdonshire Village

APPENDICES 223 Buckden - A Huntingdonshire Village Appendix B (continued) Perry Road The road leads to the village of Perry. Once known as New Road. A 1695 map and Jefferys’ map of 1768 shows a road heading west from the Lion corner where George Lane is now. Perhaps the Duke of Manchester decided that he needed a better connection from Kimbolton to the North Road and had a new route set out together with a good road to Grafham as now. The present very straight roads leading westwards were built before 1813 when the parish was surveyed for the Inclosure. School Lane Here is the modern School . The cul-de-sac which was here before was Baker’s Lane. Silver Street The road from Church Street as far as Beech Lawn was Silver Street. Northwards as far as the Great North Road it used to be known as the ‘Hoo Baulk’. A suggestion re the origin is that the road once led to the area of woodland reserved for coppicing and firewood since the Latin for a wood is ‘silva’. Smith Drive Named after long-serving parish councillor Mr. Fred. Smith and perhaps also J.W.Smith - builder and merchant Springfield Close There is a Spring near here still. One native of the village said that the The Osiers and the Springfield Close names should be exchanged, the main spring being in The Osiers area. St Hugh's Road After the patron saint of the R.C. church - St. Hugh’s at the Towers Stirtloe After the hamlet Stirtloe Lane After the hamlet Swan End A Swan was the emblem of St. Hugh (q.v.) An alehouse called the Swan is reputed to have existed at about where Vineyard Way joins Mill Road. Taylor's Lane Since there was no family called Taylor in the area at the time of the enclosure of 1813 perhaps the name is a ‘modern’ one. A family called Taylards once had land hereabouts but did not receive land at the Enclosure The Barns There were and are Barns ex-Low Farm adjacent. The new houses are not conversions. The Grove A name chosen by the builder of the houses. The ground had been called The Paddock for many decades before being sold for housing. Granted there were trees to be cut down but where are they now? The Osiers Osiers were grown here. Basket-making was a local industry but the osiers were also sent as far away as Gloucester for the same purpose. Van Diemen’s Lane The Dutch explorer Van Diemen’s name has been used in many places as well as in Buckden. For example a field in Grafham also bears his name . (The lane here is a track off Mill Road and used to serve two houses and several allotments.) Van Diemen’s Land is now Tasmania. Since convicts were sometimes transported there the name may have been used to remind those of a criminal bent of what their punishment might be if apprehended. Vineyard Way The Bishop’s Palace used to have its Vineyards here. Waterworks Road An unofficial name for the private road leading from Stirtloe Lane to the Anglian Water Pumping Station on the River Ouse which feeds Grafham Water. Weir Close The present opinion is that the name relates to a weir or weirs on the public drains nearby. The public drains are ditches which are still in use although some lengths will have been culverted or piped. From a copy of the St. Neots Local History Society magazine it appears that ‘weir’ there meant a pond. Wolsey Gardens Thomas Wolsey was Dean of Lincoln in1503 and Bishop in 1514 when he visited Buckden. York Yard After a family of butchers which lived here in the early 19th century but it moved to Bedfordshire before its name figured in directories.