Buckden - a Huntingdonshire Village

44 Lion Hotel, The The origin of the Lion, or Red Lion or the Lion and the Lamb as it has been variously known is obscure. A study of an aerial view and its elevations show that the building as we see it today has clearly developed piecemeal. The present bar area on the northwest corner was once separate from the hotel and was occupied by a butcher with his shop and living quarters. These extended along Church Street as far as the slate–roofed section with a window at half height. That was labelled Gospel Hall on the 1924 OS plan and was built as a non-conformist chapel in the 19thC. The hotel once presented a medieval jettied façade to the High Street, but this was sacrificed to 18thC and 19thC improvements. A filled-in archway suggests there was once a rear courtyard with the stabling and stores needed to allow the hotel to compete with the George across the road. However there is no evidence yet for the Lion’s having been a staging place for coach traffic needing regular changes of horses. Above the archway the structure resembles a warehouse and luccam. The latter’s projecting roof might have accommodated a lifting point and winch to allow luggage to be lifted to an upper floor, but it is more likely that it was used to raise the raw materials for beer making, the Lion like the Vine having its own brewhouse. According to Maurice Milner, the structure was put up by a late 19thC landlord, Henry Thomson, and housed the vats (four foot square and seven and a half feet deep). Mr Thomson was a member of the inventive Thomson family (q.v.) and referred to himself as a publican and engineer; unlike his predecessors, Joseph Baxter and Joseph Ilsley, he was not himself a brewer, leaving that side of the business to his stepson, Joseph Charles Ilsley (q.v.; he died in the brewhouse from carbonic acid gas poisoning). The modern side access to the rear of the hotel, its car park and a 20 th C annexe was made possible through the demolition of two ancient shops. Owners of the hotel in the 20thC included Trust Houses and private individuals, but now Churchill Taverns of Wellingborough run it. local history society. In 1978 a course on the History of Buckden was conducted at the village school by a local professional historian, Sue Edgington, under the auspices of Huntingdon Technical College. The course proved to be very popular with those who attended, and the formation of a society was proposed so that talks and other activities could continue the following year. Sue Edgington agreed to be chairman, Les Button, secretary, and Eric Nash, treasurer. The society met at the school until 1984; since then the beautifully restored Conference Room in Buckden Towers has provided a suitably historic venue. The society’s year runs from September to July. With the exception of the July meeting, which takes the form of an outing to a place of historical interest, meetings The Lion Hotel including its modern annexe and also on the right the one-time Gospel Hall with its hipped roof. David Stephens of Old Weston