Buckden - a Huntingdonshire Village

51 whose arrival had been of the saddest.’ [from The Life and Miracles of St Ivo , by S. B. Edgington, 1985] For a miracle once, but no longer, associated with Buckden, see Mabel of Bugdene. Mitre, the. A messuage [house and grounds] in Buckden ‘formerly called the Mitre, and before that the Crown or King's Arms’ was once part of the Buckden estates of the Thornhill family of Diddington. Moore, Major Geoffrey, MBE , lived in Ivelbury Close, and in the late 1970s published several well-regarded booklets on military subjects ; one is quoted as a source in Lawrence James’s monumental history of the British Raj. Major Moore was also a parish councillor. morality in Buckden. ‘No doubt the morality of some of the inhabitants of Buckden is not all it should be.’ Chair- man of the Bench, St Neots Petty Sessions, dismissing a case against a Buckden labourer for indecent assault. Motley, Susan (1810-1893) , born in Lincolnshire, was in service with the Green family of Coneygarths for 62 years. She rose through the ranks of house servant, parlour maid and housekeeper to become personal attendant to the unmarried daughter of the house, Frances Elizabeth. When Frances moved a few doors further north in the High Street in the late 1880s, she took Susan with her, more as companion than servant. The 1891 census deals delicately with Susan’s changed status. Since she is neither a member of the family or any longer a servant, she is categorised as a visitor ‘living with head of house’. Susan Motley never married; her grave in Buckden Cemetery lies among those of the Green family. Its inscription pays tribute to a family friend and loyal servant. motorcycles were often a cause of complaint to people living on the High Street (or trying to cross it). This is not surprising when one remembers that until the 1960s the High Street was also the Great North Road. The same qualities that tempted cyclists and motorists to speed through the village inevitably attracted motorcyclists too, with night time races from London to York a particular bane. In 1913, the Chief Constable ordered his men to pay special attention to the fast driving of motorcycles in towns and villages: ‘It must be stopped!’ There was a brief respite in February 1924 when major roadworks meant that traffic was routed through Church Street and Silver Street. Occasionally Buckden’s own motorcyclists found themselves before the bench. Two from the ‘respectable’ classes were Dr Wallace (failing to stop) and the Rev. Cornelius Mensink, the Baptist minister (riding at night with an unlit lamp). The latter case caused much merriment at the Huntingdon Police Court. The Mayor wondered aloud whether Mr Mensink was one of the foolish virgins . Yes indeed, said the police witness, who knew his Bible ('They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them:' –Matthew 25.3.) Mountain, Jacob (1749-1825) was Vicar of Buckden 1790-1793/4. During this time he was also examining chaplain to the Bishop of Lincoln, Dr Pretyman, on whose recommendation he was made the first Anglican Bishop of Quebec. His son, George Jehoshaphat Mountain, became its third bishop. An earlier George Mountain had been Bishop of Lincoln and a severely abridged Archbishop of York (he died on the day of his enthronement), but seems not to have been a relative (see also James VI ). N National Society, the. Founded in 1811, it was later incorporated as the National Society for the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church throughout England and Wales. Its mission was to found a church school in every parish. It did this by offering grants for the erection, enlarging and fitting out of schoolrooms. By the 1850s there were some 17,000 National Schools; that in Buckden was opened in 1842. In September 1843, The Times included Mrs Linton of Stirtloe House in a list of those who had subscribed to the Society (£10 in her case). Navigation Cottages, Hunts End (also known as Vine Cottages) [MapRef 37]: s ee under Cana l. New Farm, Mill Road, was most recently known as Low Farm (q.v.); when occupied by Benjamin Faulkner it was called Faulkner’s Farm and similarly as Park’s when the last farmer James Park ran it. See under dovecotes . Newton, John (1725-1807) was a slave-ship master turned evangelical clergyman. He is best known today as an anti-slavery campaigner and a writer of hymns, most notably ‘Amazing Grace’. Buckden was a place especially dear to him: after several years of failing to be accepted into holy orders, it was here, at 11.00 a.m. on Sunday 29 April 1764, that he was ordained deacon, and on Sunday 17 June was welcomed into the priesthood. Bishop Green of Lincoln presided over both ceremonies. Newton was appointed curate-in-charge of the parish of Olney, Buckinghamshire, a posting that did not appeal to his wife. While still in Buckden he wrote to her at their home in Liverpool, assuring her that he would ‘prefer the little vicarage of Olney, with you in it, to the palaces of kings, without you.’ It worked. She joined him. John Newton’s earliest known literary efforts were ribald ditties written to amuse his fellow sailors, but ‘Amazing Grace’ was one of the Olney Hymns (1779), on which Newton collaborated with his friend and follower, William Cowper, the fragile and occasionally insane poet and one-time resident of Huntingdon High Street. Its continuing popularity has earned Newton a place alongside Elvis Presley, Pat Boone and Tennessee Ernie Ford in the Gospel Hall of Fame, Nashville, Tennessee (but not, so far, in either the International Gospel Music Hall of Fame, Michigan, Detroit, or the Southern Gospel Museum and Hall of Fame, Dollywood, Tennessee). night-soil – putrescent manure derived from the contents of outside lavatories, cesspools, etc – was a valuable fertilizer, and its collection was a vital service in