Buckden - a Huntingdonshire Village

62 Rifle Range, Church Street [MapRef 7]. ‘A movement is on foot to establish a Rifle Club in this village’ – St. Neots Advertiser 27 January 1900. It took a long time before the club had a permanent home, known as the Rifle Range. This was a building later presented to the village by WilliamWalker Cranfield and his sister Mary and conveyed to the village on 21 December 1920 at a formal ceremony. However, the club itself was already active by then. Indeed, in June of the same year, it had met and narrowly vanquished its Kimbolton counterpart to win the Astor County Cup for the second time. (In an echo of old- fashioned village cricket matches, one of the umpires, Frank Lyttleton Powys Maurice, was also a member of the Kimbolton team –as was his son – but he was the local vicar, so presumably his integrity was not to be doubted!) The Rifle Range was situated in Church Street where the Burberry Homes now stand. Before the Range was built the area was occupied by three low two-storey buildings, two of which had dormer windows lighting the top floor. Two were occupied by tradesmen, one a hairdresser, and the third was a malting. It was the malting which had been converted into a rifle range by Alderman Henry Cranfield (q.v.) of Cranfields Farm (now Park Farm). His brother, William Walker Cranfield, who took over the farm after Henry’s untimely death, added the reading and billiard rooms. The building was handed over without its brick frontage because the donors had asked the builder, Mr George Thomas Page (see Page family ) to give priority to new houses and house repairs. It was hoped that completion would be achieved in the following summer (1921). Later photographs of the Range show the completed building having a substantial frontage of brick, double- fronted with six projecting string courses between pavement and sill level generally, and string courses at the corners at one foot intervals. Over the entrance was a large canopy supported by steel ties. Above that was a central gable end with a tall vertical flagpole bracketed out from it. The roof was tiled and overhung the walls by a foot or so. The hall was used every Wednesday by the Rifle Club and the smaller rooms by club members for various activities. These included billiards on a full-size table bought second-hand from Hartford House, draughts and – very popular – whist. The Reading Room superseded the previous one across the road. The Range also served as the village hall. There were performances by the village Dramatic Society and Womens’ Institute. Annual events such as the election of the May Queen were held there. Dances were very popular, especially during the Second World War. A group of airmen from Graveley rented the hall every Saturday night for two years and made a steady profit from it. Jack Riseley and Percy Pepper set up the War Memorial Fund Committee with the Rev. Hugh Atkinson as treasurer to take over the running of the dances. The music was generally provided by a record player but there were sometimes live performers. Among the entertainers who visited were the Squadronaires who later became the famous RAF Dance Orchestra. During the last three years of the war the committee village hall. There were performances by the village Dramatic Society and Women’s Institute. Annual events such as the election of the May Queen were held there. Dances especially during the Second World War were very popular. A group of airmen from Graveley rented the hall every Saturday for two years and made a steady profit from it. Jack Riseley and Percy Pepper set up the War Memorial Fund Committee with the Reverend Hugh Atkinson as treasurer to take over the running of the dances. The music was generally provided by a record player but there were sometimes live performers. Among the entertainers were the Squadronnaires who later became the famous RAF Dance Orchestra. During the last three years of the war the committee raised £3,300. It was agreed that half the funds should go to Buckden people serving in the forces and the other towards a memorial. See Memorial Playing Fields. A new village hall with more room and more facilities was mooted and in 1969 the momentous but not entirely popular decision was made to build one. The Rifle Range, regarded still with affection by those who remember it, was demolished in 1970 and thus made way for the Burberry Homes (q.v.) Robin Gibson ~June Woods riots, agricultural: see machine-breaking. riots and tumult in 1641. Authority has not always thought highly of Buckden, whose residents have sometimes been condemned as obstinate, quarrelsome, sullen, unhelpful, even violent. The following entry in the House of Lords Journal for 1641 records one such instance - although today our sympathies are more likely to lie with the rioters than with the target of their rage…: ‘Whereas the Bishops of Lincolne, having quitted their Commons to the Tenants of Buckden, have, by Order and Licence, inclosed some Parts of their Demesne, which lay next unto the Parks and Woods in that Place, which bore neither Corn nor Grass, and having fenced those Grounds, and enjoyed them quietly in their own Possession, and the Possession of the King (upon an Extent), some for Twenty-four Years, and the rest for Fourteen Years; yet now of late, and sitting this present Parliament, videlicet , on Friday last, the 18th of this Instant June, some Hundreds of Women and Boys, armed with Daggers and Javelins, in a very tumultuous and riotous Manner, entered upon the Grounds, threw open the Gates, and broke down the Quicksets of the said Inclosure, and turned in great Herds of Cattle upon The Rifle Club pre 1930 Alice Whitmee From L. to R.- T. Milner, M.Milner, S Whitmee W.W.Cranfield (President), C.Pond, J.E. Varley, E Wayman The Rifle Range ( Supplier’s name mis-laid)