January 2025

15 Buckden Roundabout January 2025 Village News Buckden Learning Group Update The Buckden Learning Group (BLG) is a local community enterprise committed to provid- ing interesting short courses and individual lectures to a group of people committed to lifelong learning. Founded in 2019, it sprang like a phoenix from the ashes of the WEA group that flourished in Buckden from the twentieth century. We are able to call upon a collec- tion of professional tutors to provide our events; we occasion- ally have a waiting list. As I write in early December I am looking at a mix of activities over recent weeks. Since my last article we have completed our short course about ‘ The French Revolution ’ and a number of other activities. We had a couple of weeks ‘ spare ’ at the start of November. During these weeks we were able to provide interested group members with guest lectures. For the first of these we wel- comed back to Buckden a tutor who has a collection of single sessions on astronomy. On this occasion he talked to us about meteorites before the coffee break. After the coffee break we moved onto ‘ the Christmas Star ’ to consider the possible ‘ whats ’ and the ‘ whens ’: observable phenomena were dis- cussed alongside the words in the gospels. An initial eight phe- nomena were gradually reduced to two, and the tutor finished with his considered opinion. For the second of these ‘ spare ’ weeks we welcomed a new tutor to talk about ‘ historical geog- raphy ’. We heard about the various forms of information avail- able to us about our environment and how these can be inter- preted: maps, old photos, historic wills and court records to name but a few. While out and about, observation and curiosi- ty can be linked to the available records to understand the usage of locations over time. We were encouraged to consult the ‘ Cambridgeshire Historic Environment Record ’ and to re- port anything that we noticed that was not already recorded. This was followed by a course about Japanese History and Cul- ture. On this occasion, after a couple of people dropped out, we were able to clear the waiting list. This continued on from a 2021 introductory course held on Zoom. In mid - November the tutor returned from an extended trip to Japan where he had been freshening up his course materials. In the first session he piqued our curiosity with tales of the people he had met and of solitary long distance walking along trails with copious warn- ings about the dangers to walkers from bears! It has been fas- cinating to hear about a people and a society with a very different background from our own. Enrolment is now underway for our next course which starts in January. This is a 10 week course entitled ‘ An Introduction to Mythology ’ (see advert for details). A full programme has now been planned through to the end of 2026. As usual, our main courses will continue to be inter- spersed with some additional events. We continue to strive to present a variety of subjects that we hope will be of interest to many of our attendees. Note that pre - registration for our courses is essential to avoid disappointment. BUCKDEN BRANCH - ROYAL BRITISH LEGION Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day 2024 As ever, we had a full church and an enjoyable but suitably solemn service on Remembrance Sunday. Father Paul from St Hughes preached an interesting and though provoking sermon. Thanks to Richard Noble who again read the lesson normally reserved for the Legion, to Maya Wakeling of the Scouts who read the second lesson and to Olivia Irons, also of the Scouts, who stood up with me to give the dedication and also read the prayers that followed. My usual thanks to our standard bearer Ian Clarke and our trumpeter Michelle Wootton; Remembrance Sunday would be very incomplete without them. Thanks also to all the very smartly turned out uniformed branches who attended in num- bers and to their standard parties. Finally, to Chris Bylett and his choir who once again performed a very moving song from the ringing chamber following the two minutes silence. Coffee, etc. was provided for everyone at the Methodist Church Hall after the service and, as always, was very much appreciated. I have a confession to make; Armistice Day this year should have been on the same day as Remembrance Sunday, relieving me of duty at the War Memorial; I was robbed by the leap year! Our short ceremony went off very well, with many events from 1944 remembered, and particularly the youth and inexperience of those who landed in Normandy on D Day and achieved so much despite the odds against them. Many thanks to Father David, who has to help me hit 11.00 am on the dot; not easy when you are standing with your back to the church clock! Finally, once again The Poppy Appeal has produced an excel- lent result; the provisional total so far is £5757, with some fig- ures still to come in. This is less than last year due to various factors beyond our control but it is still a very good result. Tim and Ce Walker (Poppy Appeal Organisers) would like to thank our growing number of door - to - door collectors; all the shops, pubs and other institutions that hosted collecting “ tins ”; and our team of counters who had to count 40 kilograms of notes and coins, completing the task in record time. Many towns and villages do not have door to door collections and there has been discussion about discontinuing this in Buck- den but Tim and Ce are committed to its continuing. So many of our residents, who donate so generously, welcome a visit from our collectors and The Appeal is part of what makes our community so special. As usual, this won ’ t come out until late in December. The Roundabout ’ s perfectly reasonable copy date and the dates of Remembrance Sunday and/or Armistice Day are never going to work well together. Peter Mount, Chairman.