May 2020

16 Buckden Roundabout May 2020 Village News As I ’ m sure you are all aware, to comply with government guidelines, the Hall is closed until further notice. I hope that those who have had to cancel family parties will be able to rebook again and enjoy each other ’ s company at a later date once the virus has subsided. It will be nice to celebrate being together again! If anyone wishes to contact the Hall during the time it is closed, please email admin@buckdenvillagehall.co.uk The emails will be checked by the Trustees during this time. How all of you can help Buckden Village Hall when buying online As you know Buckden Village Hall Trust is a charity and it costs a lot of money to maintain and repair this building. Did you know that whenever you buy anything online – from your weekly shop to your annual holiday – you could be raising money for Buckden Village Hall Trust? There are nearly 3,000 retailers including Amazon, John Lewis, M&S, Aviva and Tesco who will donate a percentage of the amount you spend to Buckden Village Hall Trust to say thank you for shopping with them. It ’ s really simple and doesn ’ t cost you anything. All you need to do is: 1. Go to www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/ buckdenvillagehall 2. Sign up for free 3. Get shopping! Your donations will be collected by easy- fundraising and automatically sent to us! There are no catches or hidden charges and Buckden Village Hall Trust will be extremely grateful for your donations, es- pecially at this difficult time. Keep safe everyone x Jo Harvey admin@buckdenvillagehall.co.uk Office temporarily closed. Burberry Road, Buckden, Cambridgeshire, PE19 5UY Tel: 01480 811101 www. buckdenvillagehall.co.uk email: admin@buckdenvillagehall.co.uk Pre - dating the Elementary Education Act, The Anglican Nation- al Society was established in 1811 to promote the education of the poor. By the 1850’ s there were 17,000 National Schools. The ‘ Endowed ’ school for boys and the ‘ National ’ school for girls are listed in Kelly ’ s Directory for 1846 and the Post Office Directories for 1854 and 1864. Parents accepted the idea of schooling for their children and this is shown by the census enumerators ’ returns of 1851. Un- der ‘ Occupation ’ the vast majority of children in the 5 to 11 age range are entered as ‘ scholars ’. However, some of the children had probably never so much as stepped inside a schoolroom, and others certainly would not have attended with any regular- ity; but it is indicative of the expectations of the enumerators (local men), and the social pressures on the parents. It might also be inferred from the figures that boys were likely to get their schooling early, leaving at about eleven to take up em- ployment, while girls would start later, sometimes staying on until the age of fourteen. It is difficult to tell how effective the schools were, for exam- ple, in teaching people to read and write. One rather rough and ready test has been devised, which is to examine the mar- riage registers. The bride and groom were required to sign their names from 1754, or failing that, to put a mark. There are many reasons why figures derived from this source are not a reliable guide to literacy. For one thing people may be able to sign their names without being able to read or write. There have also been cas- es where the officiating curate obligingly signed for the parties (but not detectably in Buckden). It has been suggested too that a bride might have been reluctant to ‘ show up ’ the groom by signing when he could not—but again the evidence in Buckden does not support this. Bearing in mind all these reservations, it can be seen that in Buckden more people could sign their names than not from about 1850. Those who married in the 1850s would mostly have been at school in the 1840s (whether they grew up in Buckden or some other parish); this ties in neatly enough with the foundation of the National Schools. It hasn ’ t always been clear where Buckden school was situated over the years. From about 1600 there was likely a school in the church porch. Later, Buckden School seems to have been at the Towers until around 1870. A barn ‘ at the back of Mr De- Grey ’ s house ’ was also the site of Buckden school for a time, as was the current café at Buckden Towers. In the next Buckden school article, you can find out about Buckden School in the Victorian era. - Wendy Trattner Sources www.bl.uk Buckden, A Huntingdonshire Village, Mike Storey & Robin Gib- son (Eds.), 2010 Buckden C.E. School 1871 – 1971 Centenary Year, FWR Claxton, 1971 (Continued from page 12)