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Buckden Roundabout
October 2019
Village news
Buckden Football Club
BFC News
BFC play in the Cambridgeshire County Leagues. Division 2A.
We are a friendly club based at the recreation ground in Buck-
den and welcome you to watch a game and join us for refresh-
ments in the Village club during and after! There is a football
card available behind the bar on match days if you would like
to take part for 50 pence a team.
We welcome back Oliver Day from Brampton to join Jon Medd
as joint first team managers, looking to extend BFC progression
up the leagues this season as we have done in the previous
two seasons.
We are presently looking to recruit a new Chairman to head up
our vibrant committee to replace the outgoing Mark Freeman,
who leaves the club in a more positive and structured position
after his short tenure at the helm.
We are also looking for a permanent goalkeeper to replace our
3 or 4 part-time keepers
Buckden FC Benefactors
Without Buckden FC benefactors the club would be unable to
survive year on year. With over 100 years of continuous season
on season history we wholeheartedly and sincerely thank our
financial supporters:
Simon Picking Building Services Ltd (5th Year) and Buckden
Village Club (2nd Year)
If you are interested in supporting your local club through our
benefactor scheme, please contact the club Treasurer, Graham
Pearce via email:
grahampearce270964@gmail.com
or Mobile
07514630719
Buckden FC Home Fixtures
21st September 3pm Kick Off – V Suffolk Punch Haverhill F.C.
12th October 2pm Kick Off – V Farcet United
19th October 2pm Kick Off – V Houghton & Wyton First
St Mary’s weather vane
St. Mary’s Church, Buckden, has a beautiful weather vane. Our
golden cockerel has been telling us which way the wind is
blowing for around 100
years. How much do you
know about it?
How long has it been
there?
I wasn’t able to find out
how long ago St Mary’s got
its first weather vane but
the current weather vane
was installed after a gale in
1895. The previous weath-
er vane was lost at three o’clock on the afternoon of Sunday,
24 March 1895. A great south-westerly gale had been blowing
all day and finally, by mid afternoon the spire could take no
more and its upper portions and the weather vane collapsed
into the north aisle. £53 5s 0d was raised to replace the spire
and a Mrs Linton kindly donated the weather vane. The weath-
er vane was re-gilded and a lightning conductor was added in
1965 as part of the steeple’s maintenance work.
How big is it?
From the ground, the cockerel really does not seem so big but
it is, astonishingly, seven feet across and nearly six feet high
(approx. 2m by 1.5m).
Why is it a cockerel?
In the ninth century AD, the pope reportedly decreed that eve-
ry church in Europe should show a cock on its dome or steeple,
as a reminder of Jesus's prophecy that the cock would not
crow the morning after the Last Supper, until the disciple Peter
had denounced Him three times (Luke 22:34).
Because of this story, weather cocks have topped church stee-
ples for centuries. The 11th century Bayeux Tapestry even in-
cludes a scene of a craftsman attaching a weather cock to the
spire of the Westminster Abbey.
A few churches used weather vanes in the shape of the em-
blems of their patron saints. The City of London has two surviv-
ing examples. The weather vane of St Peter upon Cornhill is
not in the shape of a cockerel, but a key, while St Lawrence
Jewry’s weather vane is in the form of a gridiron.