This extract is from "Samuel Lewis Topographical Gazeetter - 1831"
St Mary's Parish Church Cottages opposite St Mary's Church
BUCKDEN, a parish in the hundred of TOSELAND, county of HUNTINGDON, 4½ miles (E.W. BY W.) from Huntingdon, containing 973 inhabitants. The living is a discharged vicarage, rated in the king's books at £8, and in the peculiar jurisdiction and patronage of the Bishop of Lincoln. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, has a tower surmounted by au elegant spire, and contains the remains of some of the bishops of Lincoln, to one of whom the manor was granted by the abbot of Ely, in the reign of Henry I.; the episcopal palace is a venerable structure; and there are vestiges of an ancient monastic building. There is a place of worship for Wesleyan Methodists. The Grand Junction canal passes through the parish, and the river Nene has its source in the neighbourhood. Robert Raymond, in 1761, bequeathed a rent-charge of £10 for the instruction of children; and a charity school has been established by means of a bequest in 1778, of £200 from Dr. Greenlate, Bishop of Lincoln.
The Episcopal Palace behind St Mary's Church The Episcopal Palace behind St Mary's Church
Photographs Copyright © Martin Edwards 2001