BASSABOOKS
Local History Publications, Bassingbourn-cum-Kneesworth
Advertised in the “Village Voice” & available at the Village Markets in North End. Alternately direct from Sue Chandler bassabooks@btinternet.com
The following five titles are from bassabooks, and hopefully in 2025 there will be two more – one on the village pubs and one on the people commemorated on the East window at the parish church.
Bassingbourn and Kneesworth: The Home Front in WW1 £15
Sue Chandler. 2023
152 pages with 90 illustrations
The details of what was happening on the Home Front in the two villages while the men were away fighting. A comprehensive collection of memories, village events and news reports with lots of photographs. There was even a Temperance Society!
The Snippets Trilogy
Bassingbourn Snippets: ORIGINS £10
Sue Chandler & Valory Hurst. 2022
56 pages with 66 illustrations
The first in a series of small books about the history of Bassingbourn and Kneesworth which, when finished, will be a Trilogy. This one covers the period before the mid-1500s and concentrates on the origins of various aspects of village history. Topics include; Bassa the Saxon, Tracks, Streets and Ways, Eddeva the Fair & Domesday, the Saxon Meeting Place, Bassingbourn’s ‘Ends‘ and a look at some placenames.
Bassingbourn Snippets: Mid-1500s to 1800 £12
Sue Chandler & Valory Hurst. September 2024
79 pages with 90 illustrations
The second book of the Bassingbourn Triology. This one concentrates on two of the surviving documents; the Vestry and the Parish Registers. Also includes information on the English Civil War and Oliver Cromwell’s connection to Bassingbourn. The Parish library (1719 – 1969) and a major village business – The Tannery, round it off.
Bassingbourn Snippets: 1800 £12?
Sue Chandler. For publication Spring 2025
The final book of the Trilogy and so much available for inclusion! The content reflects the better availability of records, news papers in particular and greater document survival. A good finish to the trilogy – probably the most interesting.
The Fall of Singapore 1942: Four Men from Bassingbourn £10
Sue Chandler. 2021
82 pages, A4 sized with lots of black & white Illustrations.
What happened to these four men from the village is tragic, but my actual motivation for writing this comes because of two amazing coincidences; one back in 1993 and the second in 2016. The first concerns a chance meeting, in Bassingbourn cum Kneesworth Cemetery, between two men from opposite sides of the world, when they discovered they both had a very close connection with Prisoner of War camps and the Japanese. The second coincidence comes thanks to an Ancestry DNA test, which led me to discover that I had been related to one of these four soldiers, even though I was not born locally!
The men were Reginald Percy Fortune (1913-1944), Peter John Harman (1922-1942), Robert King (1916-1977) and Harry Steeves Stacey (1916-2010).
Books
A Chronicle of Two Villages
In 1994, the Bassingbourn-cum-Kneesworth Local History Society (sadly no longer in existence) published a book called A Chronicle of Two Villages to celebrate the centenary of the formation of Bassingbourn Parish Council in 1894. Many people in the village contributed to this work – some recognised, some not – and we thank them for this. As with Wikipedia, occasional errors creep in when so many people make their own individual contributions but A Chronicle of Two Villages presents an interesting picture of life in Bassingbourn-cum-Kneesworth over the years. It is reproduced here with kind permission. A Chronicle of Two Villages
Seventeen taxis?
The first petrol-driven London taxi cabs were made by Heatley & Gresham in Bassingbourn. Author David Hamdorff, originally a Bassingbourn resident, won a County Prize for his essay seventeen taxis? which was then published as a small book. It is reproduced here with the kind permission of the author. seventeen taxis web
A Brief History of Kneesworth House and its Occupants
Kneesworth House is a large country house laying back from the Old North Road. It was built in 1904-6 by Roland Plumbe for Lord Knutsford on the site of a previous house. In 1948 it became an approved school for boys. Today it is part of a private hospital operated by Partnerships in Care. A Brief History of Kneesworth House and its Occupants is reproduced here by kind permission of Partnerships in Care and the author Robin Scott. KHH History
The Fallen of Bassingbourn and Kneesworth
A booklet prepared for the World War 1 Centenary Armistice Commemorations held in Bassingbourn on 11th November 2018
Knee Deep in Buttercups by Evelyn Lawrence
An account of the life of Evelyn Lawrence who was born at Abbey Farm, South End in 1907 and moved from there in 1975 to the bungalow next door. Printed in 1986 it gives an account of Evelyn’s life in Bassingbourn and the people who shared her life and those that she came across occasionally but whose personalities or job of work or family life are worthy of a mention in this lovely book. Evelyn’s last words in this book on page 66 are:- No doubt some of my contemporaries will remark on something I have omitted from these memoirs. I can only write of what I remember. God gave us memories that we might have roses in December. I hope these memoirs, will enable old friends and acquaintances to stroll once again with me down Memory Lane. KNEE DEEP IN BUTTERCUPS. We are currently seeking a pdf. copy of this book and will publish if we find one.
Fruit Farming in the Cam valley. An horticultural, social and economic history
By Jonathan Spain
This is to let local residents know of my book, recently self-published. Fruit-growing has a long tradition in the Cam valley going back to medieval times. From the 1880s to the 1980s there developed a significant commercial fruit industry, which transformed the local landscape in the Cam valley, most notably in and around Meldreth and Melbourn but also other villages including Bassingbourn. The book is divided into three parts: the origins and commercial development of the fruits grown locally, the Cambridge Gage, other plums, apples, cherries, pears and soft fruits, connecting the Cam valley to the European and global history of the domestication of fruits; secondly, the local geography and social history of fruit growing, including detailed surveys of the spatial development of orchards in South Cambs villages, including Bassingbourn; finally, the economic history of fruit farming, its rise and fall, set within the wider regional and national context. This includes the vital role of the local railway network and the extraordinary rise of the Chivers jam-making business at Histon.
Price £25, 489 pages, including bibliography, index, maps and illustrations. For more information see my blogsite: jonathanspain.wordpress.com. To order a copy email me at jrspain1@hotmail.com