Buckland

Buckland

Population 530 in the 1950s.  A pretty village with a green and pond.

St.Mary’s Church, 1860 rebuilt in 14^thstyle. Woodyer.  Picturesque old timber belfry Spiral staircase to it.  1380 glass with Peter and Paul and other stuff silver stained glass with virgin and child. In dark Bargate stone, very pretty. Victorian church building at its best.  Stained glass.  Ironstone, in the Decorated style, and has a tower with six bells

Church like barn with unusual running fox weather vane

School with gable Woodyer 1862

Street’s Farm.  17^thplastered with tarred weatherboarded barn

Buckland Court rambling elevations.  Roughcast lodges on the main road. Peculiar stables now much decayed – gimcrack 18^th stucco with castellated tower.

Chinery House. 1966 simple glass house

Park Pit

Buckland Sandpits  Here the Folkestone Beds of the Lower  Greensand spread over a wide area and the grain size and chemical composition of the sand make it particularly suitable for glass manufacture.  The operation at Buckland, which used to be one of the largest employers in the village, was  started in 1925 by the grandfather of the present owner; however since 1978 the operation has been leased to ARC Southern. At one time the company produced up to 60 different products, a very important one being  foundry sand - in fact, the propellers for the  QE2 were cast in Buckland sand.  Sand from Tapwood Pit is slurried with water and pumped under the road to the main processing plant in Park Pit, where the final glass sand for bottle making is produced. Construction sand is dug from Park Pit.