The History of Long Buckby – Phil Davis’ Legacy

For over 40 years, Phil Davis studied, researched, recorded and photographed his adopted village of Long Buckby.  He was interested in all aspects of village life, from farming and fields to families, houses, shops and industries.  He was a long term member of the Local History Society and during his time with the Society he helped produce several booklets including Memories of Long Buckby (1991), Long Buckby in the 1890’s (1994), had the original Mrs. Frost’s Scrapbook typed and photographed and published (1995) and he researched and edited Long Buckby at the Millennium (1999).  He also transcribed and typed copies of the Long Buckby entries for the Censuses up to and including 1911.

He often could be seen taking groups around the village on history walks and undertook many talks and quizzes to clubs and societies in Buckby and surrounding villages on topics as diverse as “Grave Information” to “Emigrants”

Upon Phil’s death in 2017 his family decided to donate his numerous files, presentations and photographs to the Local History Society.  Sadly the original intention of scanning the material and make it publicly available on the internet has had to be abandoned due to copyringht and data protection issues.  This would have enabled the many people searching on line for their links to Long Buckby to see what Phil had recorded on the many Buckby families and homes and other historical facts.

However all the documentation, maps, photographs, photocopies, hardcopies and computer analysis have now been recorded and the items are stored at Long Buckby Local History Society Museum in Station Road.  A summary of all the items has been made and it is shown on the Local History Society Museum website and are also listed here.  Those wanting to see any of the items should approach the Local History Society.  They can be contacted through their Museum website - www.longbuckbymuseum.co.uk

Gretta Davis