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Greenlands Great Barford

Greenlands Birchfield Road March 2010
Greenlands Birchfield Road March 2010

Was listed by the former Department of Environment in August 1983 as Grade II, of special interest. The department dated the property to the 18th century. It is constructed of colour washed roughcast over a timber frame and has an old tile roof. The house is built in an L-plan with two storeys.

The Rating and Valuation Act 1925 specified that every building and piece of land in the country was to be assessed to determine its rateable value. Most of Bedfordshire was valued in 1927 and the valuer visiting Greenlands [DV1/C125/44] found it was then called The Firs and was owned by William Mitchell and occupied by Edwin K. Mitchell. The house stood in just under a quarter of an acre and rent, set in 1920, was £27 per annum.

The building comprised two reception rooms with grates, a kitchen with a range and sink and a dairy downstairs with three bedrooms above, each with a fireplace and a w. c. (“carry water”). A washhouse with a copper for heating water and a privy stood outside. Drinking water had to be fetched from some distance but washing water was accessed via a pump by the stable noted below making the house and inconvenient one to live in. The valuer commented: “Old Place looks attractive”.

The Firs was a smallholding and farm buildings to the rear of the house included the following wood and tiled structures: an open hovel; a pig shelter and yard; a hen house; a corn and chaff barn; a lean-to shelter; a loose box; a three bay open hovel; another loose box and a stable for five horses. A brick and tile trap house for two traps stood nearby. Two and a half acres of grassland stood to the rear and Mitchell rented a brick, wood and corrugated iron hay and corn barn nearby from Allen L. Barker for £2/10/- per annum.