Old Hunters Lodge Hotel Whipsnade

Old Hunters Lodge January 2009

Old Hunters Lodge Hotel: The Cross Roads, Whipsnade

This building was listed by the former Department of Environment in September 1980 as Grade II, of special interest. It dates from the early 17th century and has a timber-framed first floor with brigh nogging (infill between the beams) over a whitewashed brick ground floor. It comprises two storeys beneath a thatched roof. There is a low two-storey extension to the right-hand side with a clay tile roof and a large modern thatched extension to the left-hand side.

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. The valuer visiting the property, on 14th December 1926, found it was called The Old Thatched Cottage which was owned and occupied by a Mrs. Hart [DV1/C98/17]. The property comprised a reception room and a kitchen downstairs with three bedrooms above. Outside stood a small weather-boarded garage for one car and a weather-boarded and felt earth closet as well as a brick and tiled lean-to scullery.

The hotel was not opened until 1972 [PSD2/4]. It is now [2014] the only licensed property in the village outside the zoo.

Sources:

• PSD2/4: Dunstable District Petty Sessional licensing register: 1984-1992.

Note: that this is not a complete list. Italics indicate licensees whose beginning and/or end dates are not known:

1984-1992: Peter Robert Gregory and Valerie Aruness

The cottage in 1931 [Z55/5/512]