246 Cardington Road Fenlake about 1960 [ref: Z53/38/4]

The Bedfordshire Historic Environment Record [HER] contains information on the county’s historic buildings and landscapes and summaries of each entry can now be found online as part of the Heritage Gateway website. 246 Cardington Road [HER 1317] has a date of 1798 on the outside. It is constructed of roughcast over a timber frame and has an old tiled roof. It is a classic Whitbread Estate cottage, like so many in the village of Cardington.

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. Like most of the county, Fenlake was assessed in 1927. The valuer visiting 246 Cardington Road [ref: DV1/C285/137] found it owned by the Whitbread Estate and occupied by Mrs. Carr and a rent of £2/13/1 per half year. The cottage stood in around 30 poles of land. At that date Fenlake formed part of the parish of Eastcotts but it now lies within the boundaries of the Borough of Bedford.

The property comprised a living room, a kitchen and a scullery with two bedrooms in the attics upstairs. Outside stood a weather-boarded and corrugated iron barn and washhouse, immediately adjoining the cottage. There were also a weather-boarded and tiled barn and a weather-boarded and slated shed used as a bedroom! The valuer summed the place up as: “Quaint”.