White Cottage 34 Days Lane Biddenham

34 Days Lane April 2012

34 Days Lane is known as White Cottage (not to be confused with the White Cottage at 17 Church End). It was designed by local Arts and Crafts Movement architect Charles Edward Mallows (1864-1915) for his younger brother Ernest Richard Mallows in 1908. E. R. Mallows ran the family firm of Kent and Gostwick, boot and shoemakers in Bedford High Street until his retirement in 1924. A history of Charles Edward Mallows by his son Wilfred (in the possession of the Peacock family, who are related to the Mallows family) states that the house did not leave the ownership of the Mallows family until 1989.

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 34 Days Lane [DV1/C277/39] found it occupied by Captain John William Hurnell M. C., at a furnished rent of £2/2/- per week from 1926. the property comprised a dining room, a drawing room and a kitchen on the ground floor with three bedrooms, a bathroom and W. C. upstairs. Outside stood a barn and an earth closet. The valuer commented “very lettable”. Electricity, water and gas were all laid on. The valuer also commented: “very pleasant house better at back than front” and “very nice small windows, Ramble Roses”. The house stood in just over a third of an acre.

Information from the Peacock family relates that Mallows’ unmarried daughter Sybil Dorothy (1900-1970) later lived on the ground floor of the property, the first floor being rented out as a separate flat.