Old Grovebury Manor Farm Billington

Old Grovebury Manor Farmhouse from the front in January 2009

This building was listed by the former Ministry of Public Buildings and Works as Grade II, of special interest, on 3rd February 1967. It is 16th century and has a timber framed construction with modern roughcast infill. It has two storeys, the first storey overhanging the ground floor. The roof is of modern tiles. The name presumably tells us that it was originally part of the Manor of Leighton Buzzard alias Grovebury.

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. Billington, like much of the county, was assessed in 1927. The valuer visiting Old Grovebury Manor Farm [DV1/C103-105] found it owned by someone named Andrews and occupied by J. T. Saunders, whose rent was £35 per annum for land and buildings.

The land comprised 1.659 acres of orchard and 5.551 acres of arable. The farm buildings were two weather-boarded and thatched barns (“bad”) and three weather-boarded and corrugated iron pigsties.

The farmhouse comprised a living room, a kitchen, a pantry and a cellar with three bedrooms on the first floor. A meal house and washhouse with a loft over, each floor measuring 22 feet by 16 feet stood outside. The valuer was not impressed: “House very poor”.

Old Grovebury Manor Farmhouse January 2009