Bumble Cottage

 This page was written by Pamela Hider. 

7, The Moor, c.1970s (courtesy of HER)

7, The Moor,  known today as Bumble Cottage, is described by the Historic Environment Record for Bedfordshire as follows:

C17 house. Coursed limestone rubble. Thatched roof. 2-bay plan. Central ridge chimney stack, originally one flue with S.W. one added later. One storey and attics. N.W. elevation: two dormer windows at eaves level. Ground floor three casement windows. C.19 brick wings added at right angles to N.E. gable end. Colourwashed. Welsh slate roofs. Part two storeys, part one storey. C20 casement windows.

Records tell us that this cottage had been a farmhouse to a smallholding on the site of today's Carriers Way, at least from the C19, and at that time  'brick wings were added at right angles' . Details of these 'wings', along with Bumble cottage itself, are described in 1927, as a result of the Rating and Valuation Act of 1925. 

Rating and Valuation Act 1925

This Act specified that every building and piece of land in the country was to be assessed to determine its rateable value. This was done in Carlton in 1927 (DV1/C218) and 7, The Moor was described as "stone & thatched, semi-detached, living room, kitchen, 1 other as lumbar room, 2 bedrooms upstairs, barn, earth closet". The owner was Mrs. R.Franklin, whose husband Robert (Carlton's Carrier) had died in 1920,  and the occupier was Albert Jarvis, whose wife Eva was the daughter of the late Robert.

Semi-detached to the cottage  were the 'wings' added in the C19. They comprised "living room, 2 bedrooms upstairs" (the 2 storey addition); and "wash house & barn" (the 1 storey addition). The whole was described as "poor", and  "sublet by A.Jarvis". The owner was Mrs.R.Franklin and the Occupier was Mrs. M. Watson 

The Watsons

Mary Ann Watson (née Franklin) was the second child of Robert Franklin. She married Ernest Watson, a professional soldier, in 1903. They were both often abroad with the Army, and had 3 children. But in 1915, Ernest was killed in France. He had risen to the rank of  Company Sergeant Major and awarded the Distinguished Service Medal. He is listed on the Carlton Roll of Honour and  commemorated on the  Menin Gate at Ypres. Mary Ann (known as Polly) lived for the rest of her life in the semi-detached cottage described above. She died in 1955.

The  name 'Bumble' is a modern addition, thought to refer to the bees who nest behind the cottage. 

Bumble Cottage, 2023