Eight Old Cottages, High Street
This page was contributed by Pamela Hider
Old High Street cottages c.1950s (Courtesy of Carlton & Chellington Historical Society)
Charles Whitworth. a farmer from Cold Brayfield, married Anna Maria Battams of Stayesmore Manor in 1849. In 1866 he bought 8 cottages in the High Street. When he died in 1888, his wife and his brother-in-law, William Bland Battams, were appointed Executors of his Will. In the 1910 Finance Act Valuation Records: Carlton, Chellington & Harrold (DBV/1/25), Mrs.Whitworth was described as owner of the 8 cottages. Their occupiers' names were given as: James French, Fred Betts, Elizabeth Watts, William Franklin, John Bolton, Charles Bonfield, Harriet Cockings and Elibert Childs. Alfred Wallinger was named as the occupier of a barn.
Anna Maria died in 1913 and in the same year William sold the cottages to Arthur John Morel Edmonds, living at Summerfield Cottage, 28 High St. today. The deeds (in private hands) afford us a wealth of information: at the time of sale, five occupiers' names remained the same, but James French, Charles Bonfield & Harriet Cockings had been replaced by Leonard Franklin, Widow Brown & George N.Brandon.
Fourteen years later, in 1927, when Carlton was assessed under the Rating and Valuation Act of 1925 (DV1/C218), five of those occupiers' surnames had endured: Widow Brandon, J.G.Brown, L.G. Childs, John Bolton, & William Franklin. The Act specified that every building and piece of land in the country was to be assessed to determine its rateable value; details of the 8 cottages, described as two groups of four each, were as follows:
1st of 4 (now Enchanted Cottage) occupied by A.W.Sanders - stone & tiled, living room, scullery, 2 bedrooms upstairs, Barn. Comments - water supply bad Poor Cottage Right against road.
2nd of 4 occupied by A.E.Brandon - stone & tiled, living room, kitchen, scullery, 2 bedrooms upstairs + attic + large barn as workshop. Comments - laburnum tree right against side wall.
3rd of 4 (now Stone Cottage) occupied by R.Chambers - stone & slate, living room, 2 bedrooms upstairs, Barn. No comments made.
Last of 4 occupied by J.G.Brown - stone & slate, 1 small room, 2 bedrooms upstairs, Barn. No comments made.
1st of 4 occupied by L.G.Childs - (materials not stated), living room, 1 small one, 2 bedrooms upstairs, Barn & washouse. Comments - v.poor
2nd of 4 occupied by J. Bolton - stone and slate, living room, St (?), 2 bedrooms upstairs. Barn. No comments made.
3rd of 4 occupied by S.Jordan - stone & slate, '2 bedrooms?' occupier out. Comments - poor.
Last of 4 occupied by W.Franklin - stone & slate, living room, kitchen, 2 bedrooms upstairs, Bar, earth closet. Comment - all the above are poor cottages.
The first group of 4 formed an L shape with the 1st on the roadside. The second group of 4 were all on the roadside. From here up until the junction with the Marsh was open land.
A.J.M.Edmonds died in 1940 and the cottages were inherited by his wife Kate, who sold them as one lot in 1948 to a retired farmer Albert Ernest Goodman of Little Staughton. Sales particulars (PK2/2/624) showed the improvements that had been made to the cottages along with their current occupiers: William Devereaux, Mrs.A.Brandon (both their cottages being described as having electric light), Ralph Chambers, George Clayton, Walter Franklin, Sidney Jordan & John Stock, one cottage being vacant. The new owner, Mr.Goodman, died the following year and in 1950, ownership was transferred to Aristodemo Walter Bozzoni, the husband of one of his two daughters. In 1955, he sold them to Reginald Victor Field, a property developer from Kempston, who demolished most of them and built the new houses that now replace them. At the same time, houses in Street Close on the other side of the High Street were being constructed. That end of the High Street was taking on a new look.
New houses today, November 2021