53 High Street Clophill

53 High Street about 1925 [Z50/31/46]

53 High Street was listed by English Heritage in January 1985 as Grade II, of special interest. At that date it was the village Post Office. They dated the property to the 17th century, noting that it had been reworked in the 19th century. It has a timber-framed construction with colourwashed roughcast render at the front and pebbledash at the east end. The west gable end was rebuilt in the 20th century. The property has a clay tile roof and comprises a single storey with attics.

The Rating and Valuation Act 1925 specified that every building and piece of land in the country was to be assessed as to its rateable value. Clophill was assessed in 1927. The valuer visiting 53 High Street [DV1/C47/5] noted that it was a shop, owned and occupied by George Mead. Kelly's Directory for Bedfordshire only lists him as a shopkeeper in Clophill in its editions of 1928 and 1931.

The brick, stucco, tiled and corrugated iron detached building comprised a parlour, living room, kitchen, shop (measuring 15 feet by 10 feet 6 inches with an 8 feet by 3 feet bay) and scullery used as a store. A cellar lay beneath the ground floor. Two bedrooms and a boxroom, all disused, lay upstairs. Outside lay the following:

• A brick and tiled washhouse;
• A weather-boarded and corrugated iron store;
• A weather-boarded and corrugated iron garage ("used cart, good concrete floor");
• A weather-boarded and corrugated iron range comprising stable, meal house and store with a loft over the whole;
• A brick and corrugated iron earth closet;
• A weather-boarded and tiled store;
• A brick and felt pigsty ("disused").

53 High Street July 2010