8 to 12 High Street Clophill

Mill Stream Cottage March 2010

Mill Stream Cottage and 12 High Street were listed by English Heritage in January 1985 as Grade II, of special interest. The listing is just for 12 High Street but the description is for both properties. English Heritage considered the structure to be 18th and 19th centuries in date. The central block (10 High Street below) is built of brick and slate with the outer blocks of timber-framing and thatch. The whole row is colourwashed and roughcast rendered. The left-hand block (Number 12 below) has a single storey, the central block two storeys and the right-hand block a single storey with attics. The extension to the rear of 8 High Street postdates the photograph below taken in 1973.

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 Mill Stream Cottage and 12 High Street found that it was then a row of three (8 to 12) was owned by Miss E. M. Hinton.

 
The rear of 8-12 High Street in 1973 [Z50/31/20]

Number 8 [DV1/C288/75] was occupied by D. Peat who had paid £5/10/- in rent before the Great War but by 1927 paid £ 8 per year. His brick, stucco and thatched cottage comprised a living room and kitchen downstairs with two bedrooms above. Outside stood a brick and slate barn, a brick and slate earth closet, a weather-boarded and "Ruberoid" henhouse and an old weather-boarded and "Ruberoid" pigsty which was disused.

Number 10 [DV1/C288/74] was leased to S. Peat who had paid the same rent as D. Peat before the Great War and, like him, now paid £8 per annum. His brick and slate dwelling comprised a living room and kitchen downstairs with two bedrooms above. Outside stood a brick and slate barn and a brick and slate earth closet.

Number 12 [DV1/C288/73] was in the occupation of J. Harris who had paid, and now paid, the same rents as the two Peats. His brick, stucco and thatched cottage also comprised a living room and kitchen with two bedrooms. Outside stood a weather-boarded and thatched barn and a brick and slate earth closet.

Mill Stream Cottage and 12 High Street May 2010