97 High Street Clophill

97 High Street in 1979 [Z50/31/24]

97 High Street was listed by English Heritage in January 1985 as Grade II, of special interest. They dated the property to the 18th century. It is constructed of colourwashed roughcast over a timber frame and has a thatched roof covering 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 97 High Street [DV1/C47/55] found it owned by John Henry Smith (identified as a shopkeeper, rate collector and Clerk to the Parish Council in Kelly's Directory for 1928) and occupied by Miss L. S. Bottoms who had paid £4/5/- per annum rent before the Great War and, by 1927, paid £5/10/- per annum.

The stucco and thatched detached building stood in 0.163 of an acre and comprised a living room, kitchen and weather-boarded and thatched scullery downstairs with two bedrooms above, one of them in the roof. A weather-boarded and thatched range comprising earth closet, wood and coal barn and barn and a weather-boarded and corrugated iron hen house stood outside. The valuer commented: "Used to be two cottages".

97 High Street February 2010