52 Moor End Eaton Bray

52 Moor End in 1915 [Z214/2]

52 Moor End was listed by the former Department of Environment in September 1980 as Grade II, of special interest. It is an ancient property, dating from the 16th century and is built of timber framing with red brick infill or nogging on the first floor. The ground floor is simply red brick. The house has two storeys beneath an old clay tile roof. The south gable is jettied – that is, the first floor slightly overhangs the ground floor.

The property was evidently part of the Manor of Eaton Bray owned, in the late 19th and 20th centuries by Arthur Macnamara. Pedley Settled Estates were sold by Macnamara's executors by auction in October 1915, 52 Moor End was Lot 25. The sale particulars [Z214/2] read as follows:

Picturesque Freehold Two-storied Cottage
of brick elevation, with half-timbered projecting gable and tiled roof, standing well back from the Edlesborough Road at Moor End, and containing Four Bed Rooms, Tile-paved Entrance Lobby, Sitting Room, Kitchen, Wash-house and Dairy, with Paved Yard and Coal Barn. GOOD GARDEN in front and Grass Plot in rear.
also an enclosure of
Freehold Accommodation Pasture or Building Land
adjoining, having a good Frontage to the road. The whole comprising about
1a. 1r. 15p.

The Cottage and Premises are let to Miss Mary Mead on a Monthly Tenancy at a Rent aggregating to £7 16s. per annum, and the Land is let to Mr. Frederick Tearle on a Yearly (Michaelmas) tenancy, at the Annual Rent of £7 per annum, making a total Rental for this Lot of
£14 16s. per annum

The particulars are annotated at the back to show that the house was bought by Gaius Tompkins (who also bought nearby Willow Cottage) for £315.

The Rating and Valuation Act 1925 specified that every building and piece of land in the country was to be assessed to determine its rateable value. Eaton Bray, like most of the county, was assessed in 1927. The valuer visiting 52 Moor End [DV1/C235/3-5] found it owned at occupied by G. Bates – evidently Tompkins had sold it and Tearle's tenancy had been ended.

The house now comprised two living rooms and a kitchen with three bedrooms and a box room above. A brick and slate barn (“used meal house”), and a W. C. stood outside. The valuer commented: “Attractive” and ”Overhanging 1st floor on south”.

Behind house stood a corrugated iron two bay open shed and three weather-boarded and corrugated iron piggeries. In an adjoining field stood a weather-boarded and corrugated iron lean-to shed, a weather-boarded and corrugated iron workshop, a loose box and two hen houses. There was still an orchard of just over an acre - “young prune”, a common crop in Eaton Bray.

52 Moor End March 2012