Manor Farmhouse - 17 Brook Lane February 2011

Manor Farmhouse was listed by the former Department of Environment in July 1975 as Grade II, of special interest. The department dated the property to the 18th century but reckoned it was a "reworking of an earlier building". It is built of red brick with chequer patterning in flared headers on some parts of the structure. This encases a certain amount of timber framing. The roof is composed of clay tiles and the house comprises one storey with attics. A late 19th century addition projects to the north, bordering the road and is built of yellow brick; a 20th century extension projects from the rear gable end

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. The valuer visiting Manor Farm [DV1/H38/42] noted that the owner and occupier was Joseph George Elmore.

In 1888 the rent had been £108 per annum and the farm had comprised 78 acres. This had declined to 67 by 8th October 1926 when the valuer visited. He commented: "Saw Mr. Elmore said three fields very wet. House good. Homestead good. Two very good fields – one arable floods".

The farmhouse comprised two reception rooms, a kitchen and scullery, a parlour, a dairy and a cellar. Four bedrooms and a box room stood above. Outside stood a coal house, a wood barn and a water pump in yard. The valuer noted that the property had a W. C. but "no light" presumably meaning no electric lighting in the house.

The farm buildings were as follows:

• West Block A: a brick and slate food store; a cow house for eight used as a store; a barn and a three bay open shed;
• North Block B: a four bay cart shed; a chaff house; a barn with a cement floor and a chaff house as well as a stable for six horses;
• East Block C: a three bay open shed; a food store; a nag stable for two; a trap house in the yard next to the house; two brick and tiled hen houses and three pigsties.

Directories for Bedfordshire, which were not published annually but every few years, give the names of the tenants of Manor Farm from 1898 until 1940 and the following names are taken from these directories. The dates are the dates the name first and last appears not the dates of residence:

1898: Arthur Elmore;
1903-1914: Arthur Deacon Elmore;
1920-1931: Joseph George Elmore;
1936-1940: George Clarke.