2 Station Square Flitwick

1 and 2 Station Square about 1905 [Z1130/50/59]

Sale particulars dated 1920 [HN7/1/FLW2] include as their Lot 3 the Post Office, Station Square. It is described as a double fronted shop in the occupation of Mrs Rebecca Carr on a lease of £22 per annum expiring Lady Day 1928.

Directories for Bedfordshire were not published every year but every few years from the early to mid-19th century until 1940. The first directory to mention a post office in Flitwick is 1885; entries for the post office (not necessarily always at 2 Station Square) are as follows:

• 1885: Mary Denton;
• 1890-1894: William Shaw;
• 1898-1903: Samuel Carr;
• 1906-1920: Rebecca Carr;
• 1924--1940: Reuben J Jackson.

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 the property [DV1/C130/98] found that it was owned by someone called Inskip (who presumably bought it in 1920) and occupied by stationer and sub-postmaster Reuben J Jackson, whose rent was £28/10/- per annum.

The post office and shop measured 13 feet 6 inches by 21 feet. Private accommodation comprised two reception rooms, a kitchen and a scullery downstairs and three bedrooms and a boxroom upstairs. The valuer noted that the shop also sold cigarettes and tobacco.

Bedfordshire Archive and Record Service has a volume of Liquor Licence Traders Survey Forms [Z1105/1]. The forms were compiled by the Bletchley [Buckinghamshire] Office of Customs and Excise and concern premises of persons licensed to sell beer, wines and spirits (including methylated spirits), in 1954 2 Station Square was occupied by William Charles Wynn's wireless shop. At the time of writing [2017] 2 Station Square is an estate agency - Country Properties.

1 and 2 Station Square September 2017