23 High Street Flitwick

23 High Street September 2017

Today 23 High Street is a dental surgery. 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 bungalow, probably in 1927 [DV1/C272/108] found that it was owned and occupied by boot maker John Bolt. The house comprised a reception room, three bedrooms, a kitchen and a washhouse. The valuer was not impressed, writing “Cheaply Built”.

Outside was a brick and slate earth closet and a weather-boarded and slated lumber room. There was also a “Railway Carriage used as a boot repairing shop” appropriately enough so close to the railway. The valuer commented: “Owner says house cost £350 to build”. 

Directories for Bedfordshire were not published every year but every few years from the early to mid-19th century until 1940. John Bolt is listed in the High Street in Kell's Directory as a bootmaker from 1931 to 1940. In the directory for 1928 he is listed in Windmill Road suggesting that 23 High Street was built just before the valuer's visit in 1927, the directory for 1928 having a time-lag of being compiled before being published at the end of 1927 or beginning of 1928.