46 and 48 High Street Flitwick

44 to 48 High Street about 1910 [Z1130/50/67]

Today [2017] 46 and 48 High Street is a clothes shop called Prestige Design and Workwear and what seems to be a private house. In the past the premises comprised a private house and a draper's shop - not a very different line of business.

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 what is now 46 and 48 High Street [DV1/C130/9] probably in 1927 found that the property was owned and occupied by draper Lincoln Dawson.

The property comprised two reception rooms, a kitchen and scullery downstairs with four bedrooms upstairs. The public space comprised a small office and three separate shop rooms, measuring 19 feet 6 inches by 15 feet, 15 feet square and 12 feet 6 inches by 18 feet respectively. There was also a basement which, according to the valuer, flooded - it used to be a dining room and store.

There was also a range of outbuildings. This comprised a coach house measuring 12 feet by 13 feet, a three-stall stable and a corn store and had a loft over all. There were also a number of wood and corrugated iron buildings - a loose box “used as store”, a tool shed and an open-fronted shed and a lean-to garage measuring 10 feet by 17 feet.

The valuer then made some notes regarding the state of trade: “Cheap tickets to Bedford and Luton cripples local trade. Has to go all over countryside to make a living”. By the time of the Kelly’s Directory for 1928 the draper is listed as F Dawson and Sons and continues to be so listed until 1940. Lincoln dawson is first listed in the directory for 1898 (directories were only issued every three or four years). Lincoln Dawson also owned a grass plot of five-eighths of an acre behind this property and 44 High Street.

46 and 48 High Street September 2017