1 Roxton Road Great Barford

1 Roxton Road March 2010

1 Roxton Road is a handsome brick building at the junction of Roxton Road with Bedford Road and Green End Road. 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.

Most of Bedfordshire was valued in 1927 and the valuer visiting 1 Roxton Road [DV1/C125/63] found it owned and occupied by shopkeeper Archibald Norman. The accommodation comprised a parlour with a grate, a living room with a grate, a kitchen with a range, a pantry, a shop measuring 12 feet by 13 feet and three bedrooms upstairs. A coal and wood barn and a privy lay outside and water was obtained from a pump outside the back door.

The valuer commented: “A highly desirable, lofty and well built property”. He also noted “Very good House. High eaves, corner position”. Kelly’s Directory for Bedfordshire from 1920 until it ended in 1940 lists Mrs Evelyn Norman as shopkeeper in the village, listing Archibald in 1940 as a market gardener.The Great Barford Women's Institute scrapbook [X535/5] has a photograph of Mrs. Norman's shop with the caption "Disaster on May 31st 1951" [see below].

A report in the Bedfordshire Times stated that a woman from Birmingham died in the road traffic accident which caused the damage to the shop. She was the passenger in a sports car which collided with "a British Road Services pantechnicon" at the crossroads. The van then ran into the shop window. An inquest heard that the woman was being given a lift from the coast by a friend from Kempston as she was staying with friends in Blunham at the time.

Disaster 31st May 1951 [X535/5]

In 1997 the general store at the premises closed. The building then reverted to being a private house [PCGreatBarford18/56].