Skip Navigation
 
 

Welcome to Bedford Borough Council

Home > Community Histories > GreatBarford > Bridge Cottage - 88 Green End Road Great Barford

Bridge Cottage - 88 Green End Road Great Barford

Bridge Cottage in 1884
Bridge Cottage in 1884

The Bedfordshire Historic Environment Record [HER] contains information on the county’s historic buildings and landscapes and summaries of each entry can now be found online as part of the Heritage Gateway website. The entry for Bridge Cottage, 88 Green End Road [HER 12327] reveals that the cottage is an 18th century building in origin, built in brick which is covered by roughcast render. Ordnance Survey 25 inches to the mile maps indicate that the cottage was originally a row of three.

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 88 Green End Road [DV1/C125/42-43] found that by this date today’s cottage was a semi-detached pair, both owned by William Wootton who lived in one of them himself. His accommodation comprised a parlour with a grate, a living room with a range and a kitchen with a range with four bedrooms, two with fireplaces, above. A combined coal and wood barn and an earth closet stood outside. The valuer noted that it had once been two cottages and commented: “Poor Place, 6½ feet ceiling, light moderate”.

The left hand side of today’s Bridge Cottage was occupied by Frederick Favell who paid rent of 10 shillings per month, a rate set in 1919, having paid 8 shillings between 1913 and 1919. He had a living room with a range, a scullery with a fireplace and two bedrooms upstairs. He also had a combined coal and wood barn and a privy outside. Both dwellings drew their water from further along Green End Road.

In 2008 Bridge Cottage was for sale. The particulars [Z449/2/88] noted that the property had been “sympathetically restored”. Accommodation comprised an entrance hall and reception hall, a sitting room, a kitchen and breakfast room, a utility room, a study, a bathroom and a bedroom. Upstairs lay five bedrooms and a further bathroom. An outbuilding, barn and shed lay outside.

Bridge Cottage - 88 Green End Road October 2010
Bridge Cottage - 88 Green End Road October 2010