Lantern Cottage - 63 Silver Street Great Barfor

Lantern Cottage 63 Silver Street in 1979 [Z50/5/16]

63 High Street, Lantern Cottage, was listed by the former Department of Environment in August 1983 as Grade II, of special interest. The department dated the property to the 17th century. Like most older properties in Great Barford it is constructed of colour washed roughcast over a timber frame. It has a thatched roof,
hipped to the west end. There is a C20 sinqle storey addition to the east gable end.

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 Herrings Lane, as this part of Silver Street was then known, found that what is now Lantern Cottage was then  two separate dwellings, though attached. Both were owned by W. R. Green.

One cottage was occupied by Frederick Fuller who paid £3/10/- per annum for a living room with a range and a kitchen with one bedroom above. The valuer simply commented “Out usual” by which he probably meant an coal and wood barn and a privy.

The other, left hand, cottage was occupied by Jonas Harris, who paid rent of £4 per annum for a living room with a range and a bedroom with a further bedroom upstairs. The valuer commented: “Very bad Bedfordshire type”. Outside was “usual and derelict pigsty”.

63 Silver Street March 2010