Barham House 62 High Street Harrold

Barham House in 1962 [Z53/54/31]

Barham House, 62 High Street, was listed by the former Department of Environment as Grade II (of special interest), they considered it to date from the late 18th century. It is built of coursed limestone rubble and has a slate roof with stone gable coping. The house is in two parallel lines, each with its own roof, known as a double pile, and has two storeys with attics.

In 1927 property in Harrold was valued under the Rating Valuation Act of 1925; every piece of land and building in the country had to be valued to determine the rates to be paid upon it. The valuer visiting Barham House [DV1/C71/21] noted that the owner was W.Fairey and the occupier Dr.Bartlett [Kelly's Directory for 1928 lists him as Doctor Jacob H.Bartlett . L.R.C.P. (Edinburgh), L.R.F.P.S. (Glasgow)].

The house stood in 0.459 acres. It comprised a hall ("poor"), south dining room 15 feet square, a kitchen ("small"), scullery and larder, a surgery measuring 12½ feet by 16 feet plus a bay, a pantry and a south drawing room 15 feet square on the ground floor. Upstairs were a bedroom over the dining room 15 feet square, "here are back stairs and stairs to 2nd floor"; a maids' room 11 feet by 15 feet, a bathroom and wc, a bedroom over the surgery 16 feet by 18 feet, a bedroom over the drawing room 15 feet square and a dressing room. There were four rooms in roof ("unused").

Outside were: a wood and slate old surgery, "now a waiting room"; a stone and slate double coach house used for cycles; a garage; a two stall stable ("coal"); a coal shed; a "good paved yard" and a garden of 0.4 acres with a small greenhouse.The valuer remarked: "Garden fair only. No light or heat in house. House not so nice inside as it looks from road".

Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service has a number of 19th and early 20th century directories. It also has the correspondence of Harrold nonconformist Mary Sanders [X953 a list entitled ‘Name of Persons who have lived in Barham House, Harrold, during the past 70 to 80 years - May 1884’, Miss Sanders added:"The House continued the property of the Woottons who built it until sold in the year [space] when Mr. Goff bought it"]. These two sources can be used to give a picture of some of the occupiers at the time:

• Mrs. Wootton "the late Dr. Wootton’s grandmother";
• Mr. Neal "who married a Miss Wootton";
• Mrs. Harding;
• Mr. Dutton;
• Mrs. Knapp;
• Mr. Clark;
• Mrs. Robertson;
• Mr. Templeton;
• Brown;
• Samuel Rogers;
• Mrs. Oddy;
• John or Joseph Quinton "who named the House from the Ship he came in to England";
• Ellman;
• 1861-1864: William Wootton "the late Doctor", surgeon to the Bedford Union and Registrar;
• Miss Rogers
• 1869 James Broad Bodilly, surgeon and Medical Officer to the Harrold District of the Bedford Union;
• Spencer;
• 1876: Robert Gibbs MRCS, surgeon;
• 1884-1885: John Goff;
• 1890-1914: Mrs.Goff;
• 1920: Arthur Smith Loftus, surgeon, medical officer and public vaccinator;
• 1924-1928: Jacob Harry Bartlett, physician, surgeon and certifying factory surgeon; 1931-1940: William Blayney.

62 High Street - Barham House in May 2008