Home Farm - 27 High Street Houghton Conquest

Home Farm was listed by English Heritage in May 1985 as Grade II, of special interest. It has been dated to around 1600 and is a timber-framed construction with some rebuilding in brick, the whole structure having been covered in colour-washed roughcast render. It has clay- tile roofs, is built in a T-plan and comprises two storeys. The porch is 20th century.

Bedfordshire Archive and Record Service does not have much information on the history of the building. 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 the premises [DV1/C78/18] found that it was owned by E W Day and occupied by F Cherry, Day’s business partner who, thus, paid no rent. It served as the farmhouse for a 119 acre farm.

The “old rambling cottage” comprised two reception rooms, a kitchen and a dairy and had three bedrooms upstairs. Water came from a well and light from lamps. An earth closet stood outside as did a wood barn. The property entry is annotated with a number of comments in different hands: “Good front”, “Nice old farmhouse”, “old rambling place”. A later hand has annotated the rooms as a reception room, a living room and a kitchen with a bathroom and WC and three bedrooms above.