27 Ickwell Green April 2009
27 Ickwell Green was listed by the former Department of Environment in August 1987 as Grade II, of special interest. The department dated the property to the 17th century. It has a timber framed construction, partly exposed, with colour washed
roughcast render, a thatched roof, one storey and attics. The building is mainly of box frame construction with a gabled roof, but has a hipped bay to east end with a truncated cruck truss.
The house may have been built by the Lords of the Manor of Ickwell as part of what later became known as the Ickwell Bury Estate. Alternatively, the house may have been acquired by the estate later. Certainly, when the Ickwell Bury Estate was sold by auction in 1924 27 Ickwell Green was part of it. The sale particulars [AD1147/16] for The Den are as follows:
LOT 8
A neat Half-timbered Country Cottage
known as “THE DEN”
with front and back Gardens, Yard and Roadway,
overlooking ICKWELL GREEN
0 a. 0 r. 28 p.
It is partly Brick Built and Half-timbered, and contains: - Sitting Room, Kitchen, Store Room and Pantry with Three Bed Rooms over.
With Out Offices, Wash House and Store.
Company’s Water.
Let to Mr. G. STOKES on a Yearly Tenancy.
The Yard and Roadway are let to F. T. DAVIES, Esq. (with Lot 7 [28 Ickwell Green]) on a Yearly, December 25th, Tenancy.
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. Ickwell was assessed in 1927 and the valuer visiting The Den [DV1/C44/71] found it owned and occupied by George Stokes who operated a general store.
Accommodation comprised a living room, kitchen and “pantry used as store”, three bedrooms lay upstairs. A washhouse and barn and an earth closet lay outside. There was a small garden and water came from an outside tap.
Kelly’s Directory for Bedfordshire lists George Stokes as shopkeeper in Ickwell in its editions of 1928, 1931, 1936 and 1940. The directory was not published every year and 1940 was the last one published for Bedfordshire.