Ion Lodge

Ion Lodge February 2016

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 Ion Lodge [HER 690] notes that the building is a two-storey lodge house, built in brick, covered with coloyr-washed roughcast render with a tiled roof. It is shown on the inclosure map for Ion.

The lodge was owned, and probably built, by the owners of Wrest Park. Originally these were the Earls and finally Duke of Kent. On the death of the latter in 1740 the estate passed to the Earls de Grey and their successors in title, the Barons Lucas of Crudwell.

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 lodge [DV1/C214/119[ found that it was owned by J G Murray, who had bought Wrest Park from Nan Ino, Baroness Lucas after World War One.

The occupier was Mrs D H Walker who lived rent-free. Accommodation comprised a living room, a kitchen, a scullery, a pantry and three bedrooms. Outside stood a washhouse, an outhouse, a brick and slate earth closet and a chicken house.