The Old Coach House - 10 and 12 Rectory Road Meppershall

10-12 Rectory Road about 1960 [Z55/74/50]

Rectory Cottage or the Old Coach House, located at 10 and 12 Rectory Road, was originally constructed as two separate properties. Listed as grade II in 1980, the building was described as dating from the early seventeenth century at the latest. Timber framed with colourwashed plaster and a thatched roof. Number 10 is one storey with attics and number 12 is two storeys. There are numerous leaded, casement windows and eyebrow dormers (windows protruding from the sloped roof).

It is not known when the building was merged into a single property, but we know it must have taken place before 1925, when 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 who visited rectory cottage found that it was owned by the Rector of Meppershall and occupied by F Pettifor. The valuer's field books describes it as comprising a parlour, living room, kitchen, cellar, dairy and four bedrooms, with an out-barn attached. There was no water supply, with the occupier having to fetch water from across the road, and no mention is made of a toilet either indoors or out! The valuer's notes suggest that the property was in less than perfect condition at this point in time, mentioning a 'very bad slope at back' and concluding that the property was 'very poor'. [DV1/C161/35]