9 Blunham Road hiding behind modern developments October 2009

9 Blunham Road is not easily found. It stands on the west side of the road and well back from it, behind a row of 20th century council houses opposite the Old Vicarage. The property was listed by the former Department of Environment in March 1985 as Grade Ii, of special interest. The department dated it to the 17th century and it was the familiar local construction of a timber frame with a colourwashed roughcast exterior over it, capped by a thatched roof. It is a larger cottage, having a three room plan downstairs and the usual attic bedrooms. It has two single storey 20th century extensions, one to the north gable end and one to the south.

The Rating and Valuation Act of 1925 specified that every piece of land and building in the country should be assessed to determine the rates to be paid on it. Blunham was assessed in 1927 and the valuer visiting 9 Blunham Road [DV1/C208/149] noted that it was owned and occupied by J. Buckle. And stood in just over a quarter of an acre. The road was, at that time, called Church Lane.

The cottage comprised a parlour, living room and two sculleries downstairs with three bedrooms above. A washhouse and two barns stood outside. The valuer noted: "2 Cottages knocked into one. Poor". Presumably, therefore, at some time after being built one room up and down was divided off and inhabited separately. Like many of the older properties in the village, water came from a tap outside.