19 Sand Lane April 2009

19 Sand Lane was listed by the former Department of Environment in March 1985 as Grade II, of special interest. The department dated the property to the 18th century. The house has a timber framed construction with colour washed roughcast render and some colour washed brick casing. It has a thatched roof and a three-room plan, with one storey and attics.

In 1910 a thorough rating valuation was carried out across England as part of David Lloyd-George’s pioneering 1909 budget. The survey was so thorough it was known colloquially as the Domesday Survey. The results show that all the older buildings in Northill were owned by John Edmund Audley Harvey, who, though he lived in London, was Lord of the Manor of Northill as well as Lord of the Manor of Ickwell and owner of Ickwell Bury. These older buildings may have been built by a former Lord of the Manor or bought by the Manor at a later stage – detailed research of the Harvey [HY] archive would be needed to try to establish this in each case, unless the current owners still have the deeds to the properties concerned and so can research the history for themselves.

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. Northill was assessed in 1927 and the annotations on the second edition 25 inches to the mile Ordnance Survey map made by the valuer which tie in to his notes are rather confused when it comes to Sand Lane. However 19 Sand Lane seems [DV1/C42/117] to have been owned and occupied by Joseph Woodward. He, presumably, bought it from the Harvey Estate some point after 1910, though whether by auction or private treaty is not known.

The house stood in less than a tenth of an acre and comprised a living room, kitchen and store room with three bedrooms above. Two barns, a coal place and earth closet lay outside and water came from an outside tap.