Manor Cottage April 2009

Manor Cottage was listed by the former Department of Environment in March 1985 as Grade II, of special interest. The department dated the property to the 17th century. It is built of colour washed roughcast render over a substantial timber frame, has a thatched roof, one storey and attics, with an outshot to the rear. In recent years the properties on Thorncote Road have all been renumbered. Manor Cottage was formerly numbered 29 Thorncote Road.

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 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 occupier in 1910 was Goodwin Phillips.

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 valuer visiting the property found it owned by Goodwin Phillips (who had evidently bought it from the Harveys, though whether by private treaty or public auction is not known) and occupied by Samuel Stokes who paid rent of £10 per annum, which had been set in 1922.

Accommodation (“fair”) comprised a living room, kitchen and scullery with two bedrooms above. A barn and earth closet, as usual in Northill, stood outside and, again as usual, water came from an outside tap.