15 Bull Street Potton

15 Bull Street August 2013

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 15 Bull Street [HER 7049] describes the property as dating from the 19th century. It comprises two storeys and is built from whitewashed brick with a slate roof. The property probably replaces two houses destroyed on the corner of Bull Street and Chapel Street, as it was then known, by a large fire in Potton in June 1878.

The valuer visiting the property [DV1/C11/47] found that it was owned and occupied by Frederick Jakes who, Kelly's Directory for 1928 tells us, was a grocer and tea dealer. His shop measured 17 feet 6 inches by 14 feet and a store measured 20 feet 6 inches by 14 feet; there was also a "damp" lean-to measuring 9 feet by 11 feet ands a cellar under the shop.. Other ground floor rooms were: a living room measuring 13 feet by 10 feet; a parlour measuring 13 feet by 9 feet 6 inches; a drawing room measuring 12 feet 6 inches by 11 feet and a kitchen. There were three bedrooms on the first floor and a boxroom, the valuer noted: "Mr. Jakes objected to bedrooms being measured". Outbuildings comprised: a wood and tiled cart shed; a wood and tiled loose box with a loft over; a wood and corrugated iron barn ("large"); a brick and slate two stall stable ("good") and a loft over part of the shop.

Kelly’s Directory for 1936 lists Frederick Jakes as grocer at 15 Bull Street and at the same address lists William Jakes, market gardener. The final directory for the county, 1940, lists William and Sydney Jakes as grocers at 15 Bull Street and still lists William as a marker gardener at the same address. Frederick is listed in directories as far back as 1894.