2 Bull Street Potton

2 Bull Street August 2013

Bull Street has a number of notable old properties. The south side was greatly affected by a fire in the town in 1878 and lost a number of buildings, the north side escaping from the effects completely.

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 visiting the property [DV1/C11/114] found that it was owned by Frederick Charles Victor Reynolds and leased by Victor Reynolds, no rent being stated. Reynolds was a butcher and his shop measured 11 feet 9 inches by 15 feet; a partitioned off and glazed office measured just 3 feet 6 inches by 4 feet.

Also on the ground floor was a kitchen, used as a bedroom, and a living room measuring 9 feet by 14 feet. The first floor had a drawing room measuring 14 feet by 11 feet and bedrooms measuring, respectively, 19 feet 6 inches by 10 feet and 14 feet by 10 feet. Two cattle pens stood outside along with a slaughterhouse ("poor"), a cart hovel and a wood and slate loose box.

Directories for Bedfordshire were not published every year but every few years from the early to mid 19th century until 1940. Kelly's Directory for the county for 1924, 1928, 1931, 1936 and 1940 all list Frederick Charles Victor Reynolds (the owner rather than the tenant in 1927, unless the tenant had the same set of names and was distinguished from his father by simply being called Victor) as butcher in Bull Street. The directory for 1920 lists Frederick Reynolds. Directories of 1894, 1898, 1903, 1906, 1910 and 1914 all list Willie Millard Whittet as a butcher in Bull Street. He does not appear in the 1920 directory and so was probably Reynolds' predecessor at Number 2.