62 High Street Riseley

62 High Street April 2015

62 High Street was listed by the former Department of Environment in June 1974 as Grade II, of special interest. It dates from the 17th century and is built of colour-washed roughcast over a timber frame and brick, with a modern asbestos roof. The left-hand bay was originally one storey with attics but the whole building is now of two storeys. There are single storey additions, of timber-framing and brick, to the rear

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/C222/3] found it owned and occupied by blacksmith E Pentlow (though in Kelly's Directory he is listed as Alfred Pentlow). The property occupied just under half an acre and comprised a living room, a kitchen and three bedrooms. A weather-boarded and tiled barn stood outside. The brick and thatched blacksmith's shop comprised a forge measuring 14 feet by 15 feet, a shoeing shed measuring 13 feet by 11 feet 6 inches and a weather-boarded and tied barn at the end of a garage noted below.

A small portion at the rear of the house was leased to John William Taylor, motor engineer. He paid rent of £5 per annum for a kitchen and a bedroom. The valuer noted: "Very small, no garden". A long shed on the north-east boundary of the property was a garage measuring 29 feet by 17 feet 6 inches which had a Shell petrol pump. It, too, was leased to Taylor.

In 1956 Alfred Pentlow proposed alterations [Z1169/8/61/4]. Directories for Bedfordshire were not published every year but every few years from the early to mid-19th century until 1940. Alfred Pentlow is first listed as blacksmith in Kelly's Directory for 1920 and is still listed in the final directory for the county, 1940.