Carpenters Lodge - 35 High Street Riseley

Carpenter's Lodge - 35 High Street April 2015

This property was listed by the former Department of Environment in June 1974 as Grade II, of special interest. The cottage dates from the 19th century and is constructed from local chequered brick with a pantiled roof. It comprises two storeys. There is a 20th century one-bay extension to the north-east gable end. The house was originally divided into a pair of dwellings.

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/C215/77] found it was owned by Lord Saint John of Bletsoe and occupied by Eli Litchfield whose rent was £11 per annum for a living room, a parlour, a kitchen and scullery and four bedrooms. It was a "poorish place" and had "small rooms – was two houses". A brick and tiled barn stood outside. There was also a weather-boarded and tiled wheelwright's shed measuring 25 feet by 15 feet 6 inches and a blacksmith's forge measuring 32 feet 6 inches by 15 feet 6 inches as well as a corrugated iron wood store, a workshop and a weather-boarded and tiled sawing shed.

The cottage's current name might better be Undertakers' Lodge as Eli Litchfield and Son are listed in Kelly's Directory for Bedfordshire as undertakers. The directory for 1928 lists William Litchfield as undertaker.