121 Bury Road Shillington

121 Bury Road 2015

121 Bury Road is an attractive 19th century building which used to be a bakery. 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/C63/49] found it owned and occupied by Raymond W Warne.

The property comprised a living room, a kitchen, a scullery, three bedrooms and a bakehouse measuring 12 feet 6 inches by 15 feet 6 inches with 10 feet square eight bushel oven. The bakehouse had a loft over it. Outside stood three wood and tiled barns, two wood and corrugated iron barns, two brick and tile looseboxes with a loft over, a wood and tile washhouse and a lath and plaster and thatched derelict house, which, the valuer noted, was "to be pulled down". There was also a wood and corrugated iron garage measuring 10 feet by 18 feet.

Directories for Bedfordshire were not published every year but every few years from the early to mid-19th century until 1940. Warne appears in the directories for 1928, 1931, 1936 and 1940.There were three bakers in Shillington and these remain the same in 1924 and 1928 with the exception that in 1924 the third baker is William Griggs and in 1928 it is Warne so it looks likely that Griggs was Warne's predecessor at 121 Bury Road. Griggs is listed in directories all the way back to 1885.