2 Church Street Shillington

2 Church Street Shillington

This large and attractive house on the corner of Church Street and High Road was, for some years, a butcher's shop. 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/C75/61] found it owned and occupied by butcher George Simkins. The house had two living rooms, a kitchen, a scullery, four bedrooms and a boxroom. Outside were a washhouse and barns as well as the shop, noted by the valuer as: "really office". It was in two sections and measured 7 feet by 11 feet and 18 feet by 15 feet. There was also a brick and slate stable and two piggeries with a loft over, a cart shed, a slaughter yard and a store room.

Directories for Bedfordshire were not published every year but every few years from the early to mid-19th century until 1940. The Simkins family were butchers in Shillington for many years and three men seem to have succeeded one another, suggesting a continuing family business, perhaps at the same premises. The entries are as follows:

• 1877, 1885, 1890: George Simkins;
• 1890, 1894, 1898, 1903, 1906, 1914, 1929, 1924: James Simkins;
• 1928, 1931, 1936, 1940: George Simkins.