Homes of the R101 Victims

Shortstown when newly built [X766/1/50]

Fourteen of the victims of the R101 disaster lived in Shortstown. Their addresses are known because when they were buried the Vicar of Cardington noted their home address in the burial register [P38/1/14].

The Rating and Valuation Act 1925 specified that every piece of land and building in the country was to be assessed to determine its rateable value. Shortstown, like much of the rest of the country, was assessed in 1927. At the time of this valuation ten of the fourteen men were living at the premises they inhabited at the time of their deaths. The four men not yet living at Shortstown were: Noel Atherstone, Richard Blake, Edgar Ford and Albert Savidge.

The summary of the houses of the other victims was as follows:

• 11 Central Avenue: Thomas Arthur Auckland Key, who paid 12/6 per week for a kitchen, scullery and three bedrooms [DV1/C279/75].
• 11 Eastcote: Leonard Frederick Oughton, who paid 12/2 per week for a "C Type" house comprising a kitchen, scullery with a bath ("over passage") and three bedrooms [DV1/C279/122].
• 12 Greycote: Cecil Edgar Taylor, who paid 9/3 per week for a ground floor flat comprising a kitchen, scullery and two bedrooms DV1/C279/92].
• 2 North Drive: Sydney Ernest Scott who paid 15/4 per week for a parlour, kitchen, scullery, three bedrooms and a bathroom. The valuer measured the parlour at ten feet square, the kitchen at 17 feet by 10 feet 3 inches and the scullery at 12 feet by 7 feet 6 inches [DV1/C279/44].
• 8 North Drive: Walter Augustus Potter, who paid 15/4 per week for a parlour, kitchen, scullery, three bedrooms and a bathroom [DV1/C279/47].
• 15 North Drive: William Rose Gent, who had a "B Type" house comprising a parlour, kitchen and scullery with three bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs [DV1/C279/138].
• 19 North Drive: Hugh Christopher Mason, who paid 12/2 per week for a kitchen, scullery and three bedrooms [DV1/C279/136].
• 3 North End: George William Short who paid 12/4 per week for a kitchen, scullery and three bedrooms [DV1/C280/9].
• 42 South Drive: George William Hunt, who paid 15/4 per week for a parlour, kitchen, scullery, three bedrooms and a bathroom. The valuer measured the parlour at 9 feet 6 inches by 9 feet, the hall and its cupboard at 10 feet by 6 feet, the stairs and cupboard beneath at 6 feet by 4 feet and the kitchen at 13 feet 6 inches by 12 feet 6 inches with another section measuring 5 feet 6 inches by 3 feet 6 inches [DV1/C279/24].
• 10 The Crescent: Frederick Michael Rope who lived in an "A Type" house ("one more room than B Type") comprising two reception rooms, a kitchen, scullery, three bedrooms, a bathroom and a w. c. [DV1/C279/30].