6 Church Road March 2011

Number 6, previously Number 10, Church Road is a large 19th century house. The Bedfordshire Historic Environment Record [HER] contains information on the county's historic buildings and landscapes and summaries of each entry can now be found online as part of the Heritage Gateway website. The entry for 6 Church Road [HER 13309] notes that it is of brick construction with a tiled roof.A map drawn up for the 2nd Earl de Grey in 1856 [L33/12/13] shows that 6 Church Road was in the occupation of Mrs. Macintosh.

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 6 Church Street [DV1/C236/78] found it owned and occupier by builder William Henry King.

The house stood in just over a quarter of an acre and comprised two reception rooms, a kitchen and scullery downstairs and four bedrooms above. The valuer noted: "No Bath". A later hand annotated the entry to note that the upstairs accommodation had been converted into three bedrooms, a bathroom and a W. C. and that the ground floor had been converted into a reception room, a nursery, a kitchen and scullery.

Outside lay an office measuring 11 feet 3 inches by 9 feet 3 inches, a weather-boarded and corrugated iron builder's shed, a weather-boarded and corrugated iron workshop, a weather-boarded and corrugated iron garage ("poor"), a weather-boarded and tiled washhouse and a weather-boarded and slated coal shed. The later hand has annotated this by adding a brick and slate workshop measuring 10 ft by 12 feet and a wood and corrugated iron garage with a brick floor measuring 11 feet by 28 feet.