28 School Lane Southill

28 School Lane January 2012

28 School Lane is an estate cottage built in1796, the year after Samuel Whitbread I acquired the Southill Estate. It was also the year that he died.

The cottage was listed by the former Department of Environment in March 1985 as Grade II, of special interest. It is built of colourwashed roughcast render over a timber frame and has a clay tiled roof. It comprises one storey and attics.

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/C32/113-114] found that was divided into two separate dwellings, north and south.

Both homes comprised a parlour, a kitchen. The portion to the north also had a lean-to scullery with a copper for heating water and two bedrooms upstairs. This portion also had a barn and a hen house. There was also an old stable ("small") an open shed and an enclosed onion shed.

The portion to the north was in the occupation of H. F. Legate who paid annual rent to the Southill Estate of £6/10/-. His neighbour to the south, W. H. Rock, paid the same rent but had no lean-to scullery and only two small barns outside.