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Sunny Cottage 67 Tilsworth Road Stanbridge

67 Tilsworth Road Sunny Cottage December 2008
67 Tilsworth Road Sunny Cottage December 2008

In 1883 Potash Farm and other properties of the late Thomas Twidell was put up for sale by auction, amongst the various lots. Lot 7 was Lord's Close, 2 acres 2 roods 15 perches of grass. Three years later the same properties were again put up for sale on the death of the buyer, Eliza Buckmaster [BML10/67/15]. Lot 7 had been developed as it was now described as: "Two brick built and slated freehold cottages, and orchard, situate on the road from Stanbridge to Tilsworth, to which there is a frontage of about 100 feet, a depth of about 96 feet, and an area of about 1 rood 13 perches. The Cottages stand back from the road, and are approached by a path enclosed by a neat wood fence; each contains Two Rooms below and One above, and are occupied as one tenement by Arthur Eames, a sub-tenant of Mrs.Timms, who holds this Lot with Lot 8 [a one rood orchard of apple and prune trees], at an annual rental of £13/10/-. There is a Boarded and Thatched Wood-barn and Pigsty. The Orchard is planted with Prune and other Fruit Trees". David Olney bought this lot for £180.

The Rating and Valuation Act 1925 ordered every piece of land and building in the country to be assessed to determine the rates to be paid on it. Stanbridge was assessed in 1927 and the valuer visiting 67 Tilsworth Road, by then known as Sunny Cottage [DV1/C97/109] noted that it was owned by W.Edwins and occupied by F.Eames at a rent of £24 per annum; it stood in just over a third of an acre.

Clearly the two cottages had been knocked into one and the house, built of brick and tile, and detached, comprised two living rooms and a kitchen downstairs with three bedrooms above. Outside stood a weather boarded and felt wash-house, a weather boarded and corrugated iron coal barn, a weather boarded and tiled earth closet and a weather boarded hen house. The valuer commented: "Extra garden. Quite nice".