Hill Cottage Tebworth
Hill Cottage October 2014
Former County Archivist Chris Pickford researched the history of this house and found [CRT130Chalgrave7] that it used to be a pest house, that is, a dwelling some way from habitation in which people with infectious diseases could be isolated and treated. When the new Poor Law Union workhouse was built at Woburn in 1837 parish workhouses and pest houses were sold off [PUWM1]. The pest house for Chalgrave was conveyed to Millard Adams for £88 on 13th November 1837 [HN Box 172]. It was described as now divided into two tenements occupied by Richard Tearle and a man named Wright. It was reached from the Hockliffe road across land belonging to the parish church.
By 1887 the owner was John Warner Adams, Millard's son [LX] and the two tenants were named Emmerton and Tearle, the annual value, for Land Tax purposes, was assessed as £4/10/-. By 1896 Charles Emmerton occupied both houses, paying rent of £3 for each. The following year Emmerton was occupying one tenement, the other being in the occupation of William Nash [LX].
On 29th October 1909 the executors of John James Reynal Adams, Millard's grandson, auctioned off a number of properties in Chalgrave including, as Lot 3, a cottage occupied by William Nash at an annual rent of £3/18/-, built of brick and tiled and formerly two cottages. There were two rooms upstairs and two down, so the two tenements had consisted of just one room up and one down each. There was also a timber and tiled barn, stables, a garden and a well of drinking water [HN Box 51]. The property was conveyed by Adams' executors the following year to William Robins of Tebworth. In 1910 the house was once more divided into two, half occupied by William Nash and the other half empty.
The Rating and Valuation Act 1925 stated that every piece of land and property in the country was to be assessed to determine its rateable value. The valuer visiting Hill Cottage [DV1/C15/73] found that the owner and occupier was now G. Nash. His cottage stood in 0.126 of an acre and comprised a living room and a kitchen used as a barn downstairs with two bedrooms above. A bathroom was added later. The valuer commented: “Farm type”. Outside stood a weather-boarded and tiled barn and a brick and tiled earth closet. Nash also owned 1.621 acres of allotment adjoining the property.