Brass Farthing Cottage - 59 Station Road Tempsford

 
Brass Farthing Cottage - 59 Station Road February 2016

Brass Farthing Cottage is clearly an old building, comprising one storey and attics beneath a tiled roof it is probably 18th century or earlier. The property is not, however, listed. It appears on the 1829 Tempsford Survey map [X1/41] and the reference book [WY1036/12] states that it was divided into two cottages owned by Edward George who lived in one himself and rented the other to a man named Randall.

The 1911 census tells us that it was a butcher’s shop occupied by Ernest E Stocker, his wife and six children. Directories for Bedfordshire were not published every year but every few years from 1839 to 1940. E E Stocker is first listed in the directory of 1910, the butcher in the 1906 directory being Thomas Ward, perhaps at the same address.  Earlier butchers listed were John Wady in 1906, William Dennis in 1890, 1894, 1898 and 1903 and William Selby in 1885 and John Gillions in 1853, 1864 and 1869.

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 59 Station Road [DV1/C157/22] found it contained a living room, a kitchen and scullery with three bedrooms above. Outside were stables for two horses and a “poor” cart lodge. Water came from a tap in the yard. The valuer commented: “Shop and living room comprise new wing of sound construction. Remainder fair.”