The Leys March 2008

Today The Leys is quite a grand looking building. It was not always so. 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. Tilsworth was assessed in 1927 when the valuer visiting the site of The Leys DV1/C104/40-42] found pigs and derelict buildings.

The site was owned by G.C.Bunker. There were four brick and corrugated iron piggeries; three weather boarded and slated piggeries; three weather boarded and tiled piggeries and three brick and tile piggeries with a loft over. There was also a corrugated iron boiling place with boiler and an old weather boarded and corrugated iron slaughterhouse with six more piggeries and a six bay open hovel.

Completing the scene were three derelict cottages, built of brick and tile and used as storage places and another cottage, built of brick and slate with a living room and bedroom described as "very bad". The valuer commented "The above are the only rooms inhabitable but tenant just left, these two are no good, rest of cottage with three others used as stores".

Like most of Tilsworth, the site was owned by Tilsworth Manor. In the 1804 Tilsworth Estate sale particulars, the land is numbered 62 - leys of 1 acre 1 rood 35 perches tenanted by Joseph Cooper.