17 and 19 High Street Toddington

17 and 19 High Street March 2016

This much altered 17th century house was listed by the former Department of the Environment in 1980 as Grade II, of special interest. Faced with stucco it has a slate roof and a timber frame visible in the left hand gable end.  The outside wall of the left-hand end of the house features a rather incongruous fireplace. This formerly belonged to Pilgrim's Yard, a thatched barn which linked number 17 with the New Inn and in which the Pilgrim family carried on their trade as wheelwrights. At the time of writing [2015] this former wheelwrights' yard forms the premises of A. J. Autos.

The Agas map of 1581 shows buildings on the site of numbers 17 to 21, High Street, and internal features suggest that parts of the modern property may date back to the original Tudor houses. It is apparent from the 1st edition Ordnance Survey map of the 1880s that 17 and 19 were two separate cottages and a photograph from 1910 shows two front doors.

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. When the valuation of Toddington was carried out in 1927 both properties were owned by Mrs Fletcher and were described as cement faced and slate terraced houses. Number 17 was occupied by a Miss Pilgrim. Unfortunately for the valuer although he called several times he could get no answer and he had to settle for writing "looks like two up and two down" [DV1/C84/31]. Number 19, with two living rooms, a scullery and two bedrooms, was occupied by T. Bates at a quarterly rent of 35 shillings [DV1/C84/32].

17 and 19 High Street about 1920 [Z50/126/64]