24 and 26 Market Square Toddington

24 and 26 Market Square March 2016

This pair of mid-19th century houses is listed by the former Department of the Environment as Grade II, of special interest. The listing describes them as three storeys, of whitewashed brick with concrete tile roof. There is a brick cambered relieving arch over the door.

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. At this time both properties were owned by E. R. Hunt; number 24 was rented by S. R. Smart for 6s 9d per week and number 26 by Harry Brazier for 5s per week. Both houses had a living room and kitchen downstairs, two bedrooms on each of the two upper floors, and a wash house, a barn and an earth closet outside. Number 26 had a cellar, but had a narrower frontage than number 24 giving it a significantly smaller area which presumably explains the disparity in rents between the two properties [DV1/C85/54-55].