Tanners End Farm Toddington

Tanners End Farm March 2016

Tanner's End Farm is an 18th century Neo-Classical style building listed in 1967 by the former Department of the Environment as Grade II, of special interest. The exterior is faced with colour-washed pebbledash and it has a hipped old clay tile roof. There is a slight projection to the right hand side.

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 Tanner's End Farm was owned and occupied by E. Hill Clarke [DV1/C82/74-75]. Downstairs the house had three reception rooms, kitchen, pantry and larder; upstairs there were six bedrooms, a bathroom and a W.C. Mr. Clarke had bought the property seven years earlier and had since spent an "enormous sum" on it. The kitchen had been completely renovated and a bathroom put in. Outside stood two rough cast stores, a tool shed, and an old barn which had been converted to a garage and workshop. The farm buildings were made up of a tool shed, a chicken house, a barn, a cow shed for four, two loose boxes, two pig sties, a store and an earth closet. All except the last two, which were tiled, were of timber and thatch; the cow shed had a concrete floor. The valuer described the farm buildings as "good" and "all done up". Water from a well was pumped into the house; there was cesspool drainage and gas light although lamps were also used. The valuer described the farmhouse as "very, very nice" with a lovely garden. However, he kept the valuation lower than it would otherwise have been as it was near some "poor cottages". This refers to a row of terraced cottages known as Puzzle Gardens which ran at right angles to Station Road (then Tanner's End) to the rear of the farmhouse. The valuer wrote "these houses have a reputation of filth in the district … dirt is the fault of the tenants" [DV1/C82/66]. Puzzle Gardens has since been demolished.