1 Leighton Street Woburn

1 Leighton Street May 2012

1 Leighton Street is an attractive old building, covered flowering wisteria in May each year. It was listed by the former Ministry of Works in January 1961 as Grade II, of special interest. The house dates from the late 18th century and is built of red brick, with ashlar quoins at the side angles. It has a clay tiled roof and comprises two storeys and attics. It has a double-pile plan, than is, the house rests beneath two parallel roofs.

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. Woburn, like much of the county was valued in 1927 and the valuer visiting 1 Leighton Street [DV1/C126/146] found that it was, like most of Woburn, owned by the Duke of Bedford’s London & Devon Estates Company. The tenant was Sydney Avis whose rent was in his wages (he must have been one of the Duke’s more senior staff). His accommodation comprised a hall, two living rooms, an office, a lobby an kitchen and a scullery downstairs with four bedrooms and a bathroom with hot and cold running water above and two attics (“big”) above that. There were cellars beneath the ground floor.

Outside stood a brick and tiled workshop, a coal barn, a store shed ad a bicycle shed as well as a three bay open shed. The valuer commented: “Large double fronted” and noted that it had a bathroom but: “Right in road”.

Directories for Bedfordshire were not published every year but every few years. Sidney Avis is listed as the occupier in directories of 1920, 1924 and 1928.