Hall End Cottages Wootton

Hall End Cottages in 1979 [Z50/136/11]

41-45 Hall End Road is an old property, previously four separate dwellings. When it was listed by the Department of Environment in 1979 it was in poor condition as the photograph shows. The architect considered it to be 17th century and noted that it was timber-framed, though rendered over. It formed a T-plan with a projecting two storey porch to the main wing and had an old clay tile roof, the cross wing being pantiles. The casement windows were 20th century.

In 1927 Bedfordshire was valued under the Rating Valuation Act of 1925; every property and piece of land was inspected to determine the rates to be paid on it. The Wootton valuer noted that these four houses in hall End were owned by J.Blakeman and were tenanted by W.Fuller, W.Gilbert, A.Rawlings and A.W.Webb respectively. The four dwellings were clearly for the poorest of tenants and were described thus:

• W.Fuller's dwelling: living and kitchen downstairs, one bedroom above, barn and earth closet outside: "water from pump ¼ mile away. Very poor places. Measure no guide. Awful".
• W.Gilbert's dwelling: living room downstairs, two bedrooms above, barn and earth closet outside. "Very poor places. Good garden. No water. Very Poor".
• A.Rawlings' dwelling: living room and kitchen downstairs, one bedroom above, barn and earth closet outside. "Awful Place. Good Garden. No Water. V. Poor"
• A.W.Webb's dwelling: living room downstairs, two bedrooms above, barn and earth closet outside. "No Water. Awful Place. Good Garden. Block Back to Back

The rents on the varied considerably being respectively 6 shillings and 8 pence, 6 shillings and 8 pence, 10 shillings and 6 pence and 3 shillings and 6 pence, no doubt depending on the amount of ground with the dwelling.