9 And 11, High Street

RIDGMONT HIGH STREET SP 9735 13/69 Nos 9 and 11 GV II

Pair of Bedford Estate cottages erected by the 8th Duke. Dated 1862. Mottled pink brick with red brick dressings. Clay tile roofs. 2 storeyed compact block with gables projecting from 2 principal elevations (S and E). These gables each have a canted bay window to ground floor. Elsewhere windows are of 2 lights under gauged brick flat heads. First floor window to S elevation RH block is beneath a gablet. All contain cast iron lattice casements. Entrances are within angles formed by projecting gables. Plank doors sheltered by porches with gauged brick round-headed arches. Deep eaves and verges have moulded drop finials. Red brick multiple ridge stack. The 7th Duke of Bedford and his successors recognised the advantages of housing agricultural workers in comfortable dwellings. From the late 1840's onwards the emphasis in Bedford Estate cottage building was on the utilitarian rather than the Picturesque. For labourers' cottages of such an early date the quality of construction is remarkably high. The cottages can be seen as an influential contribution to the development of working class housing, which culminated in the garden cities and early council housing. The Dukes of Bedford constructed roughly 500 cottages in the locality between the late 1840's and World War I. This pair of cottages is similar in designs in 7th Duke's Plans and Elevations. The increased use of ornament like that suggested in plan 7 is due to the building's siting near an entrance lodge to Woburn Park. The (7th) Duke of Bedford: Plans and Elevations of cottages for Agricultural Labourers, London. 1850 (reprint of letter and plans sent 1849 to Earl of Bedford A Great Agricultural Estate, being the Story of the Origin and Administration of Woburn and Thorney, London, 1897; Rev. C. H. Hartshorne: The System of Building Labourers' cottages pursued on the estates of His Grace the Duke of Bedford, n.d. but apparently 1849.

Listing NGR: SP9736835782