Numbers 1 To 3 And Detached Outhouses To Rear

HUSBORNE CRAWLEY TURNPIKE ROAD SP 9535 12/35 Nos 1 to 3 (consecutive) and detached outhouses to 22.1.86 rear GV II

Row of Bedford Estate cottages erected by the 7th Duke. Dated 1852, Red brick, apparently laid in a kind of rat-trap bond, with yellow brick dressings. C20 tile roofs. Compact 2-storey block with triple-gabled front elevation. Ground and first floors each have 3 2-light cast iron lattice casements under slightly cambered heads. Off-centre plank door under gabled hood on curved brackets. Deep verges to gables. Drop finials to gables and doorhoods. Red brick ridge stacks. Entrances to nos. 1 and 3 are in side elevations. The 7th Duke of Bedford recognised the advantages of housing agricultural labourers in comfortable dwellings. From the late 1840's onwards the emphasis in Bedford Estate cottage building was on the utilitarian rather than the Picturesque. The cottages are not only remarkable for the high quality of construction at such an early date, but also represent an influential contribution to the development of working class housing which culminated in the garden cities and early council housing. The Dukes of Bedford built about 500 cottages in the locality between the 1840's and World War I. The increased use of ornament in this block is due to its siting opposite an entrance lodge to Woburn Abbey. The form and details are similar to those found in the 7th Duke's Plans and Elevations: The brickwork seems to be an early type of cavity walling (cf. note in above work by Charles Hacker).

The 7th Duke of Bedford: Plans and Elevations of Cottages for Agricultural Labourers, London 1850 (a reprint of a letter and plans sent ld49 to the Earl of Chichester, President of the Royal Agricultural Society); the (11th) Duke 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 probably 1849.

Listing NGR: SP9572035148