Description

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

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26407857

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)