18-24, HIGH STREET
18-24, HIGH STREET
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1158064
- Date first listed:
- 06-Feb-1987
- List Entry Name:
- 18-24, HIGH STREET
- Statutory Address:
- 18-24, HIGH STREET
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Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2002-10-06
- Reference:
- IOE01/09376/26
- Rights:
- © Mr Kenneth Newton. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1158064
- Date first listed:
- 06-Feb-1987
- List Entry Name:
- 18-24, HIGH STREET
- Statutory Address 1:
- 18-24, HIGH STREET
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- 18-24, HIGH STREET
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Central Bedfordshire (Unitary Authority)
- Parish:
- Ridgmont
- National Grid Reference:
- SP 97412 35776
Details
RIDGMONT HIGH STREET SP 9735 13/70 Nos 18 to 24 (evens) GV II
Row of Bedford Estate cottages erected by the 8th Duke. Dated 1862. Mottled pink brick with red brick dressings. Clay tile roofs. 2 storeyed row with slightly projecting outer bays. Each outer bay is gabled. Central bay has smaller gable to centre flanked by gablets. Ground floor has 1:2:1 3-light windows. First floor has 1:4:1 windows, central 2 and outer ones of 2 lights, remaining ones single lights. All contain cast iron lattice casements under gauged brick flat arches. Nos 20 and 22 have gabled porches within angle formed by projecting outer bays. These have semi-circular archways and plank doors. Similar entrances to end elevations as well as ground floor canted bays. Deep eaves and verges, with moulded drop finials to all gables. Red brick ridge stacks.
From the late 1840's onwards the Dukes of Bedford recognised the advantages of housing agricultural workers in comfortable dwellings, and the emphasis in estate cottage building was on the utilitarian rather than the Picturesque. For housing of such a humble type the early examples are 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 group 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 related 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: SP9741235776
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 38367
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Hartshorne, Reverend C H, The System of Building Labourers Cottages pursued on the Estates of his Grace the Duke of Bedford, (1849)
Other
The 7th Duke of Bedford, Plans and Elevations of Cottages for Agricultural Labourers, (1850)
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 18-Jun-2026 at 20:22:03.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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