Description

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

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26451814

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

• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)