14a Station Road, Orchard House

This house stands on a plot, which was anciently part of the Church Field, a large traditional open field comprising many strips of arable land farmed by multiple owners and tenants. Parliamentary Enclosure, which in the case of Steeple Morden was a process that stretched over the period 1807 to 1817, resulted in the ancient strips being grouped together in a mix of new large, medium and small fields and allotted to owners based on their land holdings prior to Enclosure..

Along the west side of Station Road, or Odsey Way as it was known then, several small fields were allotted to various owners, in lieu of their copyhold Right of Commons. In the middle was a plot extending to 1a 2r 25p copyhold of Shingay Manor and allotted to James Bennett in lieu of his copyhold Right of Commons.

James Bennett was one of the last members of a family of minor yeoman or labourers, which had resided in Steeple Morden from the 1670s. In 1802 James is believed to have married Sarah Warboys of Ashwell, where they lived there-after.

It is likely, he sold his land fairly soon after allotment to Thomas Barker miller of Ashwell Road and it passed by inheritance to Thomas’s son, also Thomas, in 1824 and subsequently to Thomas junior’s widow Elizabeth in 1837. She is recorded as owner in the Tithe Apportionment in 1839.

At time of enclosure no buildings are shown on the Map and sometime between 1808 and 1839 the plot had been split into three for the purpose of letting and a cottage built on each sub-plot. They are numbered 26, 27 & 28 on the Tithe Map and equate to 14, 14a and 16 Station Road today. The cottages were likely built around 1820, although only No 14 Well Cottage remains and the other two have been demolished and replaced by modern dwellings.

Sub-plots 27 and 28 on the Tithe Map were sold as one by Irene May Lawrence and Lilian Edna Lawrence in May 1981. Later, sub-plot 27 was sold off for building a new house and the purchasers erected a timber framed Potton Home.

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