67 Station Road, Highfield and 69 Station Road, Haytor

There is a field of some 58.5 acres lying alongside Station Road and running southwards from Ashwell Street to the access road to the chalk works. From 1808 it was part of Home Farm until on 9 April 1919 Home Farm was sold at auction. This field was Lot 4 and bought by the Cambridgeshire County Council for small-holdings. It was sometimes referred to as High Field, although it had nothing to do with High Farm, which was owned by Hertfordshire County Council and lay opposite on the other side of Station Road.

There was no dwelling house or buildings associated with this field. Perhaps coincidentally the Parish Council had passed a resolution on 10 January 1919:

“that the Steeple Morden Parish Council requests the Cambs. County Council to consider the building of houses suitable for small holders, this request being based on the ground that the most desirable development of the small holding movement is the establishment of economic holdings with houses built thereon.”

This resolution was forwarded to and noted by the Small Holdings Committee of the County Council and shortly after completing purchase of the field, on 5 January 1920, the County Council built two red brick dwellings on a small corner plot at the junction of Ashwell Street and Station Road. One was let to the Jarman family, who established a small-holding with pig sties and stables on the northern end of the plot. On the remainder of the plot to the south, another identical cottage was built for occupation by another small holder or a workman associated with the Jarman holding. They were built to a four room down and four up plan, with a central front door opening onto a lobby and the stairs. There was a chimney stack at each end and two dormer windows at the front, with the same window arrangement at the rear .

The Jarmans involved in this venture were William Jarman 1872-1966, aided by his two sons John Wesley Jarman 1897-1968 and Francis Geoffrey Jarman 1904-1996. The three of them are said to have carted the bricks for the cottages from Ashwell Station by horse and cart. Talking in May 1991 Francis Geoffrey Jarman 1904-1996 said that the cottages were built when he was about 17 , so 1921/22, and charnock seed was found 20ft down, when digging a well.

67 Station Road, High Field

What is today No 67 became for many years a Jarman family home alongside the small farmyard and was known as High Field, although that name is not in general use today. Jarman family members lived there until 1987 and at some point bought land and dwelling from Cambridgeshire County Council,  As it was John Wesley Jarman who sold the cottage to Paul Graham Leader & Margaret Rose Leader on 14 August 1987. John Wesley Jarman, however. retained the small farmyard.

In September 1988 the Leaders were granted planning permission to construct a new vehicular access, separate from the farmyard. Subsequent owners, the Uptons were granted planning permission in July 1991 to extend the house by adding the lean-to across the front of the property. Madhu & Sangeeta Puvvada bought the house from the Uptons on 9 September 1997. In July 2002 the Puvvadas applied to build a large gable ended extension on the rear of the house, with attached single garage to the side and permission was granted for this in September 2002 and when this work was completed it added significantly to the accommodation provided.

Owners and Occupiers of No 67

69 Station Road, Haytor

It is uncertain, who lived first in the second cottage, now No 69, which at some point became known as Haytor, also a name not in regular use today. No 69 may have housed members of the Jarman family or let to others? It was bought from the County Council in 1963 by Leslie Clifford Covington and Vera Joyce Covington nee Pearce. They had previously lived in a rented house at Knott’s Bridge and the County Councillor Frank Matthews helped them with the negotiations to buy the cottage from the Council. Later in 1993, following the onset of dementia, it was necessary for Vera to live in a residential home at Fulbourn, whilst Les remained at No 69 until he moved to the same residential home shortly before his death on 9 January 2001. Vera died the following year and the property was put on the market.

In October 2002 it was bought for £276,000 from the Executors by David Curtis, a property developer from Weston, who after gaining planning permission in July 2002, extended the cottage on the south side, making it a four bed property and opened up and combined the kitchen and dining room into a family kitchen and breakfast area. He also erected a single garage and installed a biodigester sewage system to replace the ancient septic tank.

The newly renovated house was bought for £430,000 by the current owners Gary Lawrence Adcock & Alisa Jane Lopez-Adcock on 12 December 2003.

Farmyard – Retained Land on Corner of Ashwell Street and Station Road

John Wesley Jarman retained this land, when he sold the adjoining house and garden – No 67 Station Road in 1987. It appears to have been used little, if at all from that date and certainly by 1995 was not in regular use and became overgrown, although it was occasionally “tidied up”. On 16 June 2010 John Wesley Jarman transferred ownership of the land to his children Alison Joan Jarman and Paul John Wesley Jarman. In 2020 they applied for Prior Approval planning permission to convert a stable/barn on the land to a two bedroom dwelling and this was granted in October of that year. Other derelict buildings on the site were considered unsuitable for conversion.

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