Little houses in Church Street

Help needed

Does anyone know the history of these two little houses on the junction of Church Street and Kennel Lane?

Before renovation

Church_Street1.jpg

But time doesn’t stand still and the cottages are undergoing renovation and currently look like this.During renovation

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  • We have just found out my husband’s father lived in 5 Grange Cottages in 1947 his father was a herdsman. Were they ‘tied’ dwellings?

    By Mrs Jill Fairweather (21/02/2021)
  • There were three cottages originally all owned by Mr. Ellis, the farmer. There is a page on Grange Cottage here.

    By Editor (20/02/2017)
  • I can’t quite remember but I lived in Church St  from 1942 till 1947 and I seem to remember two properties standing at the junction of Church Street and Kennel Lane both identical one coming down when the junction was widened.

    By Robin Lockhart (31/01/2017)
  • Many thanks Robert. That’s really interesting. I wonder how old they are? 

    By Helen (22/11/2016)
  • I have a copy of a 1922 Ordnance Survey map and they are on it. The pair of cottages had gas lighting originally, the pipes were still there in the living room ceiling when i took some photos several years ago. No bathroom or indoor toilet just an earth closet. During the floods of 57 water built up in our shed against the back wall so I knocked a hole in it to allow the water to flow into a stream running at an angle across the rear of the garden. We were on a slope which helped and I remember the new houses which had been built behind it got flooded. I have several memories of this place which I can relate at some time. 

    By Robert Howard (22/11/2016)
  • These belonged in 1953 to Grange Farm then owned by a Mr. Ellis. About 20ft further down Mill Road from these a single cottage stood in which the milkman at Grange Farm and his family lived. About 40ft into Kennel lane stood another one in which I lived with my father who was a tractor driver at same farm. The left side of this pair as you look at it an old chap Ted and his wife Flossie who was the cook and cleaner at the farm lived. The other side was occupied by a large family [Gladwell] the man being a general farm worker at same farm. I have a photo of the one we lived in until about 1958 when we moved back to Rayleigh. Myfather with my help put a window in the back wall of our cottage and I remember the wall had lathe and plaster with horsehair with rendering on the outside. It took me a while to understand that the sledge hammer bounced off the inner wall because of the construction using hair .    

    By Robert Howard (15/11/2016)

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