(Both these cottages were Grade II listed in 1956)
(Both these cottages were Grade II listed in 1956)
The whole of this Rodden Row terrace is described in the Historic Monuments Inventory as "a range of seven tenements ... built at different times in the late 17th century", and they are described as "18th century" in the listing register. The 1881 census showed 160 people living in Rodden Row, not including two houses that were marked down as uninhabited: the population had dropped to 122 in 1891 and to 92 in 1901. Today's equivalent is probably fewer than 40 people.
Until 1953, when the house changed, the tenant of no.18 was a Miss Critchell, perhaps related to the Elizabeth Critchell who was described in the 1881 census as a widow of 70, working as a garden labourer, or to the Critchells who ran a boarding house across the road. In 1953, no.18 was a two-bedroom cottage with a single living room downstairs on one side of the entrance lobby and a coal store on the other side. There was no bathroom, only a "bungalow bath" hung up by the back door, and a privy at the back of the house. Everything happened in the living room ~ the bath was filled up there from a Burco boiler in the tiny kitchen, and all the family meals were set there, even though it was so draughty that one could see the curtains moving in the wind. It was only modernised in the 1970's, when the coal store was made into a decent room, the kitchen became an indoor bathroom, and a new kitchen was added: it was apparently one of the last of the Estate workers' cottages to be modernised.
In that same year of 1953, the new tenant for no.18 lived in no.16, along with his parents, sister and grandfather in what is still only a two-bedroom cottage. The family originally came from Bruton in Somerset, but had a brother in the village, living in West Street. Of the same age and original design as no.18, this house was modernised rather later in the 1970's, when the ground floor was made into one large room, and a kitchen and bathroom were added at the rear. It has housed a variety of tenants, including several Estate shepherds.
Set into the high pavement in front of no.16, and only visible from the other side of the road, is one of several standpipes which were for years the only source of water for the village ~ long disconnected from the modern mains supply, this one still manages to dribble water on to the roadway after times of heavy rain. The water company declines all responsibility.