Pipers Farm

 

What remains of Piper's Farm seen in March 2007

Piper's Farm has long been prominent in the village. Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service has sale particulars of 6 Jul 1855 when the farm was for sale by auction at The Auction Mart, London. The farm was described as a "valuable little farm…well supplied with Water, and pleasantly situate". It consisted, at that time, of a large farm house and three cottages (one of which had formerly been divided into two tenements). The tenant was S.P.Smith "at the very old and low Rent of £50 per annum". The cottages and gardens were occupied by Smith, Males and Moorhen, as tenants of Smith. Most of the estate was copyhold, that is held from the Manors of Markyate Cell and Caddington, only a small piece of land near the homestead was freehold. Around the farm house were two barns, a stable, piggery, shed "and other agricultural buildings". The farm comprised 46 acres, 2 roods and 25 poles and was divided thus (the number corresponding to that on the plan shown at the bottom of the page in two sections, north and south):

- 137 - Mancroft Close: 6a 2r 30p arable;
- 138 - Dell Field: 4a 0r 11p arable;
- 148 - the homestead and orchard: 0a 3r 11p;
- 163 - Further Bailess of Maile's Close: 2a 0r 34p arable;
- 164 - Top Close: 4a 3r 29p arable;
- 165 - Hither Close or Maile's Close: 1a 0r 38p arable;
- 166 - tenements, gardens and closes: 0a 3r 34p;
- 167 - tenements, gardens and closes: 0a 2r 14p;
- 168 and 169: Riding's or Reading's Close, or Common End: 8a 1r 9p arable;
- 221 - Ten Acre Close: 10a 1r 3p arable;
- 223 - Five Acre Close: 5a 0r 13p arable;
- A - allotment or common known as Little Common End: 1a 1r 26p arable

 The farmhouse was of a type known as Wealden [after the Sussex and Kent Weald], it had a central hall and two storeys at either end with jettied upper chambers all under a single roof. Such buildings usually date from the fifteenth century and thus this building was probably the earliest domestic building in Caddington. Sadly it was demolished in the twentieth century and only a few converted outbuildings survive as shown in the photograph at the top of the page

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X392/26/1 north              X392/26/1 south