When walking up Park Road you feel that it is one of the older roads of Sherington. With its narrow road and houses with no front gardens, you can get a feel of how the village could have looked in the past.
The first houses on the right (just off the photo) are modern bungalows built on the site of two old thatched cottages, one of which was occupied by the Misses Cranfield, and the other by Mrs Tatham.
These are followed by a terrace of four stone cottages under a slate roof. The front doors originally opened onto the footpath. In recent times, the entrances to the two end cottages have been moved to the sides of the houses. Beyond these, and gable end onto the road, is Matmakers, a Victorian brick and stone house under a slate roof. It was rebuilt in about 1900, extended in the late 1970s and again in the 1990s.
The first house on the left side of the road is No 1A Park Road. This detached stone house is a new addition, only being built in the late 1990s. It was built in the garden of the Victorian House at 2 Gun Lane by David Gadsby.
Rowan Cottage (see also archive photo 2) is the next house along on the left, built of white painted stone under a red tiled roof. Parts of the building date from the 16th century but the west end of the house was extensively refurbished in Victorian times. The outside walls of this part are finished in stone laid in a decorative herringbone pattern (see archive photo 3). There is a red brick stable block in the grounds of the cottage. In 1985 a detached double garage was added in the grounds, adjacent to the garden of the modern house next door, on the site of an old cottage.
Opposite Rowan Cottage is the entrance to Yew Tree Farm. The old farmhouse is set well back from the road behind other buildings and so is not visible from the road.
Matmakers is just off the right edge of the photo. The building on the left is one of the old barns, previously part of the Yew Tree Farm buildings.
Yew Tree Farm is constructed of stone under a red tiled roof. Built in 1595, this fine farmhouse is now the oldest building in the village that is still lived in.
You can get a better perspective of the farm in the 1980s’ Aerial Photos.
For further details, see also Yew Tree Farm – Memories of Doris Stephens, c1969.
Just beyond Rowan Cottage on the left, and before the next white cottage, is the entrance to two modern houses set well back from the road. These were constructed in 1971 on the site of garages where Jack Burgess kept his lorries.
On the right side of the road, just past the entrance to Yew Tree Farm, is the cottage aptly named Roadside (formerly The Nest). It is situated between the road and the barns of Yew Tree Farm. Built of stone under a red tiled roof, the three-storey part of the house was built in the late 16th century (see archive photo 3, taken c1910). Later, a two-storey stone cottage with a slate roof was added with a front door opening onto the road. The red brick extension was added in early Victorian times. In 1865 the dwelling was known as The Bakery and Jointure House. It was the home of the artist Thomas Ivester Lloyd from 1910 until his death in 1942.
The white L-shaped house on the left side of the road is built of stone under a slate roof. It was one house in 1928 when it was occupied by Mrs Parrott. The extension at right-angles to the house was built during the 1970s by which time it was two separate dwellings. Since 2000 it has again become one house.
The house opposite was once the general purpose barn for Yew Tree Farm. It is set back from the road and, with three other barns, encloses a private garden. All four barns are built of stone and slate. They are visible in the aerial photos.
This house was built by David Gadsby in 1973. It originally had 3 gable windows but has been extended.
Facing this, on the right hand side of the road, are two modern detached houses built in the early 1970s.
This white-painted Victorian cottage on the left hand side of the road has been considerably extended over the years.
Opposite this, across Park Road, is a bungalow built in 1957 on Home Close which belonged to Yew Tree Farm.
The neo-Georgian house at the top end of Park Road was built by David Gadsby in the 1990s on part of the garden of the Victorian cottage.
Then and Now
Archive photographs of Park Road
