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Around the Village: Laurel Cottage

Laurel Cottage

Laurel Cottage, Milton Rough

The land on which Laurel Cottage now stands was purchased for £31:10s:00d in 1790, during the reign of George III, by Joseph Thomas from Joseph Jackson and Richard Edleston. Joseph Thomas sold its four acres, one rood and seven perches to Thomas Dutton for £470 "of lawful money of Great Britain" in 1814, which implies that the house had been built by then. A lease from 1839 rents the "messuage" from Elizabeth Hussey, the remarried widow of Thomas Dutton, to John Johnson, for £28 per year.

When the railway came in 1834, some land was sold to make way for it, and the property enlarged by the building of a much grander adjoining house. This took most of the land, and the name of The Laurels, while the existing one eventually became Laurel Cottage. For many years the two houses were inter-linked, but were certainly one property in 1871, when sold to James Burton of Liverpool, who was a glass merchant. By 1878 the two houses were separate dwellings, though it's possible that they intermittently joined up again. The 1881 Census names the house "Railway Villa".

When the roof was renovated, the heavy 'ton' slates were found to be secured by ageing oak pegs, with not a piece of metal in sight. The attached coach house, with pitching holes and a vernacular Gothic arch, was converted to living accommodation in recent years.

Taken from "Snapshots in Time", a book about the Village published by the Acton Bridge WI to mark the Millennium in 2000

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