Ixworth houses [47]

Image: © Michael Dibb Taken: 7 Sep 2020

Along Stow Road are four pairs of semi-detached council houses in red brick. Designed in 1892 and built in 1893-1894 for Thingoe Rural District Council. These are the first rural council houses built under the Housing of the Working Classes Act 1890, and they survive almost unaltered. The 1890 Act was the first to permit local authorities to acquire and develop land for housing but was adopted by just eight rural authorities, despite increasing recognition that agricultural labourers endured housing conditions every bit as bad as those of the inner cities. Listed, grade II, with details at: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1378381 (1&2); https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1378382 (3&4); https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1378383 (5&6); https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1378384 (7&8): Ixworth is a village some 7 miles north east of Bury St Edmunds. Settled in Roman times and the site of a Roman fort. Later a civilian settlement was established and it became an important junction in the Roman road system of East Anglia. An Augustinian priory was founded in about 1170 and dissolved in 1537. Ixworth is the site of the earliest rural council housing built in England. Now most working residents commute to Bury St Edmunds.

Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0