The Laurels Farm

The “Laurels” was built before 1696. This farmhouse is situated in Church Street (sometime known as Town Street) on Cranford Road corner.

Owners of the house changed a fair number of times until the year 1826 when William Linnell III purchased “the farmhouse with the cottages and hereditaments . . . formerly in the occupation of Thomas Wells, afterwards of Elizabeth Neal and now in the tenure of William Sturman”. William Linnell lived there together with his wife Susan, until his death in 1876. He employed 8 labourers at this time. In 1851 the acreage was 390 but in 1871 it was listed as 160 acres. The house was altered in the 19th century. In 1885 Mr John Barnaby Sargeuant (a revising barrister) was the occupant of the house when it was vacated by Mr Neilson. (Mr Sargeuant’s death was reported in the Kettering Leader and Observer in December 1895.) William John and Edith Gross together with their two sons, Albert William and Eric farmed here during the late 19th century and early 20th century. Laurels Farm was farmed by the Spanton family (1920s-30s), then the Hawkes family. Latterly, in the 1950s, the property belonged to Mr E W Stopps and his family and in the 1960’s a Children’s Play Group operated from there. The house is now divided into two residential properties.