Originally three ‘one up one down’ terraced cottages, which were later extended to the rear. They were sold off by Queens College in 1926.
The right hand pair of cottages (when viewed from the High Street (or Church End as it was previously know) were combined to make a single dwelling and numbered 74 and called Colenso Cottage. Mr George Thomas Nunn Hardy & Mrs Elizabeth M S Hardy (nee Thomson) lived there, while their daughter Doris Joan Mair nee Hardy lived in 74 which was known as ‘Colenso Cottage’, with her husband Andrew Walker Mair and their son, John D Mair, who now lives in Launceston, Tasmania . Later after the death of George Hardy, both 74 and 76 were made into a single house keeping it as No. 76. This is why the house numbers running away from the church yard are 70, 72, 76, 78 and 80. No. 76 was named ‘Tugela Cottage’ after a river in Africa and ‘Colenso Cottage’ after the Battle of Colenso during the Boer War. George Hardy was enlisted to the Royal Fusiliers (Officer No. 5423) in Hownslow 25/5/1894. It is believed that he fought in the Battle of Colenso by the Tugela River. The garden at this stage extended down to Water Lane. Around 1965 part of the garden was sold off as a building plot and the four original houses in Vicarage Close were built.
The house was sold in 1970 to the Harrison family, who made a number of alterations and extensions over the years, until they moved to Cottenham in 2003.
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