I [EJW] nearly bought the Old Rectory back in 1993? when it was a wreck. We could afford to buy it but not to do all the restoration alone, and I couldn’t persuade my architect cousin to throw up home and career and move in with us. But we did have a good look around, and found the impressive old air raid shelter in the garden, stagnant water and rotting duckboards on the floor.
In 1997, the Ampthill and District Archaeological and Local History Society looked at the air raid shelter in detail and produced an impressive report. Here it is as a pdf:
http://www.mooncarrot.org.uk/ccount/clickADALHS.php?id=11
Fascinating stuff, and there is much more good stuff on their website. Thanks very much to them for permission to link.