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Housing : 1930s housing

S

Stitcher

Guest
A housing boom in the early 30s gave many the opportunity to buy their own home.The 25% deposit was dropped to 5% and sometimes 10%. This made it possible to buy a £500 for 13 shillings per week for 22 years.
 
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Hi Stich,
£13 a week would have been quite a wage for ordinary workmen in the 30's. I remember in 1968 when I got married I was only earning £27 per week and had to literally beg for a mortgage at 6% interest.
Many of the houses in the 30's were also built for rent and my parents rented one on the Beeches Estate which can be seen behind my Dad's first vehicle.
I had my first memory in our house there, as I can remember being on my Dad's lap looking at a gas flame from a gas tap being used like a candle to light the room because the electrics were not on.
The private Housing Association were quite strict as can be seen by the uniform look of the houses and you had to keep your privet trimmed and neat.
oldmohawk:)
Dads_1st_Car.jpg
 
Hello oldmowhawk, you made me think when I read your post so I checked the book and it should be 13 shillings a week. I have edited the post thanks for causing me to check it.
stitcher.
 
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High Stich,
I wondered just after I pressed the submit button.
I seem to remember my dad was earning probably £6-10 shillings per week around 1945, as a carpenter. In the war he got drafted into the Castle Bromwich Spitfire factory.
Ooops, I've gone a bit off topic.
oldmohawk...:)
 
oldmowhawk, you mentioned wages, I remember driving a 7.5 ton lorry for £12 per week then when I was 21 I went onto 38 ton artics and got £19 per week.
 
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With the increase in home ownership came a surge in home gardening. This led to more seeds and garden tools being on offer.
 
Hi there Stich, we moved from Balsall Heath to Yardley Wood in 1932, everyone I knew lived in a council
house, in 1939 when the war started my dads wages on theGWR were £2.50 a week.When I came out
of the forces in 1953 iwas getting £6.5. and started work as a Postman on £5.19.6. We bought our first
house in Burton in 1966 for £1995, with a mortgage of £14 per month Bernard.
 
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Hi Bernard £14.00 you couldn't get a dolls house for that now,funny old world,When i got married in 72 you could buy a 3 bed new house in Harborne £4.500, you would be hard pushed to get a second hand car for that now, Happy new year
 
I suppose all this is what is, or was known as a succsesful economy, it went too far and had to crash in the end.
 
Elizabeth Redmond said:
Hi Bernard £14.00 you couldn't get a dolls house for that now,funny old world,When i got married in 72 you could buy a 3 bed new house in Harborne £4.500, you would be hard pushed to get a second hand car for that now, Happy new year
Click to expand...
Same to you Liz. My wife was really on the ball with houses etc;,Not many beautiful women have brains as well, Enid
must have been the exception that proves the rule, Bernie
 
Hi, my father was a bricklayer for Sapcotes the Builders of Summerhill Street, Hockley in the 30's, he worked on building the Semi's which line the Coventry Road from the Swan out to where they end just before the Elmdon Airport and in all the roads behind the Coventry Road in Sheldon.

The building gangs were paid £25 for each pair of Semi's they built, brickwork only and as it was 'piece' work they threw them up as fast as they could the £25 was spilt between the gang as wages. Any good bricklayer was expected to lay 1,000 bricks a day in those days. This was regular well paid work for the 30's and he was sorry to see this job finished.

The only problem for the developers who I believe were named 'Dare's' was that having built the houses they could not sell them as no one could afford them in those days, so a lot stayed empty for a long time.

After that job finished in the late 30's my father went to work on building the flats on the Bristol Road called Viceroy Close, where Sapcotes had got the contract, this took them up the the start of the war, when all building work was taken over by the government, bricklaying was a 'reserve occupation' and in 1939 Sapcotes got the contract to build the new ferry harbour in Weymouth which took 2 years so at the end of this contract he was called up and never went back to bricklaying again.

Smiler
 
Hello smiler, interesting story about your dad's employment. I used to deliver for a building firm and I can verify that 1,000 bricks per day was the norm for a decent brickie.
I became quite familier with the layout of Viceroy Close during the late 50s early 60s when I worked for the original Golden Line Private Hire, our office used to be on the corner of Holloway Head & Exeter St. it is now a shop. We had quite a number of regular customers in Viceroy Close because we were rather more ezpensive than cabs and the residents of the Close all seemed to be well off.
 
smiler said:
Hi, my father was a bricklayer for Sapcotes the Builders of Summerhill Street, Hockley in the 30's, he worked on building the Semi's which line the Coventry Road from the Swan out to where they end just before the Elmdon Airport and in all the roads behind the Coventry Road in Sheldon.

The building gangs were paid £25 for each pair of Semi's they built, brickwork only and as it was 'piece' work they threw them up as fast as they could the £25 was spilt between the gang as wages. Any good bricklayer was expected to lay 1,000 bricks a day in those days. This was regular well paid work for the 30's and he was sorry to see this job finished.

The only problem for the developers who I believe were named 'Dare's' was that having built the houses they could not sell them as no one could afford them in those days, so a lot stayed empty for a long time.

After that job finished in the late 30's my father went to work on building the flats on the Bristol Road called Viceroy Close, where Sapcotes had got the contract, this took them up the the start of the war, when all building work was taken over by the government, bricklaying was a 'reserve occupation' and in 1939 Sapcotes got the contract to build the new ferry harbour in Weymouth which took 2 years so at the end of this contract he was called up and never went back to bricklaying again.

Smiler
Click to expand...
Hi, Is your Dad still alive? My brother Ray worked for Sapcotes, just after the war, labouring and driving, perhaps he know him, Bernard
 
Hi Bernard,

Sorry but my father died in 1965 at the very early age of 51, heart attack!! As said in my previous post having finished the job for Sapcotes of building the new Ferry terminal/harbour at Weymouth, all the building work the government wanted at the start of the war was completed so he was called up. He never went back to building work, but worked with my mother selling flowers in the Bull Ring, which is covered with a photo of them in the Birmingham Markets thread on this site.

My father told me a funny story about when he was called up, as he had been on the contract in Weymouth for nearly 2 years and was used to driving back to B'ham at weekends, using the cover that they were collecting building materials, due to fuel rationing, he was a competent lorry driver, so when he was called up he trained in Wiltshire on a large country estate belonging to the owner of a local brewery called 'Joules' who made sure they always had a few barrels of beer in the mess for which they were very thankful.

Having completed their basic training the recruits were paraded and the Sergeant, shouted out 'all those of you who can drive a lorry step forward', so he took one step forward, the Sergeant then shouted out 'all those drivers from Birmingham step forward', he took another step forward together with 3 or 4 other men. Right said the Sergeant you lot are now Royal Army Service Corp, get your kit and get on that lorry. That was the method of selection used in the Army in those days of 1942.

On arriving at the new RASC base it became apparent why they wanted drivers from Birmingham, as it was war time, all the direction boards had been removed from road junctions across the country, to confused the enemy should they invade!! So you had to have a good knowledge of the roads to find your way to Birmingham, then when you got to B'ham to know where the factories were, so for the next few months, Dad was the lead driver for a convoy of lorries which were travelling to Birmingham collecting Armaments and other goods and taking them to the ports on the south coast of England for loading onto ships for shipment mainly going to North Africa where we were fighting Rommel.

He said it was a nice little number as when they got to the factory in Bham to load up, it took several hours, so he would leave the other drivers in charge and jump on the bus to visit my mother who lived in the Bull Ring!!! One of the regular pick ups was at the BSA, Small Heath, where they regularly collected loads of boxes of 'Sten guns'. Whilst hanging around one day he persuaded one of the foremen to let him have a go with a Sten Gun on the range, he was quite impressed with the speed of fire and the lightness of it, he was told that BSA made then for 10 shillings each. He said they were called in the Army the '10 bob machune gun'!!

After this nice little number came to an end, it was his turn to get on a boat in a convoy destined for Egypt, but they went around the Cape avoiding the Med and joined the 8th Army, 'Desert Rats'. How he got back to England in 1944 is another interesting story.

Smiler
 
Hi Stitcher,

Viceroy Close, was 'the' place to live in Bham in the 40s 50s and 60s, the buildings were built on the 'Mansion' style flats mainly found in London, obviously it was in an ideal location on the Bristol Road and only minutes from town, by car, bus or even walk it on a nice day. All the tenants were well to do and professional people. Which is why they were good fares!

I only had the opportunity to go into the flats once, they were very 1930's very old fashioned by today's standard's, the flat I went into had the original kitchen which was pre-war and had become a feature that the owners would not remove from the flat as they said it would decrease its value. They were very popular with the Jewish community because of the proximity to the Synagogue in Pershore Road.

They were of all brick construction and I can imagine they took sometime to build, there are a number of interesting stone carvings dotted around the flats built into the brickwork, which I think are original and by a famous sculptor. There is a similar block of flats on the Hagley Road just past the Norfolk Hotel, I don't know if they are connected to the same builder or architect?

Smiler
 
1930 'houses' of a different kind.
My Dad was a Carpenter on housing in the 1930's and at one time found work building army huts on Salisbury Plains for the large army Britain would soon need.
In the 1st photo he is second from right in the back row. During that work he visited Stonehenge when you could lean against the stones as the 2nd photo shows.
He apparently wore his best suit to lean against them.
Building_for_our_Troops_WW2.jpg

TouchingtheStones.jpg
View attachment 62814
 
smiler said:
Hi Bernard,

Sorry but my father died in 1965 at the very early age of 51, heart attack!! As said in my previous post having finished the job for Sapcotes of building the new Ferry terminal/harbour at Weymouth, all the building work the government wanted at the start of the war was completed so he was called up. He never went back to building work, but worked with my mother selling flowers in the Bull Ring, which is covered with a photo of them in the Birmingham Markets thread on this site.

My father told me a funny story about when he was called up, as he had been on the contract in Weymouth for nearly 2 years and was used to driving back to B'ham at weekends, using the cover that they were collecting building materials, due to fuel rationing, he was a competent lorry driver, so when he was called up he trained in Wiltshire on a large country estate belonging to the owner of a local brewery called 'Joules' who made sure they always had a few barrels of beer in the mess for which they were very thankful.

Having completed their basic training the recruits were paraded and the Sergeant, shouted out 'all those of you who can drive a lorry step forward', so he took one step forward, the Sergeant then shouted out 'all those drivers from Birmingham step forward', he took another step forward together with 3 or 4 other men. Right said the Sergeant you lot are now Royal Army Service Corp, get your kit and get on that lorry. That was the method of selection used in the Army in those days of 1942.

On arriving at the new RASC base it became apparent why they wanted drivers from Birmingham, as it was war time, all the direction boards had been removed from road junctions across the country, to confused the enemy should they invade!! So you had to have a good knowledge of the roads to find your way to Birmingham, then when you got to B'ham to know where the factories were, so for the next few months, Dad was the lead driver for a convoy of lorries which were travelling to Birmingham collecting Armaments and other goods and taking them to the ports on the south coast of England for loading onto ships for shipment mainly going to North Africa where we were fighting Rommel.

He said it was a nice little number as when they got to the factory in Bham to load up, it took several hours, so he would leave the other drivers in charge and jump on the bus to visit my mother who lived in the Bull Ring!!! One of the regular pick ups was at the BSA, Small Heath, where they regularly collected loads of boxes of 'Sten guns'. Whilst hanging around one day he persuaded one of the foremen to let him have a go with a Sten Gun on the range, he was quite impressed with the speed of fire and the lightness of it, he was told that BSA made then for 10 shillings each. He said they were called in the Army the '10 bob machune gun'!!

After this nice little number came to an end, it was his turn to get on a boat in a convoy destined for Egypt, but they went around the Cape avoiding the Med and joined the 8th Army, 'Desert Rats'. How he got back to England in 1944 is another interesting story.

Smiler
Click to expand...
Sorry to hear that, I thought he may have remembered our Ray, Bernard
 
Hi again, somethings dont change in the Army, I joined up in 1948, after training at the Guards Depot
and Pirbright I was posted to our Third Battalion at Aldershot, the barracks were an awlful state after the war, we were on parade one day when an NCO said, the cinema wants painting, any painters among you lot,?
my best mate Dicky Bird" was a painter, he said to me "Put your hand up, I will see you OK, so six of us
were picked out for the job.When we got to the picture house, he said who is the senior man? and it
was me so I was in charge,In most infantry batts; there is a Pioneer Platoon,plumbers, chippys etc
and I spent the next five years as storeman, then pioneer corporal as second in command, Bernard
 
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Nice photo's of your dad oldmohawk, unfortunately I have very few family photo's because when my parents had gone, I had 2 brothers still at home and when they both died there were hardly any papers or photo's in the house. It was a little upsetting really because I know there used to beseveral dozen pictures from our childhood and through the years.
 
like the photo's oldmohawk the one on stonehenge is interesting my wife and I both had our photo's there in the 70's but apparently you can't touch them now.
paul
 
Hi paul my grandmother was born at number 7 Raglan RD in 1889, a bit before your time i know but its a small world isnt it.
 
oldMohawk said:
Hi Stich,
£13 a week would have been quite a wage for ordinary workmen in the 30's. I remember in 1968 when I got married I was only earning £27 per week and had to literally beg for a mortgage at 6% interest.
Many of the houses in the 30's were also built for rent and my parents rented one on the Beeches Estate which can be seen behind my Dad's first vehicle.
I had my first memory in our house there, as I can remember being on my Dad's lap looking at a gas flame from a gas tap being used like a candle to light the room because the electrics were not on.
The private Housing Association were quite strict as can be seen by the uniform look of the houses and you had to keep your privet trimmed and neat.
oldmohawk:)
Click to expand...

A very good point which is often forgotten, there was also a slump in the 30s and mass unemployment, things dont change much do they!!
 
Hi robert, yep small world indeed, when we lived at No 5, I am sure the people in No7 were repatriated jewish immigrants from germany, I would think that stitch ment £1 3/- a week in the thirtys as I remember my dad saying that you could rent a flat in London for 8/- a week in 1937.
paul
 
An area covering Kingstanding and Perry Beeches underwent a housing boom which was completed by the mid 1930s in Perry Beeches and just about completed by the start of WW2 is in the Kingstanding area shown in this view. Two views, one dated 1938 and the second 2016. Both views have coloured dots for identification.
Red marks the Kingstanding Rd-Hawthorn Rd-Dyas Rd-Warren Farm Rd junction.
Green marks the Beeches Pub.
Yellow marks Brooklyn Farm on the 1938 pic and Brooklyn Tech on the 2016 pic.
Blue marks Aldridge Rd School and Perry Beeches School ... probably differently named today.
Mauve marks Dyas Rd then and now.
1938 View ... I can see my old playing field behind the Beeches Pub...:)
Cavandale_All1938.jpg

2016 View ... My old playing field is now under the M6 ...
CavandaleAll2017.jpg
The Drakes Drum pub can be seen in this view, it had not been built in 1938.
 
Nice comparison Phil. My parents bought their house in Atlantic Road (to the left of your red dot) about 7 years after the early photo. Even then the garden was still full of builders rubble at that time. Surprised my dad ever got to grow anything in it but he did very well over time.

Atlantic Road is on a hill and we had great views right across to Great Barr Comp from our bedroom window. At the end of our garden was an alley wide enough for cars, but alongside that was a rapid drop down to Corbridge Avenue etc below. This was my playground in the 50s and 60s. The 'drop' must have once been a sandstone cliff.

Midway along Atlantic Road was a long gap in the houses, which if you looked down towards Birdbrook you'd notice the soil was very red. The gap was filled with houses sometime in, I think, the 1960s. Don't know why those houses weren't built along with all the rest of Atlantic Road in the late 30s. The 1930s houses are consistently the same style along Atlantic but the ones 'infilled' are different.

I think it was a good place to raise children in but the houses became riddled with damp over time. I promised myself I would never ever live in a house with a whiff of damp simply because of this. The window frames (critall - metal frames) rusted and rotted through condensation. But despite this my mum always had her Hollywood-style, crossover, frilly nets up at the windows !!

Being raised in a 1930s designed area and going to a 1930s school nearby I had no concept of older properties except those in Town which always seemed to me dull, dark and dreary. How times and experience can change your opinions. Viv.
 
Wow Thanks Phil!

Blue dot our house - it was a semi, ours was the right-hand side. Yellow line was my playground (alleyway). If you follow it along to Tresham Road, down Tresham towards Kingstanding Road and there you have The Candy Stores for sweet supplies! How thoughtful of those planners to conveniently lay it out that way for us kids!!

If you follow the alleyway in the other direction you reach Dyas Road. The alleyway dipped down first, then rose sharply again at the Dyas end. Nightmare on bikes going up, but great fun whizzing down on bikes coming down. Could be quite dodgy though as it had a very gravelly surface.

I notice the gap in houses too - Phil's green dot. So my memory was right on this. I wonder if the gap was left to bring building supplies up. That part of Atlantic Road was lower so I expect it made sense for builders to use that access. Viv.

image.jpeg
 
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