Prefabs

[Peter1]

What a lovely photo. lived in Clements Rd, middle Rd bearing off to the left off Hob Moor Rd if approaching the Yew Tree.
I was born above the newsagents run by my Mum and Dad about half way down in 1949.I can make out the building.
The back garden backed on to the cricket club which can be seen top middle. What wonderful days as i could access the cricket field from a gate at at the bottom of the garden and play with my friends, Mick and John Rasen, are you out there. No kicking a ball in the street for me. How lucky i was but not aware at the time just like living in the countryside. i went to Hobmoor Rd infants school ,i can see it on the LH side of Hobmoor Rd as you approach the Yew Tree. I would have been 1 year old when photo taken. All those years ago, such happy days, where have all the years gone. Oh well makes me feel sad.
Yes I remember the pre fabs.

Thanks Elmdon boy - this is not rose tinted glasses simply a recollection of an overall 'healthier' time. I do appreciate there have been technical innovations that have led to progress in some sectors. However relational connections for so many, in my opinion, have deteriorated to a very sad place where some do not even know, or perhaps have time for, their neighbours. This site is a delight for obvious reasons.

 

[Radiorails]

Pre-fab erection - somewhere in England , in 1946.

 

[Vivienne14]

Incredible, it even has cupboards already installed ! Viv.

 

[OuterCircleBus]

Only a suggestion: to keep access to the canal open to bring in building supplies for the future (planned?) housing development ? Viv.

I have attached a map from around 1950 showing the 10 prefabs that were built on the site in Umberslade Road. The reason that there was gap here was that development took place different developers bought small plots, and I suspect that this one did move forward.

 

[OuterCircleBus]

Hi OldMohawk, looking back at one of your old photos (598566) of the Prefab (city) I was surprised to see so many on one site, I only remember seeing them around parks and a few on an island at the bottom of Warren farm road. I did a bit of Electrical repair work on a few of them which was pretty easy as the faults were usually just bad connections in the roof space near the Man hole, the connections were simular to the push on type we saw in car wiring. thanks for the Photo. Al

Most local authorities, such as Solihull (in the case of the Olton prefabs) had maybe just one or two sites for their prefab allowance. Birmingham was different, they had a couple of large sites (for instance Druids Heath) but most of the city's allowance was put on the edges of parks, playing fields etc. Birmingham had over 4,500 prefabs.

 

[Rita Hawkins]

Most local authorities, such as Solihull (in the case of the Olton prefabs) had maybe just one or two sites for their prefab allowance. Birmingham was different, they had a couple of large sites (for instance Druids Heath) but most of the city's allowance was put on the edges of parks, playing fields etc. Birmingham had over 4,500 prefabs.

Ours was built on the edge of Billesley Common, the Valley prefabs

 

[oldMohawk]

View attachment 149241
Pre-fab erection - somewhere in England , in 1946.

I watched a scene like that on the Beeches Estate Great Barr. They moved the sections on rails and bolted them together. They had built-in sink units and fridges.

 

[izzy eckerslike]

My parents first house was a prefab in Fairlie Crescent in Kings Norton around 1946/7, they had been living with my nan in one room with two babies so were very grateful to get a lovely prefab. Ours didn't suffer from condensation as many seemingly did and of course having a fridge was really unusual back then.
I was a babe in arms when they moved in but I remember how nice it was with a golf course right behind. We had the 1953 coronation party in a big marquee near the end of the crescent and all the families bought food and cakes etc.

 

[OuterCircleBus]

View attachment 74272
I have posted this picture simply because it shows a new prefab. I have no idea where the photo was taken but look at the happiness on the faces.
The caption merely says that a young soldier is welcomed home to a new family prefab after being away at war for four years.

It's been a while since this was posted, but we use the photograph at the end of our prefabs talk called "Those Damn Tin Cans" This is what we say about the photographs and living in prefabs in the 1950s:
"This is probably the best known “prefab” photograph of the era. It’s Hector Murdoch's London homecoming, taken informally in 1946. The immediate post war period was a time of reconstruction. Hope and optimism were in the air. The nation had suffered but was glorious and victorious. There was a general feeling that everything was possible. The prefab sites became lands of opportunity for those moving from run down back to backs, or rooms they had to rent and even share in terraced Victorian houses.

With the prefabs, a new way of life was born".

 

[OuterCircleBus]

I watched a scene like that on the Beeches Estate Great Barr. They moved the sections on rails and bolted them together. They had built-in sink units and fridges.

The prefabs in these photographs were the AIROH – which stands for Aircraft Industries Research Organization on Housing. One of Churchill’s objectives was to use factories that had been engaged in the war effort to help create the new Temporary Houses. So, the aircraft manufacturers were enthusiastic about being involved and this is what they designed. As their skills involved the construction of aircraft out of aluminium, it will come as no surprise that the AIROH prefab was made from aluminium. By all accounts there were over 54 thousand of these – making them the most numerous of the 1940s prefab types.
There is one at the St Fagans National Museum of History in Cardiff.
This was the only one that came in four sections on the backs of lorries. All the other types came in what we would call now "Flat Packs" and were assembled on-site.

 

[oldMohawk]

This first pic dated 1945 shows the area north of Perry Barr Park. The area enclosed by yellow lines shows the pre-assembled prefabs. They laid rails from Hassop Road to enable the sections to be pushed into position. I watched them being assembled in a week on our playing field. In the area enclosed by green lines were different prefabs built from corrugated material. They were all built very quickly. I have pics on the forum showing the field before the pre-assembled prefabs were built.


A similar aerial view today and the M6 motorway now runs through the area.

 

[cookie273uk]

Many years ago I knew some one who lived in a Prevab who said how difficult it was to keep them warm in the winter, apart from that they liked them. Eric

 

[wendylee]

I lived in one exactly the same as that in Selly Park.... 4 Selly Avenue to be eaxct

For the record. This is the prefab originally built in Moat Lane in 1946 which now resides at the open air Avoncroft Museum, Bromsgrove. Viv.

View attachment 146324

My husband lived in one exactly like that in the 1950's till we got married, they were quite spacious inside. It was in a lovely spot in Bickley Grove , Sheldon it backed onto open ground we used to call The Baggies. During our childhood improvements were made, a kids park and tennis courts , it is now called Sheldon Country Park.

Wendy

 

[Trident]

Yeh Good memories, I don't think I ever heard anyone complain about them even though they existed long after there due by date.

 

[DJRVST]

I watched a scene like that on the Beeches Estate Great Barr. They moved the sections on rails and bolted them together. They had built-in sink units and fridges.

oldMohawk They look like the prefabs on Beeches Road by the allotments and maybe Delhurst etc (?) down to the other side of Hassop Road. Trehurst (and on Beeches by the school) was a different design and they had no fridges. DJRVST

 

[DJRVST]

oldMohawk They look like the prefabs on Beeches Road by the allotments and maybe Delhurst etc (?) down to the other side of Hassop Road. Trehurst (and on Beeches by the school) was a different design and they had no fridges. DJRVST

Not Delhurst Desford I think

 

[Grea]

I have attached a map from around 1950 showing the 10 prefabs that were built on the site in Umberslade Road. The reason that there was gap here was that development took place different developers bought small plots, and I suspect that this one did move forward.View attachment 149242

I lived at number 86 Umberslade road for eleven years which was a prefab. We had a lovely park opposite with a football pitch and swings. The park had an area for dancing ( The Dell) which included live bands and groups, it also put on displays and shows. I loved living there, now 71 I still miss the place. Thanks for posting.

 

[Astoness]

although i have never lived in a prefab i have been inside one at the outdoor avoncroft museum (loved it) and i could easily see why so many people loved them..i believe they were only meant as a temporary fix but most people just did not want to leave...i wonder if they will ever come back.....not a bad idea considering the massive housing shortage...

lyn

 

[oldMohawk]

oldMohawk They look like the prefabs on Beeches Road by the allotments and maybe Delhurst etc (?) down to the other side of Hassop Road. Trehurst (and on Beeches by the school) was a different design and they had no fridges. DJRVST

As mentioned below I watched the prefabs south of Hassop Rd being assembled. They pinched half of our play field! The prefabs south of Hassop Rd had refridgerators because the lady in end prefab once gave us some glasses of pop with ice cubes in them ... we were amazed! I'm not sure about the prefabs north of Hassop Rd.
See previous posts below ... click expand to see pics ...

Hi Andrew
Thanks for the photo - nice open spaces I remember - a field with a brook with Hawthone Bushes and white blossom.

Shown below is a picture from Google Earth 1945 ca. The letter A in the aerial shot is where I watched those prefabs being assembled. The brought the prefabricated sections in along rails and they already had all the internal fittings in them.

Also a photo of our gang standing in the field about where the letter A is before the prefabs were built

Another photo in that field showing a pylon, the wires of which, can be see in the photo in the quote below

oldmohawk

Here is the pictures of the prefabs on Desford Avenue with some unknown family members from the 50's.

 

[OuterCircleBus]

As mentioned below I watched the prefabs south of Hassop Rd being assembled. They pinched half of our play field! The prefabs south of Hassop Rd had refridgerators because the lady in end prefab once gave us some glasses of pop with ice cubes in them ... we were amazed! I'm not sure about the prefabs north of Hassop Rd.
See previous posts below ... click expand to see pics ...

According to my notes this photograph in Desford Road is of the Hope Family and was taken in the late 1940s. To the best of my knowledge all the post war prefabs that were supplied under the Temporary Housing Programme had refrigerators.

 

[DJRVST]

According to my notes this photograph in Desford Road is of the Hope Family and was taken in the late 1940s. To the best of my knowledge all the post war prefabs that were supplied under the Temporary Housing Programme had refrigerators.

Not our design but yes many had .

 

[OuterCircleBus]

Not our design but yes many had .

Thanks for your reply. What type of prefab did you live in?

 

[DJRVST]

Thanks for your reply. What type of prefab did you live in?

We lived in the type that was erected in Beeches Road (just down from the Nursery) and in Trehurst Avenue. I cant recall any locally which had the same design but do remember seeing one of the same or near design at Duxford Airfield. There may have been some in Bristol but that could be a fuzzy memory rather than reality!!! I will have a look through old photos at home to see if any exist and ask one of my old neighbours. The type had a flat roof and a "trellis" effect on the side of the porch- very useful for climbing up to access the roof- my brother was fond of climbing up to sunbath- I usually stacked the fire with suitable materials to smoke him off!!!!!

 

[oldMohawk]

This photo is earlier in the thread and shows objects on the roofs enclosing the flues. I was told (when I was a lad) that they were water tanks and the hot flues pre-heated the water. Now, older and a bit wiser, I realise that they could freeze in cold winters so were probably not water tanks. Not all prefab designs had them as other photos in the thread show. Does anyone know what they were?

 

[Morturn]

The prefabs did have an open coal fire that would have required a brick-built chimney stack. This was the top that had to pass beyond the roof timbers as a fire precaution. I have been on the roofs of these prefabs in Slade Road when they modernised the roofs from flat to pitched.

Interestingly, they did have a warm air heat exchanger in the hot water tank cupboard that sent warm air to the bedrooms. The water was heating by the fire.

 

[OuterCircleBus]

We lived in the type that was erected in Beeches Road (just down from the Nursery) and in Trehurst Avenue. I cant recall any locally which had the same design but do remember seeing one of the same or near design at Duxford Airfield. There may have been some in Bristol but that could be a fuzzy memory rather than reality!!! I will have a look through old photos at home to see if any exist and ask one of my old neighbours. The type had a flat roof and a "trellis" effect on the side of the porch- very useful for climbing up to access the roof- my brother was fond of climbing up to sunbath- I usually stacked the fire with suitable materials to smoke him off!!!!!

There were 45 prefabs in Trehurst Avenue and they were called the UK100. This was the only post war prefab type not designed in the UK. It was made in the USA by the Tennessee Valley Authority from wood and a material called Homasote, which was in fact a cardboard based material. They were slightly smaller the British prefabs and were composed of a hundred sections hence its name UK100. One of the stories we heard was from a Jenny Faulkner who, as a child lived in one of the nice Tarran prefabs on the Portobello Estate in Willenhall. Some of the Portobello prefabs were the American type. Jenny said that “Those of us who lived in the gravel prefabs (Tarrans) rather looked down on the houses of those who lived in what we called the cardboard prefabs”.
So the class system lived on, even in prefab land!
This photograph is of a UK100 prefab on display at the Tate gallery in London in 1945.

 

[DJRVST]

There were 45 prefabs in Trehurst Avenue and they were called the UK100. This was the only post war prefab type not designed in the UK. It was made in the USA by the Tennessee Valley Authority from wood and a material called Homasote, which was in fact a cardboard based material. They were slightly smaller the British prefabs and were composed of a hundred sections hence its name UK100. One of the stories we heard was from a Jenny Faulkner who, as a child lived in one of the nice Tarran prefabs on the Portobello Estate in Willenhall. Some of the Portobello prefabs were the American type. Jenny said that “Those of us who lived in the gravel prefabs (Tarrans) rather looked down on the houses of those who lived in what we called the cardboard prefabs”.
So the class system lived on, even in prefab land!
This photograph is of a UK100 prefab on display at the Tate gallery in London in 1945.

View attachment 149304

That's it!!! Brilliant photo!!! My Mother always said that the prefab was American QED!!! The only change that came with time was the fitting of a fire escape in the back bedroom in the late 1950's. And yes it was cardboard eventually it was externally painted with a thick paint. Yes there was a lot of snobbery about prefabs and I remember it being voiced as a child and teenager - it bemused and amused me probably as a result of a grounded upbringing . However having moved from Hockley to the edge of the city meant as children and later teenagers we had the benefit of access to a city and what was effectively countryside. An old friend of mine who lived down the avenue often says we were privileged to have lived there because of the dual access. We always had a fire in the grate to heat the water using a back boiler -very much a habit from there always being a fire in the range of our back to back for cooking etc and to keep "the place aired". A few years (1990's) after demolition in the1980's I visited the site and at that time the then grassed over area still had our Lilac and Rowan where the bottom of the garden ran.

 

[DJRVST]

That's it!!! Brilliant photo!!! My Mother always said that the prefab was American QED!!! The only change that came with time was the fitting of a fire escape in the back bedroom in the late 1950's. And yes it was cardboard eventually it was externally painted with a thick paint. Yes there was a lot of snobbery about prefabs and I remember it being voiced as a child and teenager - it bemused and amused me probably as a result of a grounded upbringing . However having moved from Hockley to the edge of the city meant as children and later teenagers we had the benefit of access to a city and what was effectively countryside. An old friend of mine who lived down the avenue often says we were privileged to have lived there because of the dual access. We always had a fire in the grate to heat the water using a back boiler -very much a habit from there always being a fire in the range of our back to back for cooking etc and to keep "the place aired". A few years (1990's) after demolition in the1980's I visited the site and at that time the then grassed over area still had our Lilac and Rowan where the bottom of the garden ran.

Mind more of a Thick Composite Cardboard than a Kellogg's box!!!!!

 

[sospiri]

If it's a roof over your head and it's warm, who cares?

Maurice

 

[Morturn]

If it's a roof over your head and it's warm, who cares?

Maurice

Indeed Maurice. I recall how people defined themselves by how white their net curtains were compared with everyone else’s.