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Prefabs

jukebox said:
Well remembered Janet. I've just found a map with them all on:
www.old-maps.co.uk

Changes to Old Maps website - Landmark Information Group

Why is Old Maps no longer available? Over the last 10 years Landmark has partnered with the team at Old Maps to sell our historical mapping data to consumers keen to learn about local history or purchase printed maps for personal or decorative use. Viewing and printing these maps from the Old...
www.old-maps.co.uk www.old-maps.co.uk
Your list was all correct except H was Honeysuckle. The rest were
Kingcup
Laburnum
Marigold
Nepeta
Oleander
Primrose
Quince
Rosemary
Snowdrop
Thistle
Underwood
Veronica
Click to expand...
Well done indeed, and thank you for the map link. The map has confirmed my address as 7 Bluebell Lane - I wasn't sure whether it was no. 6 or 7 and favoured 6. I was wrong. OldMohawk's photograph gave me cause for doubt - I couldn't reconcile it being 6 whichever end of the lane I started counting. So, thank you for settling that as well.
 
I don’t think the prefabs on Slade Road have been mentioned. They seem to still be there although they look like they’ve been considerably modified. 37 were originally built. 4DB362F4-9B35-4A75-9A48-0582DA7D9575.jpeg

C134F735-569F-4DED-BC3D-74DA984CF7ED.jpeg

They received a mixed reception. Viv.

0700EF95-54BC-46A7-97AB-27D4F9D70EEA.jpeg

Source for all newspaper extracts: British Newspaper Archive
 

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viv they looked brick built to me..just wondering if they are actually the original prefabs would be good to find out..ive gone past them many times and just thought they were bungalows..i always thought that the only original prefabs left standing were the ones in wake green road but i could be wrong on that
 
Lyn - just what I thought when I looked on street view - trouble is you can get good "mock brick" buildings these days.
 
I know the Wake Green ones are the only ones of a particular type. No idea if the ones in Slade Road were the same or not. Some (possibly all) are listed - although one or two look a bit in need of tlc.
 
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Thanks all. I wondered if that might be the case as I couldn’t see any prefabricated parts. But it crossed my mind that they might have been ‘considerably modified’ and been encased in brick and given sloping roofs. Thinking about it that doesn’t really make sense, as it’d be expensive, let alone near impossible !

There were supposed to be prefabs in Fentham Road and Reservoir Road, but can’t say I remember them. They must have gone by the 1960s. Viv.
 
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I was born in a prefab, and lived there until I was about fourteen, when the area was redeveloped.

Murrayfield Avenue, West Heath. B31

Me, in my mothers arms, in the back garden of our prefab. 1951



A great place for kids to grow up.

Steve.
 
Locally here we have Cornish Units, prefabricated concrete structures built by the councils back in the post war period, since being taken out of council control many have been demolished and replaced with brick built houses by the housing associations who took over but those that were salvageable have been clad with pretend plastic brickwork.

https://www.metrotile.co.uk/history-cornish-units-renovation-possibilities/
 
I most certainly recall the prefabs on Reservoir Road, and do think there were a few on Fentham Road that ran up from Slade Road on the hospital side.
 
Smoke.jpeg

Viv, despite the letters after Mr Shipsey's name I don't think he understood the concept of the coal fires in the prefabs. The heat was piped through into all the other rooms and although not entirely successful in our case, it was part of the design and an electric fire certainly wouldn't have taken the chill off the rest of the house. Also, the coal fire was something to group round while you listened to the radio. Lovely!
 
DJRVST said:
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.
Click to expand...
I lived in Trehurst Avenue until about 1957. The large window on the ride hand side on the attached picture was where the fire escape door was placed. At the time of the photograph the "thick paint" which was of a fire resistant material was still to be added. The second photo shows myself and my sister by the front door about to set of for the party to celebrate the coronation
 

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I've recently found some photos of where my mum and her parents moved to their prefab in 1966 in Hurstwood Road, Perry Common.
The roof looked like it should be on a pigsty! but everyone is smiling on the photos and I think the garden was their pride and joy - all the photos are taken outside!
They moved there from Witton Lane in Aston which I assume was a back to back house and must have been demolished.
 

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Hi thank you for posting your lovely photo's. The houses in Witton Lane were not back to backs as that was my newspaper round and were quite large compared with some in the area.
 
Edit, this post was copied from the Welfare Clinic Warren Farm Road thread as it refers to the prefabs mentioned in Post #440

i assume the welfare centre is the building marked as clinic

map warren farm road area c1962.jpg
 
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what is interesting me now mike is on you last map you have a clinic far left of the map.. as i said earlier on that ground now is a walk in centre...opposite the clinic is now what we locals call conker island..its basically a grassed over play area but what was on that ground before it became such..your map shows what looks like numbered buildings..just wondering if they were maybe prefabs...street view below of conker island

298 Warren Farm Rd · 298 Warren Farm Rd, Birmingham B44 0AD

298 Warren Farm Rd, Birmingham B44 0AD
www.google.com www.google.com
 
Astoness said:
what is interesting me now mike is on you last map you have a clinic far left of the map.. as i said earlier on that ground now is a walk in centre...opposite the clinic is now what we locals call conker island..its basically a grassed over play area but what was on that ground before it became such..your map shows what looks like numbered buildings..just wondering if they were maybe prefabs...street view below of conker island

298 Warren Farm Rd · 298 Warren Farm Rd, Birmingham B44 0AD

298 Warren Farm Rd, Birmingham B44 0AD
www.google.com www.google.com
Click to expand...
Lyn, they were indeed prefabs.
 
No Lyn, not at all. Mum would have made visits with me to the clinic in the 1950s. Then in the 1960s I was often at the swimming baths. Have absolutely no recollection of them ! Maybe they’d been removed. I realise they were supposed to be temporary structures, but that means they’d only have been there for quite a short time. But like I say, I would have been quite young with not the slightest interest in buildings. Viv.
 
Vivienne14 said:
No Lyn, not at all. Mum would have made visits with me to the clinic in the 1950s. Then in the 1960s I was often at the swimming baths. Have absolutely no recollection of them ! Maybe they’d been removed. I realise they were supposed to be temporary structures, but that means they’d only have been there for quite a short time. But like I say, I would have been quite young with not the slightest interest in buildings. Viv.
Click to expand...
viv map shows they were still there circa 1973 but i know exactly what you mean about not taking much notice of buildings when we were young...i look at old maps and photos of the area where i grew up and for the life i me i cant remember seeing certain buildings even though i walked past them 100s of time back and forth to school...

lyn
 
The prefabs were still there until at least the mid 1970's, I am sure they had gone by 1980 but cannot be certain but they certainly were still standing and occupied until the date I stated.
 
One of the last occupants was a Edith N Latham who died in December 1979, I knew her from my days living in Aston, she just to tell me off for being cheeky to her but while living in the prefabs she would wait for me to pass her home when I was coming home from work and call me into her house and give a slice of cake etc, I was probably the only person she knew after she moved from Aston..
 
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