When my father was de-mobbed from the RAF at the end of the war we moved from a tumble down farm cottage with no electricity, running water or sewage system into a newly built prefab, and we lived there until I was eight. It was one of about a dozen built on the edge of our small village. I remember it as being a cosy, comfortable home with all the modern (for then) amenities, and I have nothing but praise for prefabs.
We lived in a prefab in the 50s. We loved it. It had a modern Kitchen, with a fridge. Indoor toilet, which was a luxury in those days. Three bedrooms, with cupboards. A large garden for my father to grow his veg. Its a pity they don't still build them.
I lived in one as a child in the 1950s. My father was in the Royal Marines and mum was living with my grandparents, unfortunately, my uncle got TB so we were moved in to a prefab as my sister and I were so young and the council obviously didn’t want us to get sick as well. They are long gone now. Modern prefabs would make great homes for pensioners, they are on one level and all sorts of people who just want a small cosy place to live.
I was born in one, in Hull! I don't know why such prefabs (but improved of course) can't be mass-produced as a quick solution for the homeless and those people dispossessed in many other ways? To me, it seems like the way forward for any government that has humanity and empathy as a prime element of their democratic based!
My Dad was a prison officer on the Isle of Sheppey, we lived in a prefab when I was a kid in the 60’s. Floors were all Lino, single glazed steel framed windows, no central heating, just an open fire in the living room. Clearly remember the winter of 62/63 and ice on the windows inside. Didn’t seem particularly harsh or difficult at the time because it was the same for everyone. What I do remember is it was a lot safer then, a lot of community spirit and people looked out for each other. Good video, brought back a lot of happy memories from my childhood 👍
This was when the British government served the public and had good practical ideas and people working for them. My paternal grandparents got bombed out and they moved into one. it was quite snug when the fire was lit, but it cooled down pretty quickly. In the winter, your bed needed plenty of blankets. Still - they did serve their purpose and people took a lot of pride in their dolls' houses. I actually went looking for them a few weeks ago, but it seems they've long since gone. Nobody I spoke to even knew what I was talking about, much less remembered them...
You've just described the heating problems of the old terraced houses, warmth in the only room with a 'fire', freezing every where else (ice on the inside of the windows).
My mother and her family moved into a prefab two storey house in Chingford East London in 1947 supposedly for only 10 years 77 years later they are still being lived in.
I remember when there were many prefabs still in existence and many of their occupants protested when they were demolished for make way for new builds. For saying they were constructed in post war austerity they were well made and lasted much longer than intended. Keep up the good work and thank you.
Indeed. The prefabs near us in Canterbury, Kent, were not demolished until around 1970/71, so they had a good lifespan for 'temporary' buildings. Apparently these had asbestos wall insulation and that was determined to be dangerous, so they had to be demolished. Mind you, they had been well looked after by the tenants inside and out - with nice gardens, I recall. Interestingly, many were equipped with the well made postwar green and cream colour 'austerity' kitchen units and other furnishings. Many of these outlasted their prefabs, and ended up becoming quite fashionable items - I was astonished to see some for sale (for high prices) in a Los Angeles furniture warehouse store in Melrose Avenue in the late 1990s!
My late mother was born in 1926 By 1950/1 she was the main breadwinner having to look after herself ,her mother, her half sister and her 2 children in a PREFAB in Yardley, south Birmingham My mom told me these constructions were ideal. They had everything you could possible need. 👍 👍 🏴🏴❤️❤️
My first 16 years of life was living in one of these, in Hayes, Middlesex. I have very fond memories of them. They were very cold in winter, you would get hoare frost on the inside of the windows. But they were great and there was a really good sized garden, which my Dad loved.
Here I am living in Victoria Australia. We too have the same prefabs made in England in a town of Newborough in Victoria. They were brought out from England to help accommodate workers as after the war Australians needed houses desperately. They were bigger 3 bedrooms and a "box" room some 4 bedrooms. I lived in one for 3 years and loved it. But we had to decide whether to start renovating or move to a house that was brick veneer with cement stumps and aluminium windows. We moved. But it's lovely to go to Newborough and see the houses they are well looked after and people love living there.
Surely with today's modern materials, machines, design and capabilities they could make a type of prefabricated house with decent structural longevity and thermal dynamics that could be utilized to create housing at a fast and cost effective pace. Basically a modern day council house equivalent to ease the current housing shortage.
@@martinholmes1493 They do, my company makes severel designs for rural living, fully insulated, non burnable, shelf life 80 years plus, pick it up and put it on the back of a lorry or more.
The powers that be could solve the shortage of homes with modern prefabs but you have to ask why don't they do it mp s only seem in it for what they can get for themselves it's so easy to put up these homes
1. Snobery. Small minded councillors don't want them in their county. 2. A solution to a problem stops the fortunes sloshing around trying to solve the problem. No wages for consultants, charities & lots more involved in the housing shortage. A Manchester property developer said 20 years ago, i could sell thousands of 1 bed flats tomorrow. The council would'nt give him permission. I don't think they would affect the price of conventional houses.
absolutely ,could use 3d printing machines and high tech insulation build a home in 1 week with limited manpower see my my comment above and give me a thumbs up if you agree!
@@fredjones8791 Brits should all be living in prefab houses provided by the govt . Private ownership should be abolished and every family should be assigned a hut
In the 2000s I ran a community group for elder council tenants whose prefabs were being upgraded. They all absolutely loved them. Nobody wanted to move out or be relocated. They had big gardens, people could have ponds, keep chickens, grow veg, and many did. Their replacements were closer together and had MANY building issues.
I was born and spent the first 15 years of my life in a prefab, good little houses, but very cold in winter. Our prefab lasted for 20 years, being demolished in 1965.
My parents moved from a room in my grandfather's house to a new prefab estate in West Pilton, Edinburgh in 1947. I had just turned two. That winter was a really cold one, and the snow was halfway up the back door, or so my dad said! I do remember the roads were little more than tracks initially, and it was fascinating for a toddler to watch them being finished over the next couple of years. Steam rollers and the smell of tar. Yes, they were cold, but each house had electricity, gas, hot water and a fireplace, plus a garden and an Anderson hut which could be used to keep a lawnmower. Our's had a coal bunker as well. The logistics of building so many in such a short time with all these utilities must have been daunting and I don't think we could do it today.
yes only we need around 500.000 built to lower rents nationwide see my comment officialy 324,990 homeless in the uk i am not against immigrants that come to the uk legaly but i also think we should take care of our own first!
@@Jack-fs2im there is also no money because of brexit but for sure in a few years half a million homeless as i said i have nothing against immigrants but we should take care of our own first its also the right to buy from maggy thatcher i know that myself as my mother in 69 moved to a new council house in orsett essex she had a massive discount and paid 14000 for it in 69 and sold it for 380000 in 2002 my old house is worth 500000 half a million also people in small council appartments in london bought them for cheap and later sold them for crazy numbers like 1.2 million making a coucil tennant a milionaire overnight labour also will fail trying to make brexit work as they are not radical enough i know people here wont like what i say but had jeremy corbyn was the labour leader he would have nationallised all service and put massive taxes on the rich and the energy companies and brexit would never have happened this labour government no better than the conservatives
@@christopherhines2718 oh yeah and we would be like Cuba or Venezuala all in poverty.Labour are control freaks for massive public sector privilege.Corbyn campaigned against us being in europe for 25yrs calling it a bankers cartel .
@@christopherhines2718 brexit was great 7,4m EU citizens paid to remain in uk and they are risking their lives to get here,none of what racist remainers said happendc
Such a shame our governments can’t think outside the box in this present housing crisis. Too many vested interests to make any sort of progress. The ‘static’ homes on holiday parks are often of such a good standard that one wonders why more aren’t used as general housing. Double glazed, full plumbing and electrics, central heating…What’s not to like? I’d downsize to one in a breath…xxx
You CAN Do it on Residential parks All over the Country ...We have downsized to one, in Devon, a Beautiful Park home as called now, a spacious bungalow, totally insulated and warm with central heating....All mod cons, parking on the plot and nice garden....quiet and safe like a small village, My parants lived in a prefab in Portsmouth when Dad came home from ww2 aged 22....a new Dad at the time, they loved it ! They would have been SO enamoured of our bungalow now if they were still here, Bless them......
This was groundbreaking stuff back then. Imagine being homed in one of these having lost your home in the bombing?. It must have felt like a palace, and was probably quite an upgrade on what they had before. Given the housing crisis in the UK now, this idea could be modernized, and they could be built on currently disused land in place of unaffordable houses. It's like one up from a caravan park home, I'd certainly live in something like this!.
I can imagine particularly the aluminium clad ones being like a spaceship back then, how modern it must have looked. I too would live in one now given the option.
And many people who got a prefab actually had their first experience of an inside toilet, and a fitted bath instead of a zinc tub in front of the hearth...
I lived in a prefab from 1953 until they were demolished in around 1964 and I loved it, All mod cons that some brick houses didn't have! One thing I remember vividly was the sound of Hail or heavy rain on the metal sheet roof, like living in a snair drum!!! Will always have fond memories of those good old Prefabs!!
Back then one of my school mates lived in a prefab a two bedroom job in garrat lane Wandsworth. It was roomy comfortable and warm in winter. They were very happy living there.
My nan and granddad lived in an old style prefab in East London right up until the land was developed in 2007 and loved every minute of it. Not bad for housing designed to be only temporary and last only a few years!!
My gran lived in one just off sowerby new road, near sowerby West Yorkshire ,sill being used oin the late 70s. Not very warm but gave people a home,which is mote than any council do today…
We lived in an Airy House. Said to be one up from the smaller prefabs. Extremely cold in the winter with just coal fires in 3 rooms. The main living room fire had a back boiler that heated about a half bath of water. I lived there for 24 years up to when I was married. It had and upstairs bathroom and an outside toilet. My 4 sisters used the inside toilet, my brother 4:43 and I banished to the outside. Most have now been demolished with the huge front and back garden they redeveloped the land and squeezed it 3 times more rabbit hutches. Being a child of the early 50’s I had a wonderful carefree childhood.
My dear (sadly late) friend* used to live in a ground floor flat but _without any_ access to a garden, but fortunately, after some years there, was happy to be moved to an estate of prefabs (called the 'Excaliber' Estate) with her husband and two young sons. They had a little double-fronted front garden, but quite a large back garden, just grassed which made it a perfect "football pitch" for two young boys!! Sadly, the local council decided to eventually demolish all but six of those prefabs, leaving those six as _Grade_II_Listed_ buildings, as reminders of the prior post-war importance, design features and possibilities as nice little homes for young families. I had hoped to move into one (as was living in a one-bedroomed fifth floor flat with a five-year old daughter and her _new_ twin baby siblings) but apparently although I was awarded an extra "twrnty-nine housing points" (including extra for losing twin babies at only four weeks premature, the year before) my husband, children and I were not deemed to have amassed _enough points_ to be moved out of our cramped flat at that time, so a wish to move into a prefab was denied to us. We were, though, when my twins were _fourteen months old_ , moved to a fourth* floor, three-bedroomed flat (with an unreliable lift and 84 stairs as access to our top* floor flat) further down the road ( a lot further from my young daughter's school, and our Doctor's surgery, but closer to the main shopping centre and train station - not that we travelled by train, only buses then. Fortunately after eighteen years in that larger fourth (top) floor flat, and my disabilities having developed (& both of my two soon to be ex-husbands having left me to live with and marry my two ex-"best friends", one of my twins - now adult - who became my fulltime carer - and I were moved to our present (last, hopefully) ground floor flat, which is in a _Grade_II_Listed_Estate just across the road!! It has front and back gardens, access to lots of "inbetween buildings greenery" (lawns and trees etc), still close to the same shops, buses, trains, and about ten minutes walk from the health centre and pharmacy, so although we missed out in getting a lovely old prefab, our present address is fairly similar, though built more substantially with thick walls, and in 2012, was, just before we moved here, totally refurbished, including an electric shower with disabled access and fold-down armed-chair, extra hand rails, non-slip flooring and electric floor drain!! Luxury!! (It makes being 71 and "not a well person" _almost_ worth the hassle!!) I hope those six preserved prefabs are able to be lived in for a long time yet, and appreciated, as they served a lot of families well over the years. 🏴💜🇬🇧🖖 (R,I.P. Joyce*)
As an expat of over 50 years, I can recall when as a child I had family who were living in prefabs. I also had family living in much older Victorian row terraces which were far less than desirable and lacking amenities. By contrast the prefabs I remember were nice homes in pleasant estates. Pride of place existed with many beautiful lawns and gardens with vegetable plots. It seemed sad in away from memory these were fast to disappear, in many cases far sooner than the homes in slum clearance area's to which they were superior. I recall family being very upset their prefab was to be replaced, fortunately they were able to purchase one of the new bungalows in the area rebuilt along with many of their former neighbours.
Living in Buxton all my life I remember these very well, a friend of mine Brian Martin who use to repair TV s and his wife Edna live in one of these, I also remember them been demolished and Brian was re located to Elizabeth avenue, where his daughter still lives today..
I remember these as a child just after the war. We did not live in one, but people living there loved them, and I hear that people cried when told they were going to be moved into new flats which turned out to be a disaster. Surely modern mass production tech niches should be able to solve the housing shortage using updated methods.
My Great Aunt stayed in one at Stewarton on the Mull of Kintyre. She cried when she had to leave it for a 'permanent' house in Campbeltown. We still have some prefabs in South Lanarkshire in Yieldshields and Biggar.
Another excellent video about something I knew a little about, I remember seeing the odd prefab in Essex growing up in the Sixties, and now in NZ folks are getting excited about simply made small footprint “tiny homes”. Thanks for your efforts in researching and making this video, and of course picking up a barrow of litter. I hope Buxton appreciates you. All the best.
Thanks for a very interesting and informative video. In Scotland, the UK set up the Scottish Special Housing Association to help build more houses using innovative methods such as prefabs and no-fines construction. I worked for it for 10 years until the Tories abolished it. It helped enormously and was a great organisation to work for. I bet the residents of Buxton are grateful that you live there. Good on you on your rubbish collection. All the best from north-east Scotland.
That floor plan is pretty well descriptive of the one I lived in, in North Manchester, from 1956 to 1964, but we only had a coal fire, no central heating. The roof was made of corrugated cement, probably asbestos reinforced in many cases. As recently as 1968, the UK managed to build over 400,000 homes in one year, but current levels of building are barely half that level. If you go back to the 2010s, the average was even lower, below 150,000 properties a year.
Many of occupants of these houses preferred them to the 1960s tower blocks that were put up later. The council houses built un that era were solidly built unlike later construction. Unfortunately Thatcher sold them off opening the way for private landlords to fill the rental gap.
One of my aunts still lives in a prefab in Northern Ireland. Yes, it has been modified and properly insulated but it is a lovely comfortable home and very spacious. I don't know why such homes couldn't be built now throughout the UK to deal with the current shortage of housing. Something radical needs to be done.
And then were several other houses that were built soon after, such as the British Iron & Steel Federation (BISF) ones, and the Airey House ones, some of which have been demolished, and others modified with brick outer walls, but with the original internal set up. I think it has depended on the weather effects in any given area, and no doubt the sums involved for the local Councils that owned them all before the advent of right to buy etc.
These were everywhere by where I lived as a child, they were around the edges of parks, on traffic islands and on old allotments. People took pride in them and were still around in the 1970s by my school, now all gone. Like someone said in an earlier comment " that was when the government worked for the people" and not for themselves. This was a generation that helped each other and got on with life! Not like the generation now that's wants everything but not prepared to graft for it.
BRING BACK THE PREFABS!. These homes were very common, and very popular, in the 50s, and 60/70/80/90/into the 21st c! ...well over the 10 years they were originally given!. I knew many people that lived in them, they all loved their homes!, most of the tenants had been bombed out of their terraced houses, so what a luxury for them to have a bright cheerful home with so much inner space, and a big garden!, (gloomy terraces had small back yards).
I live in a two storey postwar prefab. The French built a concrete lower storey, containing a store and garage, then put a prefab on top of this for living accommodation. Ours apparently originated in Canada.
I think the government should look to prefabs to solve our current problem ! Better than high rise flats. Would make very good Council housing ! It makes sense to me.
They were fantastic and solved a serious housing problem. I knew no end of people who lived in one. Their only drawback was lack of insulation, freezing in the winter and sweltering in the summer.
I spent most of my childhood living in a prefab, I can look back on that time with real warmth, I suppose it's only when you can look back that you appreciate how good it was, just lovely times
I was born in March 1953. We lived with my Aunt and Uncle at first. I slept in a drawer. We eventually moved to an old army camp. There were 2. Top camp and bottom camp. In the local woods. They were actually corrugated iron huts. With a fireplace and a running water tap. When I was 4 we moved to Ashby, Scunthorpe. Into a brand new council house. It had an outside toilet and a real bath upstairs!
I live in a pre/during war pre-fab, that went up in 1939. They have been fully modernised over the years, were reskinned and pebbledashed about ten years ago under the guise of modernisation, but i found out that the scrap value of the metal used in the outer walls was worth 5x what it cost to reskin them, so the council had the whiff of free money in its nostrils. I'm very happy with my little 3 bedroom bungalow, that I'm in the process of buying for £32k at a big discount (it has a market value of around £170k) These prefabs are still standing solid. Even after more than 80 years.
Well into the 70's around where I lived then. Strange that the UK built a new 'village ' for the London Olympics at Woolwich. Hundreds of pods to house participants with services, food and exercise services included. A perfect Old Folks situation. AFTER THE OLYMPICS IT WAS REMOVED. All that money spent to no future avail.
@@eattherich9215 :At least as good as those prefabs with all the services plugged in to the existing structures. That is permanent enough when the liebour party claim we need 1,500,000 homes in the next five years and the call was just as profound before the Olympics.
I bet there are many people today who would relish the simplicity of a pre-fab but I also fear that many feel too entitled to live in something so basic and infra-dig
There were a few at the bottom of Billesley lane, sadly now removed. I remember a crazy lady lived in one, used to attack us children with a broom as we walked past. Hate to think what turned her into that and doubt she ever got any help.
After the war, aircraft manufacturing techniques and factories could easily switch over to prefabs, preparing a site by running in services and putting the concrete slab down, took longer than erecting the prefab . A fair number of companies have sprung up in the last few years to manufacture modular houses to build on site, problem is manufacturing relies on continuous output to be efficient, planning hold ups , high interest rates have seen many of these companies go bump. Modern regulations particularly on density per acre mean we don't build bungalows any more, not profitable therefore not economically viable. Visited the Avoncroft museum about 30 years ago, they had some prefabs there, fascinating to see .
My parents both served in the forces during WW2 and were given a prefab when they were de mobbed. They were grateful to move from rented rooms in a ladies home with my elder sister. I came along in 1951 and Mum always said the prefab could be very cold in I the winter and very hot in the summer. They made friends with other families and some of these families became life long friends.
I grew up in the north east there were plenty in use into the seventies they had a flat roof,in fact some were externally clad and are still in use today with a pitched roof
When I was 10 in 1964 i can remember visiting my aunt and uncle in Watford, Hertfordshire. The prefab had been a great improvement on their last home. I think thay lived in last ones standing. They were still very livable.
There were hundreds of prefabs in Collyhurst , Manchestef near our school. Many of my little 6 - 7 year old friends lived in them. I had no idea what prefab meant untill about 20 years later !
15 year life expectancy...still going strong around our way....in fact they outlived the 1970s, 1990s houses ..and will definitly out last the rubbish they put up now.
Absolutely brilliant superb, my family lived in one years ago,and really in life,the new not needed value of survivability, in practical, space and home economics, they are really that' is all you need,not the bigger fitted kitchens white tiles white grey floors,,ooh dirty dirty ? etc,(and the complete house,a fireplace that does everything), "that's a home" not some strange cold place that intriguing on the family unit with coldness love ,,
We had loads of prefabs in lovely Hounslow right through the 60s when Hounslow was a great place. Prefabs are plush compared to the state of the general Hounslow houses today. What a tip.
I lived with my parents in a prefab in North Manchester, from 1956 to 1964. Previously for the first three years of my life, I lived in a 2 up two down old terraced house in North Manchester, together with my dad's mother, my mother and my dad. After my grandmother died in 1956, we then went to live a council prefab. We moved out in 1964, the prefabs were then demolished, we went to then live in a multi storey block of flats. Nearby to those flats, some of the prefabs were still in use as dwellings well into the early 1970s, almost a decade after our own prefab and the neighbouring ones had been flattened.
I was was born in 1944, and I can remember these prefabs being built, they were the ones with the rain shield over the door, so I guess they were the Aero ones ~
I believe the idea for these homes was the brainchild of Frank Taylor who later became Sir Frank Taylor of Taylor Woodrow started with his uncle Jack Woodrow and these prefabs were originally built as temporary homes after the war though some them are still standing today. In the 80's I worked for Taylor Woodrow in their offices in Dunraven Street just off Marble Arch in London and met Sir Frank on several occasions. He was long retired by then but used to visit our offices occasionally. He was of surprising stature for someone who had clearly been extremely dynamic in his youth being only about 5 foot 6" and with a very slight frame. However, he had the most beautiful, captivating and piercing blue eyes. Although he was obviously one of life's natural businessmen having originally worked in his father's fruit business he was, by today's standards, uneducated and always politely deferred to his employees who were then mostly engineers, architects, surveyors and lawyers. He had beautiful manners treating everyone with the greatest of respect and I still have a note from him in which he thanked for some work I did for him. He was a lovely man.
There was a long row of them at the bottom of Brandwood park road in Kings Heath, Birmingham. I passed them walking to Pineapple school from 1962 to1969 . They were still there in the 80's when i left Birmingham. They looked very tiny but maybe they weren't.
I was born in one of these in Hampshire, going back many years later with my Dad all we could find in what is now a beauty spot, were the remains of a few roads being taken back by nature.
Very interesting, my Mum remembers then being built in our little town after the war and I think they were around until the 70’s. Fair play for doing a bit of litter picking good on ya
My first memories of life were in a prefab in Grange Road, Taunton, Somerset in the early 1950s. From what I remember, life was hard for our parents - summers were fine but in winters, they were very cold, having no insulation worth talking about. My brother and I would get up in the mornings, wrapped in blankets while our father lit the only fire in the house, in the living room. Those prefabs were erected in the late 1940s and should have been demolished by 1960 or so. But the authorities extended their lives (of course!) and they were eventually dismantled in the early 1970s. I have a photo of my brother standing by the foundations of our house in 1975.
I was brought up in one. My memories were - ill fitting windows which allowed the outside atmospheric soot from coal fires to cover the window sill. asbestos walls and lagging (its a wonder I am still here) corrugated metal roof that was deafening in rain and hail. walls so thin you could hear the neighbour's. freezing cold in winter (internal ice on windows) with one coal fire. a tremendous sense of community. Parents who were happy to have a house. We all had nowt so had to rely on each other.
@@Leockif your interested:- Morris Crescent, Boldon Colliery. Pump that into Google Earth. The white topped houses are the 'done up' prefabs. They were a lot more basic when I lived there but apparently the current occupants love them and many were granted mortgages to buy them.
@@Leocknot sure why but my reply to you has disappeared. Perhaps using a street name triggered a deletion. The mention of another platform might not have helped. 54°56'55"N 1°27'08"W The white topped houses are the 'done up' prefabs.
As a child we used to walk our dog up through a small village behind the new town that we lived in, was being built. The whole vilage was PREFABS! My late father was in the REME so very knowledgable about engineering and most things. He told me that much of these prefab parts contained asbestos! At the time they never knew the dangers of this - it was just cheap and easily availabl. So roofs and some walls were made from this stuff - GOOD GRIEF. I never forgot these little houses. I was born in 1959 so these were still around but they are now long gone replaced by another grotty brick new town. A little sad.
When I was a kid in Poulton, Wallasey, Wirral UK, in the 1960’s , there were prefabs in the public park behind our house. They were derelict by that time, but I do remember playing in them. They were said to have asbestos roofs, although it may have just been cast concrete or something. The local kids, me included, used to set fire to pieces of this roofing material because it literally exploded when it got sufficiently hot. We called it “shooting shit”. The prefabs were eventually demolished and the land was returned to be a public park.
Ellesmere port has them still in overpool. They were riddled with asbestos and alot of health problems were reported. It's all removed howskey bungalows are still livable today my friend lives in one. Very spacious
I remember the prefabs well and even stayed in one on holiday that my aunty and uncle had at The Oval, Pocklington, Yorkshire. The line of prefabs ay 03.51 looks very like them. Great video. Thanks.
Wish we could house us today with similar programs for today. Also nice of you collecting rubbish off the street of buxton, really appreciate this when people do this off there own back, thank you and thank you for the video.
A friend of the family lived in a prefab similar to the Hawksley. It was so cosy. As a child, I envied them and wanted to live in a prefab. There was a great deal of sadness when they were demolished. I think it was the late 70s. They were still in good condition
I was born in a prefab and lived in it for the first eleven years of my life. It was a detached, two bedroom bungalow with a large garden. The prefabs were all inhabited at the same time and a strong community was built. My parents would have stayed there if they hadn't outgrown it.
This relives my youth in Paulsgrove these prefabs were being demolished and were rival street gangs dens there were the Deerhurst , Hilsea, and wooferton gangs basically English against Germans etc great fun (1960's)
Many of these in York, although, apart from one Baedecker raid, the city was spared a lot of the carnage that other cities got. Considering that they were temporary, many have outlived more modern buildings!
I was born in a pre fab although it had a back boiler it had no central heating. My parents were in the pre fab for 15+ years, 2 bedrooms , mother and father and four children, my first bed was one of the built in steel drawers.
Although they were supposed to be only temporary, they were a vast improvement on the many houses that were destroyed, a large number of which had no bathroom or indoor toilet.
When my father was de-mobbed from the RAF at the end of the war we moved from a tumble down farm cottage with no electricity, running water or sewage system into a newly built prefab, and we lived there until I was eight. It was one of about a dozen built on the edge of our small village. I remember it as being a cosy, comfortable home with all the modern (for then) amenities, and I have nothing but praise for prefabs.
Being currently homeless aged 67 I'd love one
We lived in a prefab in the 50s. We loved it. It had a modern Kitchen, with a fridge. Indoor toilet, which was a luxury in those days. Three bedrooms, with cupboards. A large garden for my father to grow his veg. Its a pity they don't still build them.
I lived in one as a child in the 1950s. My father was in the Royal Marines and mum was living with my grandparents, unfortunately, my uncle got TB so we were moved in to a prefab as my sister and I were so young and the council obviously didn’t want us to get sick as well. They are long gone now. Modern prefabs would make great homes for pensioners, they are on one level and all sorts of people who just want a small cosy place to live.
If they were to build now they would be of a much higher quality. Oh, and only migrants would get them.
@@trevorhoward7682 How true and they wouldn't have to pay a penny.
Yes we did too they were great 1960 in Mexbrough
@@trevorhoward7682they're not migrants they're illegals
I was born in one, in Hull! I don't know why such prefabs (but improved of course) can't be mass-produced as a quick solution for the homeless and those people dispossessed in many other ways? To me, it seems like the way forward for any government that has humanity and empathy as a prime element of their democratic based!
💯👍
What land would they be located on ?
@@sarahann530 Well, the price of agricultural land will shortly plummet as it will no longer be use as an Inheritence Tax dodge.
We live in a pre fab today in Portsmouth they are absolutely amazing ❤❤
The rooms are big and we have a huge garden
My Dad was a prison officer on the Isle of Sheppey, we lived in a prefab when I was a kid in the 60’s. Floors were all Lino, single glazed steel framed windows, no central heating, just an open fire in the living room. Clearly remember the winter of 62/63 and ice on the windows inside. Didn’t seem particularly harsh or difficult at the time because it was the same for everyone. What I do remember is it was a lot safer then, a lot of community spirit and people looked out for each other. Good video, brought back a lot of happy memories from my childhood 👍
This was when the British government served the public and had good practical ideas and people working for them. My paternal grandparents got bombed out and they moved into one. it was quite snug when the fire was lit, but it cooled down pretty quickly. In the winter, your bed needed plenty of blankets. Still - they did serve their purpose and people took a lot of pride in their dolls' houses. I actually went looking for them a few weeks ago, but it seems they've long since gone. Nobody I spoke to even knew what I was talking about, much less remembered them...
I’m certainly considering making a better video on this topic more related to the people who lived in such and the last ones remaining.
According to History Debunked quite a few of the houses lost in the Blitz were from artillery shells fired by the govt. at planes. So ....
You are spot on with but if you think beyond it then more than half of the UK residents are not worthy of help.
@@Leockl think that in the area of Lewisham or Catford there are prefabs that are listed or protected with people living in them.
You've just described the heating problems of the old terraced houses, warmth in the only room with a 'fire', freezing every where else (ice on the inside of the windows).
My mother and her family moved into a prefab two storey house in Chingford East London in 1947 supposedly for only 10 years 77 years later they are still being lived in.
I remember when there were many prefabs still in existence and many of their occupants protested when they were demolished for make way for new builds. For saying they were constructed in post war austerity they were well made and lasted much longer than intended. Keep up the good work and thank you.
Yeah while doing the research for this vid I can across quite a few news articles of councils trying to force people out of them.
Indeed. The prefabs near us in Canterbury, Kent, were not demolished until around 1970/71, so they had a good lifespan for 'temporary' buildings. Apparently these had asbestos wall insulation and that was determined to be dangerous, so they had to be demolished. Mind you, they had been well looked after by the tenants inside and out - with nice gardens, I recall. Interestingly, many were equipped with the well made postwar green and cream colour 'austerity' kitchen units and other furnishings. Many of these outlasted their prefabs, and ended up becoming quite fashionable items - I was astonished to see some for sale (for high prices) in a Los Angeles furniture warehouse store in Melrose Avenue in the late 1990s!
Still in existence, wonderful homes.
My late mother was born in 1926
By 1950/1 she was the main breadwinner having to look after herself ,her mother, her half sister and her 2 children in a PREFAB in Yardley, south Birmingham
My mom told me these constructions were ideal. They had everything you could possible need.
👍 👍 🏴🏴❤️❤️
My first 16 years of life was living in one of these, in Hayes, Middlesex. I have very fond memories of them. They were very cold in winter, you would get hoare frost on the inside of the windows. But they were great and there was a really good sized garden, which my Dad loved.
Moved into our prefab in Rotherham Yorkshire 1956 Cooper boiler, gas fridge, gas oven all built in, bloody marvellous ❤
There are still a few in Ecclesfield,Sheffield.
surely a copper boiler
Here I am living in Victoria Australia. We too have the same prefabs made in England in a town of Newborough in Victoria. They were brought out from England to help accommodate workers as after the war Australians needed houses desperately. They were bigger 3 bedrooms and a "box" room some 4 bedrooms. I lived in one for 3 years and loved it.
But we had to decide whether to start renovating or move to a house that was brick veneer with cement stumps and aluminium windows. We moved. But it's lovely to go to Newborough and see the houses they are well looked after and people love living there.
THIS is the sort of thing that can solve the UK housing problem especially for young couples. Plenty of unused derelict land..
Prefabs were very good to solving the housing problem.
Surely with today's modern materials, machines, design and capabilities they could make a type of prefabricated house with decent structural longevity and thermal dynamics that could be utilized to create housing at a fast and cost effective pace. Basically a modern day council house equivalent to ease the current housing shortage.
@@martinholmes1493 They do, my company makes severel designs for rural living, fully insulated, non burnable, shelf life 80 years plus, pick it up and put it on the back of a lorry or more.
The powers that be could solve the shortage of homes with modern prefabs but you have to ask why don't they do it mp s only seem in it for what they can get for themselves it's so easy to put up these homes
1. Snobery. Small minded councillors don't want them in their county. 2. A solution to a problem stops the fortunes sloshing around trying to solve the problem. No wages for consultants, charities & lots more involved in the housing shortage. A Manchester property developer said 20 years ago, i could sell thousands of 1 bed flats tomorrow. The council would'nt give him permission. I don't think they would affect the price of conventional houses.
absolutely ,could use 3d printing machines and high tech insulation build a home in 1 week with limited manpower see my my comment above and give me a thumbs up if you agree!
@@fredjones8791 Brits should all be living in prefab houses provided by the govt . Private ownership should be abolished and every family should be assigned a hut
In the 2000s I ran a community group for elder council tenants whose prefabs were being upgraded. They all absolutely loved them. Nobody wanted to move out or be relocated. They had big gardens, people could have ponds, keep chickens, grow veg, and many did. Their replacements were closer together and had MANY building issues.
I was born and spent the first 15 years of my life in a prefab, good little houses, but very cold in winter. Our prefab lasted for 20 years, being demolished in 1965.
My parents moved from a room in my grandfather's house to a new prefab estate in West Pilton, Edinburgh in 1947. I had just turned two. That winter was a really cold one, and the snow was halfway up the back door, or so my dad said! I do remember the roads were little more than tracks initially, and it was fascinating for a toddler to watch them being finished over the next couple of years. Steam rollers and the smell of tar. Yes, they were cold, but each house had electricity, gas, hot water and a fireplace, plus a garden and an Anderson hut which could be used to keep a lawnmower. Our's had a coal bunker as well. The logistics of building so many in such a short time with all these utilities must have been daunting and I don't think we could do it today.
Why not bring them back, they serve a purpose and are easy to heat and maintain. x
yes only we need around 500.000 built to lower rents nationwide see my comment officialy 324,990 homeless in the uk i am not against immigrants that come to the uk legaly but i also think we should take care of our own first!
@@christopherhines2718it will bring down the value of evrryone elses property and angry owners will vote out whatever party did it and less IHT
@@Jack-fs2im there is also no money because of brexit but for sure in a few years half a million homeless as i said i have nothing against immigrants but we should take care of our own first its also the right to buy from maggy thatcher i know that myself as my mother in 69 moved to a new council house in orsett essex she had a massive discount and paid 14000 for it in 69 and sold it for 380000 in 2002 my old house is worth 500000 half a million also people in small council appartments in london bought them for cheap and later sold them for crazy numbers like 1.2 million making a coucil tennant a milionaire overnight labour also will fail trying to make brexit work as they are not radical enough i know people here wont like what i say but had jeremy corbyn was the labour leader he would have nationallised all service and put massive taxes on the rich and the energy companies and brexit would never have happened this labour government no better than the conservatives
@@christopherhines2718 oh yeah and we would be like Cuba or Venezuala all in poverty.Labour are control freaks for massive public sector privilege.Corbyn campaigned against us being in europe for 25yrs calling it a bankers cartel .
@@christopherhines2718 brexit was great 7,4m EU citizens paid to remain in uk and they are risking their lives to get here,none of what racist remainers said happendc
My grandparents had one in Buckinghamshire and I used to occasionally stay with them. It was lovely and I always looked forward to going there.
Such a shame our governments can’t think outside the box in this present housing crisis. Too many vested interests to make any sort of progress. The ‘static’ homes on holiday parks are often of such a good standard that one wonders why more aren’t used as general housing. Double glazed, full plumbing and electrics, central heating…What’s not to like? I’d downsize to one in a breath…xxx
You CAN Do it on Residential parks All over the Country ...We have downsized to one, in Devon, a Beautiful Park home as called now, a spacious bungalow, totally insulated and warm with central heating....All mod cons, parking on the plot and nice garden....quiet and safe like a small village, My parants lived in a prefab in Portsmouth when Dad came home from ww2 aged 22....a new Dad at the time, they loved it ! They would have been SO enamoured of our bungalow now if they were still here, Bless them......
@@michaelfoy I hope that you are old, because the home you are praising as Ideal will be worthless in twenty years.
This was groundbreaking stuff back then. Imagine being homed in one of these having lost your home in the bombing?. It must have felt like a palace, and was probably quite an upgrade on what they had before. Given the housing crisis in the UK now, this idea could be modernized, and they could be built on currently disused land in place of unaffordable houses. It's like one up from a caravan park home, I'd certainly live in something like this!.
I can imagine particularly the aluminium clad ones being like a spaceship back then, how modern it must have looked. I too would live in one now given the option.
And many people who got a prefab actually had their first experience of an inside toilet, and a fitted bath instead of a zinc tub in front of the hearth...
I lived in a prefab from 1953 until they were demolished in around 1964 and I loved it, All mod cons that some brick houses didn't have! One thing I remember vividly was the sound of Hail or heavy rain on the metal sheet roof, like living in a snair drum!!! Will always have fond memories of those good old Prefabs!!
And all these years on we just can't get it together !
Yep we need the leaders we had in the past. It wasn’t a popularity contest for them, they just got on with the job.
Back then one of my school mates lived in a prefab a two bedroom job in garrat lane Wandsworth. It was roomy comfortable and warm in winter. They were very happy living there.
My nan and granddad lived in an old style prefab in East London right up until the land was developed in 2007 and loved every minute of it. Not bad for housing designed to be only temporary and last only a few years!!
Very impressed with all the positive comments and memories of these lovely homes, with their big gardens and genuine communities.
My gran lived in one just off sowerby new road, near sowerby West Yorkshire ,sill being used oin the late 70s.
Not very warm but gave people a home,which is mote than any council do today…
We lived in an Airy House. Said to be one up from the smaller prefabs. Extremely cold in the winter with just coal fires in 3 rooms. The main living room fire had a back boiler that heated about a half bath of water. I lived there for 24 years up to when I was married. It had and upstairs bathroom and an outside toilet. My 4 sisters used the inside toilet, my brother 4:43 and I banished to the outside. Most have now been demolished with the huge front and back garden they redeveloped the land and squeezed it 3 times more rabbit hutches. Being a child of the early 50’s I had a wonderful carefree childhood.
My dear (sadly late) friend* used to live in a ground floor flat but _without any_ access to a garden, but fortunately, after some years there, was happy to be moved to an estate of prefabs (called the 'Excaliber' Estate) with her husband and two young sons.
They had a little double-fronted front garden, but quite a large back garden, just grassed which made it a perfect "football pitch" for two young boys!! Sadly, the local council decided to eventually demolish all but six of those prefabs, leaving those six as _Grade_II_Listed_ buildings, as reminders of the prior post-war importance, design features and possibilities as nice little homes for young families.
I had hoped to move into one (as was living in a one-bedroomed fifth floor flat with a five-year old daughter and her _new_ twin baby siblings) but apparently although I was awarded an extra "twrnty-nine housing points" (including extra for losing twin babies at only four weeks premature, the year before) my husband, children and I were not deemed to have amassed _enough points_ to be moved out of our cramped flat at that time, so a wish to move into a prefab was denied to us.
We were, though, when my twins were _fourteen months old_ , moved to a fourth* floor, three-bedroomed flat (with an unreliable lift and 84 stairs as access to our top* floor flat) further down the road ( a lot further from my young daughter's school, and our Doctor's surgery, but closer to the main shopping centre and train station - not that we travelled by train, only buses then. Fortunately after eighteen years in that larger fourth (top) floor flat, and my disabilities having developed (& both of my two soon to be ex-husbands having left me to live with and marry my two ex-"best friends", one of my twins - now adult - who became my fulltime carer - and I were moved to our present (last, hopefully) ground floor flat, which is in a _Grade_II_Listed_Estate just across the road!! It has front and back gardens, access to lots of "inbetween buildings greenery" (lawns and trees etc), still close to the same shops, buses, trains, and about ten minutes walk from the health centre and pharmacy, so although we missed out in getting a lovely old prefab, our present address is fairly similar, though built more substantially with thick walls, and in 2012, was, just before we moved here, totally refurbished, including an electric shower with disabled access and fold-down armed-chair, extra hand rails, non-slip flooring and electric floor drain!! Luxury!! (It makes being 71 and "not a well person" _almost_ worth the hassle!!)
I hope those six preserved prefabs are able to be lived in for a long time yet, and appreciated, as they served a lot of families well over the years. 🏴💜🇬🇧🖖
(R,I.P. Joyce*)
As an expat of over 50 years, I can recall when as a child I had family who were living in prefabs. I also had family living in much older Victorian row terraces which were far less than desirable and lacking amenities. By contrast the prefabs I remember were nice homes in pleasant estates. Pride of place existed with many beautiful lawns and gardens with vegetable plots. It seemed sad in away from memory these were fast to disappear, in many cases far sooner than the homes in slum clearance area's to which they were superior. I recall family being very upset their prefab was to be replaced, fortunately they were able to purchase one of the new bungalows in the area rebuilt along with many of their former neighbours.
Exactly my experience of running a community group of prefab tenants. They weren't guaranteed to live in the same area in the modernised ones either.
Living in Buxton all my life I remember these very well, a friend of mine Brian Martin who use to repair TV s and his wife Edna live in one of these, I also remember them been demolished and Brian was re located to Elizabeth avenue, where his daughter still lives today..
I remember these as a child just after the war. We did not live in one, but people living there loved them, and I hear that people cried when told they were going to be moved into new flats which turned out to be a disaster. Surely modern mass production tech niches should be able to solve the housing shortage using updated methods.
My Great Aunt stayed in one at Stewarton on the Mull of Kintyre. She cried when she had to leave it for a 'permanent' house in Campbeltown. We still have some prefabs in South Lanarkshire in Yieldshields and Biggar.
Another excellent video about something I knew a little about, I remember seeing the odd prefab in Essex growing up in the Sixties, and now in NZ folks are getting excited about simply made small footprint “tiny homes”. Thanks for your efforts in researching and making this video, and of course picking up a barrow of litter. I hope Buxton appreciates you. All the best.
Thank you muchly! All the best to yourself.
Thanks for a very interesting and informative video.
In Scotland, the UK set up the Scottish Special Housing Association to help build more houses using innovative methods such as prefabs and no-fines construction.
I worked for it for 10 years until the Tories abolished it. It helped enormously and was a great organisation to work for.
I bet the residents of Buxton are grateful that you live there. Good on you on your rubbish collection.
All the best from north-east Scotland.
Thank you very much for watching and the lovely comment :)
That floor plan is pretty well descriptive of the one I lived in, in North Manchester, from 1956 to 1964, but we only had a coal fire, no central heating. The roof was made of corrugated cement, probably asbestos reinforced in many cases. As recently as 1968, the UK managed to build over 400,000 homes in one year, but current levels of building are barely half that level. If you go back to the 2010s, the average was even lower, below 150,000 properties a year.
Many of occupants of these houses preferred them to the 1960s tower blocks that were put up later.
The council houses built un that era were solidly built unlike later construction.
Unfortunately Thatcher sold them off opening the way for private landlords to fill the rental gap.
Excellent film. Enjoyed this immensely.
One of my aunts still lives in a prefab in Northern Ireland. Yes, it has been modified and properly insulated but it is a lovely comfortable home and very spacious. I don't know why such homes couldn't be built now throughout the UK to deal with the current shortage of housing. Something radical needs to be done.
The coast invading boat people would no doubt consider these beneath their dignity.
And then were several other houses that were built soon after, such as the British Iron & Steel Federation (BISF) ones, and the Airey House ones, some of which have been demolished, and others modified with brick outer walls, but with the original internal set up. I think it has depended on the weather effects in any given area, and no doubt the sums involved for the local Councils that owned them all before the advent of right to buy etc.
These were everywhere by where I lived as a child, they were around the edges of parks, on traffic islands and on old allotments. People took pride in them and were still around in the 1970s by my school, now all gone. Like someone said in an earlier comment " that was when the government worked for the people" and not for themselves. This was a generation that helped each other and got on with life! Not like the generation now that's wants everything but not prepared to graft for it.
BRING BACK THE PREFABS!.
These homes were very common, and very popular, in the 50s, and 60/70/80/90/into the 21st c! ...well over the 10 years they were originally given!. I knew many people that lived in them, they all loved their homes!, most of the tenants had been bombed out of their terraced houses, so what a luxury for them to have a bright cheerful home with so much inner space, and a big garden!, (gloomy terraces had small back yards).
I live in a two storey postwar prefab. The French built a concrete lower storey, containing a store and garage, then put a prefab on top of this for living accommodation. Ours apparently originated in Canada.
I think the government should look to prefabs to solve our current problem ! Better than high rise flats. Would make very good Council housing ! It makes sense to me.
They were fantastic and solved a serious housing problem. I knew no end of people who lived in one. Their only drawback was lack of insulation, freezing in the winter and sweltering in the summer.
I spent most of my childhood living in a prefab, I can look back on that time with real warmth, I suppose it's only when you can look back that you appreciate how good it was, just lovely times
That was the Prefabs in Saltcoats Dalry Rd we lived in one
I was born in March 1953. We lived with my Aunt and Uncle at first. I slept in a drawer. We eventually moved to an old army camp. There were 2. Top camp and bottom camp. In the local woods. They were actually corrugated iron huts. With a fireplace and a running water tap. When I was 4 we moved to Ashby, Scunthorpe. Into a brand new council house. It had an outside toilet and a real bath upstairs!
Yep lived in a prefab lovely build today with better insulation solve housing problem.
I live in a pre/during war pre-fab, that went up in 1939. They have been fully modernised over the years, were reskinned and pebbledashed about ten years ago under the guise of modernisation, but i found out that the scrap value of the metal used in the outer walls was worth 5x what it cost to reskin them, so the council had the whiff of free money in its nostrils. I'm very happy with my little 3 bedroom bungalow, that I'm in the process of buying for £32k at a big discount (it has a market value of around £170k) These prefabs are still standing solid. Even after more than 80 years.
Fab little video… I was a kid of the 60s and remember the last of them on a council estate near me in Hainault, just outside N London. 👍🏻
Well into the 70's around where I lived then.
Strange that the UK built a new 'village ' for the London Olympics at Woolwich. Hundreds of pods to house participants with services, food and exercise services included. A perfect Old Folks situation.
AFTER THE OLYMPICS IT WAS REMOVED. All that money spent to no future avail.
Olympic villages are often destroyed or abandoned. Maybe they are not built for permanent occupation.
@@eattherich9215 :At least as good as those prefabs with all the services plugged in to the existing structures. That is permanent enough when the liebour party claim we need 1,500,000 homes in the next five years and the call was just as profound before the Olympics.
I don't know what you are talking about, but I didn't see the Tories doing anything about the housing problem during their 14 years of misrule.
@@eattherich9215 like 'only 10 years'?. 😂
@@eattherich9215 Look everybody, we got one that thinks there is actually a difference between the poliTICKal parties 😂
I bet there are many people today who would relish the simplicity of a pre-fab but I also fear that many feel too entitled to live in something so basic and infra-dig
I would love to live one to be honest.
There are a row of Grade 2 listed Pre-Fabs in Wake Green Road, Moseley, Birmingham, they have recently had some restoration work done on them
If I’m ever in Birmingham I have to check them out
@@Leock Someone recently did a video of them which is on here, you should find it by typing in Birmingham pre-fabs
There were a few at the bottom of Billesley lane, sadly now removed. I remember a crazy lady lived in one, used to attack us children with a broom as we walked past. Hate to think what turned her into that and doubt she ever got any help.
After the war, aircraft manufacturing techniques and factories could easily switch over to prefabs, preparing a site by running in services and putting the concrete slab down, took longer than erecting the prefab .
A fair number of companies have sprung up in the last few years to manufacture modular houses to build on site, problem is manufacturing relies on continuous output to be efficient, planning hold ups , high interest rates have seen many of these companies go bump.
Modern regulations particularly on density per acre mean we don't build bungalows any more, not profitable therefore not economically viable.
Visited the Avoncroft museum about 30 years ago, they had some prefabs there, fascinating to see .
My wife was born in a prefab at Stanley Common, Derbyshire in 1950 Great housing to help out after the war
These post war prefabs are still in use in Lincoln. A number have has brick outer walls added.
My parents both served in the forces during WW2 and were given a prefab when they were de mobbed. They were grateful to move from rented rooms in a ladies home with my elder sister. I came along in 1951 and Mum always said the prefab could be very cold in I the winter and very hot in the summer. They made friends with other families and some of these families became life long friends.
I grew up in the north east there were plenty in use into the seventies they had a flat roof,in fact some were externally clad and are still in use today with a pitched roof
We built nearly a million in under a year ,they were called 9 day houses
When I was 10 in 1964 i can remember visiting my aunt and uncle in Watford, Hertfordshire. The prefab had been a great improvement on their last home. I think thay lived in last ones standing. They were still very livable.
There were hundreds of prefabs in Collyhurst , Manchestef near our school. Many of my little 6 - 7 year old friends lived in them.
I had no idea what prefab meant untill about 20 years later !
15 year life expectancy...still going strong around our way....in fact they outlived the 1970s, 1990s houses ..and will definitly out last the rubbish they put up now.
🎯 Plus nice big gardens for growing veg, children to play etc.
Bring back the prefab, solve our housing shortage.
Millions of people have flooded into the UK that the real issue.
Absolutely brilliant superb, my family lived in one years ago,and really in life,the new not needed value of survivability, in practical, space and home economics, they are really that' is all you need,not the bigger fitted kitchens white tiles white grey floors,,ooh dirty dirty ? etc,(and the complete house,a fireplace that does everything), "that's a home" not some strange cold place that intriguing on the family unit with coldness love ,,
My home town was Wokingham Berkshire and prefabs remained in Cross St until the mid ‘70s. One of my work colleagues lived there.
In north Yorkshire still a few here and there, happily lived in still by the look of em
We had loads of prefabs in lovely Hounslow right through the 60s when Hounslow was a great place. Prefabs are plush compared to the state of the general Hounslow houses today. What a tip.
I lived with my parents in a prefab in North Manchester, from 1956 to 1964. Previously for the first three years of my life, I lived in a 2 up two down old terraced house in North Manchester, together with my dad's mother, my mother and my dad. After my grandmother died in 1956, we then went to live a council prefab. We moved out in 1964, the prefabs were then demolished, we went to then live in a multi storey block of flats. Nearby to those flats, some of the prefabs were still in use as dwellings well into the early 1970s, almost a decade after our own prefab and the neighbouring ones had been flattened.
There were asbestos walled ones too, I remember in London during the early 1950’s
I was was born in 1944, and I can remember these prefabs being built, they were the ones with the rain shield over the door, so I guess they were the Aero ones ~
I Enjoyed watching that Leo, thanks for what you do with the litter,, I do the same around Hayfield. Thumbs up😀
Thank you too!
I believe the idea for these homes was the brainchild of Frank Taylor who later became Sir Frank Taylor of Taylor Woodrow started with his uncle Jack Woodrow and these prefabs were originally built as temporary homes after the war though some them are still standing today. In the 80's I worked for Taylor Woodrow in their offices in Dunraven Street just off Marble Arch in London and met Sir Frank on several occasions. He was long retired by then but used to visit our offices occasionally. He was of surprising stature for someone who had clearly been extremely dynamic in his youth being only about 5 foot 6" and with a very slight frame. However, he had the most beautiful, captivating and piercing blue eyes.
Although he was obviously one of life's natural businessmen having originally worked in his father's fruit business he was, by today's standards, uneducated and always politely deferred to his employees who were then mostly engineers, architects, surveyors and lawyers. He had beautiful manners treating everyone with the greatest of respect and I still have a note from him in which he thanked for some work I did for him. He was a lovely man.
There was a long row of them at the bottom of Brandwood park road in Kings Heath, Birmingham. I passed them walking to Pineapple school from 1962 to1969 . They were still there in the 80's when i left Birmingham. They looked very tiny but maybe they weren't.
I worked for a company in 1963 that took prefabs down in London and rebuilt them all over UK as storage sheds and chicken houses.
I was born in one of these in Hampshire, going back many years later with my Dad all we could find in what is now a beauty spot, were the remains of a few roads being taken back by nature.
Very interesting, my Mum remembers then being built in our little town after the war and I think they were around until the 70’s. Fair play for doing a bit of litter picking good on ya
My first memories of life were in a prefab in Grange Road, Taunton, Somerset in the early 1950s. From what I remember, life was hard for our parents - summers were fine but in winters, they were very cold, having no insulation worth talking about. My brother and I would get up in the mornings, wrapped in blankets while our father lit the only fire in the house, in the living room. Those prefabs were erected in the late 1940s and should have been demolished by 1960 or so. But the authorities extended their lives (of course!) and they were eventually dismantled in the early 1970s. I have a photo of my brother standing by the foundations of our house in 1975.
My childhood home faced a few single storey prefabs. The site was cleared and a block of council flats took their place.
I was brought up in one. My memories were -
ill fitting windows which allowed the outside atmospheric soot from coal fires to cover the window sill.
asbestos walls and lagging (its a wonder I am still here)
corrugated metal roof that was deafening in rain and hail.
walls so thin you could hear the neighbour's.
freezing cold in winter (internal ice on windows) with one coal fire.
a tremendous sense of community. Parents who were happy to have a house. We all had nowt so had to rely on each other.
Amazing thank you for sharing, I’m getting a great insight to what these were like :)
@@Leockif your interested:- Morris Crescent, Boldon Colliery. Pump that into Google Earth. The white topped houses are the 'done up' prefabs. They were a lot more basic when I lived there but apparently the current occupants love them and many were granted mortgages to buy them.
@@Leocknot sure why but my reply to you has disappeared. Perhaps using a street name triggered a deletion. The mention of another platform might not have helped.
54°56'55"N 1°27'08"W
The white topped houses are the 'done up' prefabs.
They served their purpose in their day!
As a child we used to walk our dog up through a small village behind the new town that we lived in, was being built. The whole vilage was PREFABS! My late father was in the REME so very knowledgable about engineering and most things. He told me that much of these prefab parts contained asbestos! At the time they never knew the dangers of this - it was just cheap and easily availabl. So roofs and some walls were made from this stuff - GOOD GRIEF. I never forgot these little houses. I was born in 1959 so these were still around but they are now long gone replaced by another grotty brick new town. A little sad.
My late father worked on the building if the pre fans just after the war based out of gloucester ..he worked for gloster aircraft company
When I was a kid in Poulton, Wallasey, Wirral UK, in the 1960’s , there were prefabs in the public park behind our house. They were derelict by that time, but I do remember playing in them. They were said to have asbestos roofs, although it may have just been cast concrete or something. The local kids, me included, used to set fire to pieces of this roofing material because it literally exploded when it got sufficiently hot. We called it “shooting shit”. The prefabs were eventually demolished and the land was returned to be a public park.
Bought a new prefab in 2016. Now called a Park Home 🏡 250 Grand. 😂
Ellesmere port has them still in overpool. They were riddled with asbestos and alot of health problems were reported. It's all removed howskey bungalows are still livable today my friend lives in one. Very spacious
I remember the prefabs well and even stayed in one on holiday that my aunty and uncle had at The Oval, Pocklington, Yorkshire. The line of prefabs ay 03.51 looks very like them. Great video. Thanks.
The Wake Green Road prefabs in Birmingham have just had a huge refurb. They look good.
Wish we could house us today with similar programs for today. Also nice of you collecting rubbish off the street of buxton, really appreciate this when people do this off there own back, thank you and thank you for the video.
Thank you too!
A friend of the family lived in a prefab similar to the Hawksley. It was so cosy. As a child, I envied them and wanted to live in a prefab. There was a great deal of sadness when they were demolished. I think it was the late 70s. They were still in good condition
I was born in a prefab and lived in it for the first eleven years of my life. It was a detached, two bedroom bungalow with a large garden. The prefabs were all inhabited at the same time and a strong community was built. My parents would have stayed there if they hadn't outgrown it.
Fascinating! I remember them from when I was small. Now 70. I guess probably in Liverpool, or Leeds.
This relives my youth in Paulsgrove these prefabs were being demolished and were rival street gangs dens there were the Deerhurst , Hilsea, and wooferton gangs basically English against Germans etc great fun (1960's)
Many of these in York, although, apart from one Baedecker raid, the city was spared a lot of the carnage that other cities got. Considering that they were temporary, many have outlived more modern buildings!
I was born in a prefab in Birmingham, we lived there until I was 8. It was a lovely place to live
I was born in a pre fab although it had a back boiler it had no central heating. My parents were in the pre fab for 15+ years, 2 bedrooms , mother and father and four children, my first bed was one of the built in steel drawers.
Although they were supposed to be only temporary, they were a vast improvement on the many houses that were destroyed, a large number of which had no bathroom or indoor toilet.