Notes taken by Mike Chitty at the Gateacre Society’s meeting, 4th Feb 2007
Sandra Sandland introduced herself, to the 40 or so people present, as a former prefab resident and introduced others: Julia Connor, born in a prefab. Janet, whose parents had been in Jersey during the war but who returned to Liverpool afterwards. And Nellie (Julia’s mum) who had lived in Lodge Lane – her husband was in the Army – and who moved to a prefab in 1947.
The book ‘Palaces for the People’ puts the prefabs in their national context. The Second World War resulted in demolition, and a huge need for housing in cities like Liverpool. (It was estimated that 4 million new homes were needed in Great Britain in the late 1940s). Winston Churchill, and the Minister of Housing, started looking at the prefabs which were going up all over the world. On 25th March 1944 Winston Churchill announced the 1944 Temporary Housing Programme, a total of 200,000 prefabs (of 13 different types) were to be built all over Britain. In 1946 the job began.
In Liverpool, 3,500 prefabs were built on 40 different sites. The smallest was Larkhill (2), the largest was Belle Vale (1,159). They were constructed in a factory (but where was it? Sandra Sandland would like to know) on a production line. Four parts were put on the back of a lorry using a crane, and then transported to the site. It took less than 24 hours – about 30 to 40 man hours – to erect a prefab, which was supposed to last for 10 years. Those in Belle Vale were of a type called the ‘B2 Aluminium Bungalow’ – designed by aircraft engineers, and made out of melted down damaged aircraft. They had aluminium window frames, cupboards, etc. – but pine floors (covered with lino ‘if you were lucky’) and wooden doors.
Eddie Lansdowne then talked about the maps which the Prefab Project had produced. (He described himself as ‘an imposter’ who didn’t live in the prefabs, but who has been attending the Project’s Thursday meetings from the outset). Two ideas had been suggested early on: a map and a ‘Prefab Who’s Who’. The map was to be A3 size, with a transparent overlay showing the present day street pattern to the same scale. But this did not prove practicable, and two large 1:1,250 scale Ordnance Survey maps (1950/51 and 2004) were used instead.
Eddie referred to these maps, displayed on the wall, and described the prefab estate. The Belle Vale prefabs covered two areas: a long thin stretch on the north-east side of Childwall Valley Road, from the TA Centre to a point opposite Belle Vale Road, and an area on the other side of Childwall Valley Road, between Hedgefield Road and Belle Vale Road. The grid squares on the old and new maps enable people to find out exactly where their prefab was.
Eddie explained that maps are a very useful way of ‘keeping history alive’. For example he remembered that there was an area between Adstone Road and Lee Park Avenue – paved, with a flagpole, and nicknamed the ‘sunken garden’ – not built on when the Lee Park Estate was developed. The old map reveals that there was originally a huge pond there. (New houses have recently been built on it, however!).
The Who’s Who list, which is another outcome of the Project, records who lived in each prefab, when they lived there, for how long, when they moved out and where to.
Sandra Sandland then described how the Prefab Project had its origins in a school reunion. Joseph Williams School had been built in 1950, and Belle Vale County Primary in 1952. Sandra had moved from Joseph Williams to Belle Vale when the new school was built – and in 2002 met up with some of her contemporaries at a 50th anniversary reunion. Six months later a group of them met up again – with Mr Heady, a former teacher – at the Bear & Staff in Gateacre. They looked for information on the prefabs in the City Council records, but there wasn’t very much available. So it was decided that ‘we must do something’ – otherwise a piece of history would be lost. By January 2005 Sandra was in contact with Celia Kelly – manager of the Drop-in Centre at the Lee Valley Millennium Centre – and on 22nd April 2005 the first public meeting was held. It was a great success – ‘standing room only’ with 40 to 50 people present – and in December 2006 their first book was published. Altogether about 150 former residents have been in touch, including some now living in Australia and Canada.
Sandra explained that the prefabs were allocated on the basis of need – each had two bedrooms, so couples ‘needed to have a baby’ to qualify. Once they had three children, they were generally offered a house instead. In the end, only 160,000 had been built in Britain altogether. The last one in Belle Vale was demolished in 1970.
A few days after the first meeting, Sandra received an email about a Reminiscence Conference, to be held on 13th May at the Maritime Museum in Liverpool. As a result, the group got involved in the Four Corners Project and also the Heroes Project (for which they nominated Mr Squires who had become President of the Rose Society). The group continued to meet monthly, and obtained funding both from the Active Ageing Project and the Lee Valley Community Chest.
Sandra said that 1,000 copies of the book had been printed, 500 of these having been left with the publisher and the remainder having been taken by the group for distribution and sale. The profit will be ploughed back into future ventures of the Belle Vale Prefab Project. Another book – containing the leftovers from the first – is now ‘in waiting’.
Question and Answer session:
Q. Has anyone got a photo of the Co-op? (This was a building of standard co-op design, just under the railway bridge in Belle Vale Road).
Q. Has the Project inspired other prefab residents (e.g. Long Lane in Garston) to do something similar?
A. We’ve not yet had a chance to promote the book throughout Liverpool.
Q. Who was responsible for maintenance of the prefabs?
A. This was shared between the residents and the Corporation. They were generally ‘low maintenance’ – though the privet hedges needed trimming.
A member of the audience then read out former prefab resident Sir Terry Leahy’s tribute to Tony McCann, who had been his teacher at age 10 at Our Lady of the Assumption School.
Sandra concluded by inviting anyone interested to come along to future meetings of the Project, which take place on the last Thursday of each month at the Lee Valley Millennium Centre.