Prefabs, Wigman road Bilborough


Recommended Posts

My dads mum used to live in one of these prefabs on Saltburn road, just wondered when they were demolished and replaced with little bungalows ?

Been looking on google sat view and cannot picture how it used to look anymore, did the new units just replace the old ones on the same plots of land ?

Interested in any info or pictures re this area.

Tried to edit topic, no luck! (did it)

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • Replies 60
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Posts

You come up with some brilliant pictures Cliff. I was born in 1950 and lived on Elstree Drive which comes off Hollington Rd just before the start of Wigman Rd. You can just see the start of it in the

I dislike those Beechdale shops. Way back in 1962 having just joined EMGAS I was working in the houses opposite when my fitter sent me to those shops to buy some sweets. Being completely GREEN I was d

This is the pre-fab area in the late 1940s when they were being built.  The red X is where the Beechdale pub is now located. Plungar Close is the semi-circle road above that X.

:)Banjo48, I know the prefabs - Bilborough - that you refer to; I'm sure they were never demolished, just updated and modernised. The same was done to the roads of prefabs off Nuthall Road.

PS: Will find out more information and get back to you. :)

Link to post
Share on other sites

Most pre fabs were replaced in the 80s/90s, some folk had brought their pre fabs and they were given a bit of a grant to help modernise, you can tell which ones they were because the roof hight was lower than the council built ones, my grandmother lived in one on Glenbrook crescent and my parents lived in a rebuilt one in Plungar close, some of the pre fabs that were modernised at the beginning of the project had brick walls built around the existing prefab walls and when the brickwork was complete the inner walls (old prefab walls) were knocked down, the occupants of prefabs to be modernised were moved into an already modernised "bungalow" whilst their one was being rebuilt, they had the option of either staying in the one they had moved into or returning to their newly modernised one

Rog

Link to post
Share on other sites

I recall all the changes to the Bilborough prefabs, but your explanation shows a distinct sense of councils intention to preserve the community, much better than; move/bulldoze/ build/ rehouse from other areas......................

Link to post
Share on other sites

Annswabey, Mr & Mrs Pavior, they lived about halfway round on the right side going up the slight hill

Rog

Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks Plantfit. I don't recognise the name but then I was young when we left. I've actually got a page from a Directory - 1956, I think, listing residents of Glenbrook Cres and they're not on it. My parents moved in when they were first built - mid/late 40's? and we left about 1964. Perhaps they lived there at a different time?

Link to post
Share on other sites

The replacement buildings were manufactured by Vic Hallam in Langley Mill. Each bungalow was made in their factory in 2 halves and transported to site. Each unit was fitted out with electrics & plumbing etc before they were delivered.

The cleared sited reused the concrete slab where possible. When the new building was delivered it was placed on site and was weatherproof the same day.The end walls were then completed in brick, the front & rear walls were finished generally in uPVC cladding.

One of the main targets was to keep the community as it was, I think most 'new' properties were occupied by the same resident(s) as the old building.

Additionally, there was the intention not to destroy the street plan or even the gardens etc.

Most of the renewals was in the 1980's.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Annswabey, I think they moved there in the mid to late 60's from Bulwell, Albert street next to the school

Rog

Link to post
Share on other sites

Sounds to me like the Vic Hallam replacements probably weren't much better than the original prefabs! I just looked 'em up, and I think almost all the buildings they "made" were intended to be "temporary", just like the prefabs and I know those that outlasted their "design life" became impossible to maintain and use - the Roper School in Long Eaton was a good example.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Weren't the 2 storey council houses in Bilborough, also prefabricated? They certainly weren't brick.

Yes, I think they are known as BISF Houses,prefabricated by the British Iron & Steel Federation post WW2

Quite a few have had remedial works involving taking away the walls and replacing them in brick. The roofs were left in place supported by the basic framework.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Did anyone know Graham Lilley from the Bilborough prefabs?

I was at Beechdale Primary with Roger Lilley. I think Graham Lilley was his older brother.

I heard Roger was killed on his motor scooter in the late 60's.

As I recall he was in the scout group that met at St John's on Bracebrige Drive.

I attended Beechdale Primary School on Frampton Rd from 1955-61. It closed in about 1962. They flattened the buildings a good few years back and built Foxton Gardens for the elderly.

Nearly all the kids in my class at Beechdale lived in the prefabs. I lived on Elstree Drive on the other side of Hollington Rd.

You can see a good selection of my old schoolfriends on the Beechdale page of Friends Reunited.

Julie Frost, David Langford, Tony Plackett, Peter Fletcher, Stuart Roach, Terence Lane, Christopher Woods, George Grundy, Michael Priestley, Janet Harriman, Michael and Stephen Hollingworth, Marion Foreshaw, Sylvia Lovett, Michael Winters (older brother Terry who was pals with Graham Lilley). A few names that will jog some memories I hope.

Link to post
Share on other sites

A few names from this area

Paul Wyatt

Mick Simpkin

Janet Lockwood

The Smith sisters down the first cut through up Wigman rd

Linda Kemp

Jane ? Silkstone

John Darch

Carol Rook

The cop that punched me for riding my bike with no lights, Used to ride a bike he got a cop car put that through a wall & was back on a bike again.

Then punched me again for taking the island on Wigman rd wrong way still did it though as i lived at the bottom of the railway bridge rd dont think it had a name

More will come to me as the tape goes around in my head

Link to post
Share on other sites

Was the policeman who punched you Joe Thompson?

He lived on the Drive one up from the Darchs next to Roger Staines.

The railway bridge was affectionately referred to as the tin bridge because it was made from corrugated iron sheets.

I was in the area last year and it's not too different although the houses on the drive that had big gardens have extensions or new properties on them

Link to post
Share on other sites

Did anyone know Graham Lilley from the Bilborough prefabs?

Just remembered it was Geoffrey Lilley I was at BPS with.

Roger Lilley was a lad I knew in the mid sixties when I'd moved to Forest Fields. He lived on Constance St near my girlfriend Wendy Binch

Link to post
Share on other sites

A few names from this area

Paul Wyatt

Mick Simpkin

Janet Lockwood

The Smith sisters down the first cut through up Wigman rd

Linda Kemp

Jane ? Silkstone

John Darch

Carol Rook

The cop that punched me for riding my bike with no lights, Used to ride a bike he got a cop car put that through a wall & was back on a bike again.

Then punched me again for taking the island on Wigman rd wrong way still did it though as i lived at the bottom of the railway bridge rd dont think it had a name

More will come to me as the tape goes around in my head.

Linda Kemp is on Friendsreunited with her younger brother Philip who I was with at BPS and Forest Fields Grammar. The youngest Kemp, John (also at Beechdale and Forest Fields), got a PhD in Pharmacology before becoming a highly respected pharmacologist with Roche in Switzerland and then with Evotec in the UK. I think he's just retired.

http://www.biobusinessseminar.com/page/26

They lived at 61 Elstree Drive.

John Darch had a twin sister Susan and a younger brother Ian.

Link to post
Share on other sites

:biggrin: Recalling the top of Wigman Road - just up from the no. 56 bus terminus - during the 60's: it was such a wide road, on one side were the semi detached houses and on the other, Strelley Church and graveyard, with a generous area of wild scrub land around. It was quite an experience to walk down Wigman Road, especially as you could view Wollaton Hall in the distance.

My sister Jennifer and myself had friends named Helen and Rebecca Salmon who lived just below the no 56 terminus, Wigman Road. Jennifer also had a best friend name of Janet Fletcher who was lucky enough to have the bus terminus outside of her house!

I remember well the vast piece of scrub land on Bracebridge Drive - opposite the shops - before it became warden aided bungalows, a Care Home and also the Medical Centre - friendly, well behaved gangs would gather here. Further along was the Bilborough Branch Library where I had my first job - a Beautiful Library. Happy and memorable days. :biggrin:

Link to post
Share on other sites

My dad once told me how his company Simms Sons & Cooke were contracted by NCC to erect the Prefabs on Beechdale Estate.

He told me how the back doors opened outwards at first and were quite a problem in windy weather so the company had to come back and change them to open inwards.

Annswabey, Mr & Mrs Pavior, they lived about halfway round on the right side going up the slight hill

Rog

Forgot to say in my last post that on the Friends Reunited site in the Beechdale Primary section there's a picture of Alan Pavior who was in my sister Marion's class

Think that makes Alan Pavior plantfit's dad or uncle?

Link to post
Share on other sites

I went to Beechdale school briefly - 1960/62 ish. My brother was there too, probably 1949 onwards, although I don't remember any of the names mentioned.

You must check out the Friends Reunited site.

John Kemp was at Beechdale the year it closed and the kids moved to Glenbrook.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...