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I bet we all remember these, built shortly after the war to alieviate the housing shortage, made to last for ten years but ended up standing for over forty.

built of cocrete sections, cold in winter and hot in summer, ours had a built in gas fridge, and an outside shed with asbestos roof.

I remember you could stand at the top of Wollaton park and look over to Bilborough and see what seemed thousands of these dwelling, but now all long gone.

there are still a few of the two tier prefab houses in existence, but only after massive renovation by the council in removing asbestos and treating the metal frame construction.

I wonder if there's any of the single story ones left anywhere in the Uk at all? I've not seen any on my travels in the last few years, have they all finally gone? :huh:

post-11-1112549508_thumb.jpg

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Didn't they used to have solid fuel central heating as well?

When you walked in the sitting room did they have a small window that looked in to the kitchen? Some where near the middle door, they were so cosy and warm.

Good memories of visiting my Uncle and Aunt as a child.


A
:rolleyes:

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yes they did have solid fuel heating, it was a brown cast iron like affair with a door that had a window in.. I remember them as being very cold places in winter as they suffered from lack of insulation.. and probably with us being skint at the time and unable to afford any coal didn't help either!

ilko..

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The council replaced them with brick bungalows some years ago. The bungalows were built inside out, the wood frame was built and then the roof was put on. They were insolated and then the walls were built on the outside. The workmen didn't take down the shed, they are still standing.

The one my relation was in seemed to be coming apart, the walls were leaving the floor but as you say they were thirty years older than they were meant to be.


A :P

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The older two story houses on Clifton Estate were "prefabs" The walls were precast and lifted into place with a crane.

My Aunt was one of the first to move there in the early 50's, shopping wasn't too good there at the time and transport was very poor, before the bridge was built. She felt isolated at that time, but things improved.

I lived in one of those house's for a few years after we were moved for Meadows redevelpment and lived opposite the Comprehensive school on Farnborough Road..

I recall the old single story prefabs too, though never saw inside one.

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My Uncle lived on Widecombe Lane and my sister lived on Rivergreen. She now lives in Skegness and my Uncle died some years ago.

My sister was also moved to Clifton during the redevelopment of the Meadows but that was early 70's I think.


A :P

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I seem to remember there were some prefabs in Whitemoor too up until a few years ago . Don't know if they have gone,but there are certainly some houses where they once were. They run along Nuthall Road,or at least they did.

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Guest smithylass

yes your right sis...there still there although they have been modernised now.

they are just down from the commodore...well thats not there now...just a very large iceland in its place....

and to think my hubby proposed at the commodore....possibly now it would be the fish isle !!!

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Have been talking to my Uncle who used to live in a prefab and now lives in the replacement bungalows.

He was telling me that the prefabs were sort of heated centrally. The fire heated the water and the smoke went out of the chimney, but because the chimney was very thick metal and it went through the roof space they put a ducting around it and piped the heat into all of the bedrooms and the hall.

I thought this was ingenious, the prefabs were always so warm and inviting.


A :)

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  • 11 years later...

Not sure you need to delete it Scriv. Its an interesting topic and some who have come since it first went on may find it interesting. I had an uncle that lived in a prefab in Carlton. It always seemed quite a warm inviting sort of place. It was replaced by a bungalow in the 80s. The bungalow seemed to still have the same layout as the prefab.

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The older two story houses on Clifton Estate were "prefabs" The walls were precast and lifted into place with a crane.

My Aunt was one of the first to move there in the early 50's, shopping wasn't too good there at the time and transport was very poor, before the bridge was built. She felt isolated at that time, but things improved.

Those are the places where we lived. I spent the first 20+ years of my life in one of them

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Okay then. Was going to say that there are a helluva lot of 'em still around, according to Wikipedia;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prefabs_in_the_United_Kingdom

the one in the picture on that page, which has been restored in Cardiff, looks remarkably like the ones on the ring road in Nottingam; near Crown island.weren't they?.

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The prefabs that I lived in for the first 20 odd years of my life were single storey, detached or semi detached. They were wooden frames (that came on a truck) erected on a polished concrete slab. The exterior walls were aluminium clad, can't remember if the roof was aluminium or iron. I think the interior walls were hardboard with cover strips over the joins. The walls were wallpapered with "Anaglypta" and then painted. The windows were steel framed and the only form of heating was a coal fire in the living room which heated the water. The bedrooms were always icy in the winter except the one that had the airing cupboard, my brother had that one, bugga.

In later years the whole of the lower half of the walls were replaced as the cladding had corroded, smokeless fuel fires, central heating was installed and the windows and door frames were replaced with UPVC.

The last update was to remove all the external cladding and replace with brick walls and tile the roofs.

For houses that were built for temporary accommodation in the 1950's they are still going strong

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Scriv #14

Thanks for the link, great article. Now I know that the prefab I lived in was a AIROH.

That geezer from Grand Designs would have a dicky-fit, a complete house produced in 12 minutes, only four hours to erect and a cost of 1610 quid. Plus the cost of land and installation of course.

Where did we go wrong?

Growing up in a prefab I never thought that one day they would be "heritage listed"

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