Prefabs sprout

BRITAIN'S forces were still fighting on foreign fronts but, as the tide was turning against the Nazis and Japanese in the last year of the war, there was another battle to be won - that of where to billet more than a million troops when they came home to Blighty and swapped their uniforms for demob suits and civvy street.

The country had a huge housing shortage. Overcrowding was rife. House-building and slum clearance had came to an abrupt halt because of the war - for years.

Typically, of the first four new houses completed in Blackburn after the war - in February, 1946 - two were on foundations laid before it began six-and-a-half years earlier. And the demand was illustrated by Accrington at that time having nearly 1,000 applicants for council houses and half of them being either servicemen or civilians who were living in lodgings - many of them with families.

Blackburn found the demobilisation deluge adding 100 new names a month to its council house waiting list by the end of 1945, even though it had 1,700 already on it.

Overcrowding in the town was becoming critical, reported council leader George Eddie, as husbands returning from the forces found there was no room for them to live with their wives and children other than by sharing with other families.

Like the new Labour government, it gave new homes top priority and planned to develop 2,000 council houses on estates at Higher Croft, Audley and Little Harwood.

But like every hard-pressed community, it needed a fast, stop-gap solution to relieve the pressure.

The planners' answer had first gone on show in the North West just a year earlier in December, 1944, nearly nine months before victory triggered the return of the troops. It created huge interest among councils. More than 100 sent representatives to see the the first example erected on a bomb site at Piccadilly, Manchester. It was to make a big mark on towns across East Lancashire - and for far longer than was ever intended. With all those homeless, homecoming troops in mind, it was dubbed the "Blighty Bungalow." But it is remembered still as the prefab - the tiny box made from pressed steel or aluminium that somehow crammed two bedrooms, a living room, kitchen, toilet and bathroom and hall into just 625 square feet and which could be erected in a matter of hours.

And for thousands of families these were dream homes, equipped with luxuries it took others years to acquire as Britain was gripped by post-war austerity.

For they came with a 10ft 2in by 7ft 3in fitted kitchen that included a refrigerator, cooker, washboiler, sink unit, pan rack, a folding table, an inset larder, cupboards and even a broom closet.

The bungalows also had a form of central heating for the fireplace in the compact, 14ft 2in by 10ft 1in, living room as well as heating the water also warmed the bedrooms via hot-air ducts. Another luxury was an immersion heater for back-up hot water supplies.

"It represents a pattern for post-war living for thousands of people," said the Northern Daily Telegraph. "It will be the Blighty Bungalow for young servicemen who will be making home for the first time with wives they have seen only in brief spells of leave."

The following April, the government announced plans for at least 145,000 prefabs to be built. By then the number of types had grown to seven, including 30,000 "Lease-Lend" bungalows arriving from America, each of which could be packed into just six crates.

Distribution centres capable of shipping a complete house, consisting of 1,000 parts, every 11 minutes were set up. And when it announced plans plans for Blackburn's first 50 prefabs in November, 1945- the first of 145 eventually put up at Audley - the council reported that the Ministry of Aircraft Production - now busily stamping out their aluminium panels instead of warplanes - would send men to erect them at the rate of four hours per bungalow. Many of the prefabs in East Lancashire were put up by prisoners of war. German captives helped to erect the 50 built at Rosehill, Darwen, the following month - for which there were 430 applicants. And the site at Pendle Road, Clitheroe, for 50 "Arcon" prefabs was prepared by Hungarian PoWs in June, 1946.

In all, more than 550 prefabs were built in East Lancashire between 1945 and 1947, all given a minimum life of 10 years by the government.

They were intended with couples with no more than one child. As well as taking into account length of time on the waiting list, Blackburn gave priority to those with war service and who were suffering from overcrowding. But those allocated one were not allowed to rent a "permanent" council house for four years.

By 1961, when all the region's prefabs had long outlasted their intended life, there were still 500 left in East Lancashire. All Blackburn's original 200 were still occupied and Nelson still had 94 left out of the 100 it built. Burnley had 54 and the 50 that Darwen, Haslingden, Rawtenstall and Clitheroe had each erected were still in use.

But though many suffered from damp - the aluminium types were beginning to corrode from the base upwards - and a fair proportion had had to have new roofs, there was still a waiting list for some of them.

One of the attractions was that the rent for prefabs, averaging £1.10 a week was two thirds that of an ordinary council house, and the standard equipment of a refrigerator, cooker and such was still a lure for many tenants.

Bacup was one of the first to get rid of its prefabs. It was alone in having none left by 1961 - but only because they had deteriorated so much in the local climate, they had to be demolished.

Blackburn's last prefabs were pulled down in 1966.

Though they lasted twice as long as intended, they were riddled with damp as their aluminium walls turned to powder.

Today, just one prefab remains - at Marl Pits, Rawtenstall. It is still lived in, but faces demolition as its site has been sold to a builder and with its previous owner's attempt to get the council to buy it as a museum piece having fallen flat.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.