Heaton Park Prefabs

[cheethamgirl]

I had a classmate named Olga, who's parents were Italian and (I think) Polish and had settled here after the war and were housed in one of the Blackley prefabs. To them it was sheer luxury, as it had warm air central heating, an indoor loo and separate bathroom and a little garden front and back. It seemed pretty luxurious to me too, compared to our terraced house with coal fire, back boiler and outside loo. My parents, being Irish, had been told they did not qualify for a council house so they scraped together the deposit for their terraced house and spent 30 odd years paying off the interest on the mortgage. It irked my Dad that the Italians, who had fought with Hitler, did qualify for council housing.

I now live in Buckinghamshire, near the Chiltern Open Air Museum, where a local prefab has been reassembled. It is a very popular exhibit with older visitors.

At the end of WW2, there was a dreadful housing shortage around here and a local army camp was earmarked for use by Polish servicemen returning from Italy with their Italian wives. Conversely, the local demobbed servicemen and their families had been denied housing assistance and told to sleep on their in-laws' floors. They went en masse to the army camp and squatted there before the Polish soldiers could move in. Threatened with eviction by the MOD, they dug their heels in, opened a post office account and all paid in rent, so their squatting was not wholly illegal. The MOD caved in eventually and they lived there for ten years or more before council houses were built for them. This squatting in redundant army camps started in Chalfont St Giles and rapidly spread around the country. 

[LAgal]

I'm not sure but I think that people were originally housed in corrugated metal army Quonset huts before the nice prefabs were built in Heaton Park.

[planthilloldie]

We used to live in Hopkinson Road, just off Plant Hill Road, and my mother's friend Flo Dorricott lived in one of the prefabs with her husband Norman  and their two sons (Graham and Philip).  We used to visit often and loved the prefabs because they seemed to be more roomy than our council house - that's because there were 11 of us in a 3-bedroomed house.  My parents were called Betty and Manny Leah.

There used to be a Second World War army tank not far from the prefabs that we played in.  My brothers were monkeys for playing tricks and used to lock us inside the tank!  Does anyone have any photos or recollections of the tank?  I'm writing up my family history and would like to include the story around this bit of military hardware.

I think the Dorricotts lived on Perrivale Avenue but not sure.  This was in the 50s.  We moved to Hattersley in 1963. Flo and Norman moved there sometime in the 70s or 80s.

I've got a lot of fond memories of playing in Heaton Park, especially of swimming in the boating lake (which wasn't allowed but my mother was always a rebel and told us to 'just get in'!). Mam would walk 9 of us kids down to the park complete with bulging butty bag, 'minerals, bats & balls, etc and we would spend the day playing games and picknicking.  Wonderful!

[Keek]

Hi
I lived in the prefabs in heaton park the one near the ostrich pub my address was 5 kirkmere drive we lived there from 1948 to  about 1963/4 when they were being pulled down I also went to park side school with miss Walton as head I was in Mr Edwards class and from there I went to plant hill secondary.i loved the prefabs and would go back tomorrow.keith.

[ALBERT JACKSON]

My ex's family lived in the wooden huts in Heaton Park before the war and I have photos of them. The family were Hughe's.
Children were Les, Ron, Dennis, Pat and Margaret

[Keek]

Hi Albert
Don't remember the Woden huts we moved there in 1948 into new prefabs my estate was on bury old road side.i have managed to get in touch with a couple of friends I played with on (roots chat  )there is a big thred on there about the two prefab estates .Keith

[claretwoman]

Hi Albert really interesting to hear about the huts any chance you can post the photos? I got one from the library archive, my dad lived at third avenue I'm on holiday but will be ringing him today and will ask him if he remembers you ex's family, they moved eventually to Errol Avenue on that estate at the back of Sainburys in about 1932

[Holloren]

I was born in 1956  My uncle Albert auntie Millie Bowers, lived in the pre-fabs in Heaton Park. My Mam had TB whilst carrying me, so I went to live with them until my Mam got better.  We lived in School Street after that, in Harpurhey.  We moved to Langley,  for one year, then to Darnhill, Heywood for a while, then to Blackley.  My Mam and Dad were, Tommy and Margaret Holloren.  My Dad was the caretaker at Plant Hill School.  I had three brothers.  Tommy,  Joseph and Peter Holloren and my name is Christine. I went to St. Clare's Secondary School. The name was changed to Our Lady's High School. The school has been demolished and rebuilt on now.
We used to walk, my Mam and Brothers,  past St. Clare's then St Joseph's and on to the reservoirs.  It was a lovely time, when all the world was as it should be. I moved to America in 1977 but my heart, mind and memories are all of Blackley and I think I spend more time walking through those memories,  than anywhere else. I worked at, then, Crumpsall, now, North Manchester Gen. Hosp. In medical records.  Sometimes I ache for the old days, knowing all I have missed. No turning back the clock though

[Jpone]

I use to live at 87 Broadmere and want to Parklside Primary with a John Thonycroft

[claretwoman]

I think you need to get your facts right cheetamgirl Irish people who I knew lived in the prefabs the way you got a house depended then as now on need, as for your fathers assertion about the Italians my in laws were ice cream people living in Little Italy and all their eligible sons served in the British Army, in fact one of the oldest relatives served in WwI and had medals to prove it.  So please try to corroborate your facts before serving, thank you.

[KAYFAMILY59]

My late father Valentine KAY lived at 65 BROADMERE DRIVE in 1945 when he was discharged from the army. He was married to Iris Gray and had a son called Brian and daughter called Linda, they then moved to the newly built Langley estate where me and 4 other sisters were born. Does any one remember them.
I have a copy of a map I found of the street layout and a couple of photos of the prefabs, if anyone wants to see them then please feel free to send me your e mail address and I can forward them on to you, their file size is too big to post on here !
Dave

[claretwoman]

I will be seeing my dad and older brother next week, I'll ask them if  they remember them.

[cheethamgirl]

I think you need to get your facts right cheetamgirl Irish people who I knew lived in the prefabs the way you got a house depended then as now on need, as for your fathers assertion about the Italians my in laws were ice cream people living in Little Italy and all their eligible sons served in the British Army, in fact one of the oldest relatives served in WwI and had medals to prove it.  So please try to corroborate your facts before serving, thank you.

Nothing wrong with my facts, Claretwoman. That was indeed my father's point of view. Are you suggesting you knew his opinions better than I did?  My post was not intended to cause offence, but nor am I here to 'serve' you, whatever you mean by that.

Little Italy isn't the same as Fascist Italy, of course. Italians had lived there long before WW2, as had Irish lived in Little Ireland. Many of the Italians who came here as refugees after the war however, had supported Mussolini & Hitler, even if only tacitly, and many had fought for the Fascists and had killed British and Allied soldiers. This didn't go down well with the resident population, whether English, Irish, Italian or whatever. If, as you suggest, your in-laws had lived here prior to WW2, as had my Irish father (a Belfast born British subject, by the way), then they would have been entitled to  social housing - were it not for the refugee situation. Many of those refugees, formerly classed as 'enemy aliens', were given priority for housing. It was partly a political decision taken by our Govt because of guilt over the bombing of Europe. It was policy also not to return to Soviet controlled countries former soldiers of the Axis states, soldiers who had fought for the Nazis and had hunted and murdered Jews. A great many already resident Italians and Jewish people, including some of my own neighbours, were not happy about this. Their sons too had been fighting the Fascists in Europe.

Family size was indeed another factor in the allocation of social housing. My parents both worked all their lives to pay off their mortgage, which is why I was an only child. They couldn't afford both a mortgage and a large family. In fact, the situation isn't so very much different these days, though there is very little social housing at all now.

[Jean worsley]

Don't we all! Perhaps the rose tinting is a bit thick on my glasses but it did seem to be a more innocent time in the 50's, but no doubt it will seem that way for today's generation of kids in the future. Our ice cream man was Seretti - complete with horse drawn cart. As for emigration, there must have been thousands who left - especially to Australia on the £10 ticket.: I can think of two families who went. In those days it was a major commitment because there was no coming back unless you had money - plane and ship fares were astronomic by comparison with today's prices. I've just slipped my way around an iced up Heaton Park - it's such a pity that the hall is going to rack and ruin with rotting window frames and boardrd up windows and doors. There is some scaffolding going up so hopefully it is going to be saved. I remember visiting as a kid and being very impressed by the marble statues and other bits of art - a big change from our 'two up and two down' in Salford!

[Johnlcoghlan]

We lived at 5 Broadmere drive .linda and Susan short.it was fantastic I could happily go back there now and of ton dream of the estate..We went to park side Primary school and was devasted when I went to the firework display last year and noticed the school had been demolished Our neighbours where the ma kiss
And the Clarksville does anybody remember any of us.   Sue

Oh my, I remember Linda Short. We moved to Higher Blackley after we left the prefabs. Broadmere Drive rings a bell it may have been our address too. I'll have to check with my older siblings.