During the Second World War huge numbers of houses were destroyed by enemy action, and as early as 1944 Winston Churchill announced an EFM (Emergency Factory Made) housing programme. In 1945 the new prime minister Clement Atlee began implementing the scheme and within six years some one million new ‘prefabs’, as they came to be known, had been built – and I lived in one as a child.
In Bideford some fifty were built at Bowden Green and named the Grenville estate. The rapidly assembled, prefabricated houses were simple but perfectly acceptable constructions and, unusually for the time, were ‘all electric’ with luxurious touches like fridges being available. The first was opened in April 1946 by the Mayor W.H.Chubb, who was accompanied by councillors and some of the first tenants. All this was reported in the Gazette along with some photographs as shown here.
The buildings were only designed for a 10 year life span but residents grew to love them so much they didn’t want to leave and it wasn’t until July 1964 that the town council decided to demolish them. This move immediately led to protests from the prefab dwellers – as shown in the attached cutting from the Gazette.
The tenants lost the battle, however, and their houses were removed and replaced by 3-storey blocks of flats – which in their time have now been demolished and replaced by new accommodation! Nothing ever stands still, but one has to wonder if the concept of ‘prefabs’ should be revisited to help tackle the nation’s current housing shortage?
Peter Christie.
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Peter,
Our family lived in one of those prefabs. My Nan is the first lady in the opening ceremony photo.
I was six at the time and Dad just got back from fighting in Burma.
We previously were living in Bull hill.