Prefabs in/around Sheffield

[Alun_87]

Has anyone ever lived in a Prefab ('prefabricated house') in Sheffield, or do you know someone who did?

 

Some friends and I are putting together an online project at Uni about local Prefabs and we wanted to know what people thought of them. We know they were really well received when they were first built - there was loads of excitement about them after WWII.

 

We won't use any of your answers in the project without your permission - we just wanted to get a feel for what it was like to live in a Prefab here in Sheffield. So any response would be really appreciated.

[BobbyDazzler]

I was born in one in Handsworth. Me Mam still says how excited her and me Dad were when they got it. They weren't meant to last long but they were built really well and would probably still be inhabitable now if they ant knocked em down.

[mslotus]

There were prefabs at the top of Hinde Street what is now the Wensley estate. I lived there as a child with my parents in the early 60's. We moved out in 1965 as they were demolishing them.

[dunsel]

My auntie had one one at Manor Top, snug in winter, cool in summer. Great accomodation, one of Churchills best ideas.

[harvey19]

I was born in a prefab at Wadsley Bridge and then lived in one from 4 to 10 years old at Wisewood.

They were very modern for their time with fitted kitchens, inside toilet and bathroom and fitted wardrobes in the bedroom. They had an outside storeroom and good sized garden.

The ones at Wisewood were in a crescent and there was a great community spirit.

[mike-s]

My parents had a prefab on Mansfield Drive. I remember it still being around when I was about ten. They always used to say how cosy it was.

[neilf]

We lived in one at Lee Road Loxley in the mid 70s. We liked it very much the rooms were a good size. Large gardens. But like Dunsel says very cold in Winter and like a greenhouse in Summer.We only got an exchanged because we neaded a third bedroom.

[FATBLOBBY]

Think there are still one or two in Ecclesfield.

[grinder]

The one we moved into on the Arbourthorne in 1946 my mum hated, they weren't proper houses she said, and you had to admit they did look like a shoe box.

They were supposed to have a life expectancy of 10 yrs but would probably have still been there now if they hadn't blown down...

It was our first real home and having lived in a flat down Attercliffe through out the war till my father came home, for me moving into our own house with hot and cold water, a bath room, separate toilet, fitted wardrobes in both bed rooms a fold away kitchen table built in pantry electric cooker, and get this, a fridge!!

Plus our own garden backing on to open fields leading down to a farm and beyond that Norfolk park, at six year old that was a magic summer.

Then came 1947

and the shoe box became a freezer box......

[poppins]

WE use to watch the Germans building Prefabs from our garden on Herris rd.