South Yorkshire Times, October 12, 1946

Conisbrough Prefabs.
First Houses Arouse Tremendous Local Interest.

Conisbrough’s first two prefabricated houses, erected on, Saturday, aroused such tremendous interest that several thousand people have this week visited the site on Elm Green Lane, where the work of erection of other prefabs is being pushed ahead vigorously.

All Up in a Fortnight?

An estimate given to a “South Yorkshire Times” reporter on the site on Tuesday was that, providing supplies of the house is continue to arrive at the same rate, all the 45 dwellings allocated to Conisbrough will have been erected within the next fortnight and it is hoped the first houses should be occupied by next Wednesday.

Conisbrough folk, who had been expecting the first houses to arrive since July, have been much impressed by the commodious accommodation available in these aluminium homes, the modernity of the kitchen units and the speed and apparent ease with which the four sections are placed in position and firmly clamped down on the concrete foundations.

The houses, which have been manufactured in Chester by Messrs. Vickers Armstrong, Ltd. are being erected by Messrs. McAlpine, Ltd. who have sent along a specially trained team of more than a dozen erectors. Sections are brought to the site and put up in sequence. And the houses are similar to those that Swinton, already fully described in our columns.

Each house has a living room with a closed in fire: two bedrooms, in which there are built-in wardrobes and linen cupboard; a bathroom, in which there is a bath and a hand basin, drying cupboards for clothes and for towels; and a spacious kitchen, in which the kitchen unit includes a refrigerator, sink, portable gas copper, plate rack, storage cupboard and a dry goods cupboard. The houses will be gas powered and lit by electricity.

“The Oval.”

The preparation of the site, amounting to approximately 4 ½ acres, and which foundations have been laid for houses in the ratio of approximately 10 to 11 to the acre, was begun last autumn, and the houses will form a new street to be known as The Oval. The work of preparing the roads and sewers was carried out under the Doncaster group scheme by Messrs. P. P. Taylor (Doncaster) Ltd. and the foundations have been laid down by another Doncaster firm. Messrs. John Holmes. Queens Road, Wheatley.

A report on the progress of the erection of the houses was submitted to the urban council’s housing committee on Monday by the surveyor (Mr A. W. R. Taylor). The rent of the houses has been fixed at 10s per week, exclusive of rates, estimated at an additional 4s. 4d. Per week.

Mr R. J. Troughton, housing manager for the urban council, to whom the sole responsibility of letting all council houses has been entrusted by the local authority, informed a “South Yorkshire Times” reporter on Monday that all the houses were being let strictly in accordance with the council’s “points” system, and that the question of need was the standard by which the merits of each application was being judged.

No houses had been let, but there would not be the slightest delay in letting. Cases had already been investigated and immediately houses were ready for occupation he would personally hand the keys to the successful applicant. The prefabricated houses, Mr Troughton explained, would only accommodate maximum families of two adults and two children, but when the whole 45 had been let he expected there would be some reduction in their overcrowding problem in the urban district. He instanced several cases of dire overcrowding and quoted in particular one house, limited in accommodation. In which three large families were living.