Totley in the 50s and 60s

[Bellers 10]

Prefab memories: in the early 60s, one of our prefab neighbours was fined 10 shillings for failing to keep his garden neat and tidy. It goes some way to explaining why most gardens were well tended. Does the Council still operate such a policy? It was quite a lot of money then.

[Plain Talker 11]

Prefab memories: in the early 60s, one of our prefab neighbours was fined 10 shillings for failing to keep his garden neat and tidy. It goes some way to explaining why most gardens were well tended. Does the Council still operate such a policy? It was quite a lot of money then.

 

It is certainly within the tenancy agreement that a tenant signs on being given the property, that the garden is to be "kept in good order," but some tenants don't keep to it:-

 

http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/local/sheffield-scrap-brothers-guilty-of-abusive-words-1-5483357

 

Unfortunately, the Council and other social housing providers are no longer allowed to "vet" prospective tenants, to weed out those who have a history of anti-social behaviour.

[Dreb48 35]

Hi Bellers. Must admit I'd not heard of people being fined but it's true nearly every house seemed to have a well tended garden.

I think maybe alot of residents had been used to living previously in back to back or terraced houses where they didn't have that luxury. I'm sure for my parents it would have been the first time and I think there was that postwar enthusiasm for gardening and DIY that all dads seem to be involved in.

My dad created a lovely lawn with borders in front of the house but when mass television arrived he found that, being in the valley, the reception was really bad and with the Coronation being televised he had to find an answer.

He erected a huge pole in the middle of the lawn held up by guy ropes with a big H aerial on the top. It must have been about 30 feet high but it did the trick. Unfortunately after one very windy night he received a deputation of neighbours the following morning who had seen the top swaying one way then the other and asked him to do something about it. He subsequently agreed to take 6 feet off the pole and I can see dad and the neighbours lowering it and it resting on top of the privet hedge and it sticking out into the street.

Fortunately the resulting shorter version worked just as well

[Bellers 10]

Hi Dreb. Yes my dad was involved in DIY too - taught me lots of skills which I still use. We didn't manage to get a telly until just after the coronation, and I remember playing in someone else's garden while the 'grown ups' all watched it. We got a telly later in the year and it cost £80. WOW! What does that equate to now? And he was only a parkie. Our reception wasn't too bad. The telly lasted for years and didn't have ITV, so I didn't understand what others were talking about.

Do you remember that the prefab woodwork was either brown or green. I think they were supposed to alternate, but there were exceptions. Ours was brown. Dad was able to get the green paint from somewhere and we had loads of stuff that was corporation green. Including his bike.

[Dreb48 35]

Yes, that's right, brown or green. Ours was green, corporation green.

Do you remember them going round making them 'safer' by sticking asbestos sheeting on to the compressed cardboard? Hilarious now, when you think about it.

The strange thing was that during the great gale our estate suffered minimal damage. I know it was being in the valley that saved us but when you think of what they were made of its a wonder Green Oak wasn't flattened.

Going back to the tv, ours was on HP like alot of stuff we suddenly started getting. Think my dad was a big fan of getting things on the never never

[Bellers 10]

Yes I remember the asbestos 'improvement'. Our TV was on HP (probably from Wigfalls). I worked there early in my career. The accounting systems for rental and HP were extremely complicated, 'cos Wiggies used to allow you to pay what you could afford and when. I remember the VAT man coming to audit the computer systems, and he admitted to having learned a lot when he left!

Funny you should mention the gales, because I was going to mention them too. The prefabs at the top of Eastern Avenue were completely flattened, but the Totley ones managed to escape. There were several brick houses in Totley that suffered significant damage, and I remember being 'chased' by an airborne roof tile when doing my paper round that morning!

[Plain Talker 11]

Hi Dreb. Yes my dad was involved in DIY too - taught me lots of skills which I still use. We didn't manage to get a telly until just after the coronation, and I remember playing in someone else's garden while the 'grown ups' all watched it. We got a telly later in the year and it cost £80. WOW! What does that equate to now? And he was only a parkie. Our reception wasn't too bad. The telly lasted for years and didn't have ITV, so I didn't understand what others were talking about.

Do you remember that the prefab woodwork was either brown or green. I think they were supposed to alternate, but there were exceptions. Ours was brown. Dad was able to get the green paint from somewhere and we had loads of stuff that was corporation green. Including his bike.

 

Well the average wage was about £750 a year, so the £80 would be nearly a month's wages for the average man.

 

Today's average wage is about 30,000. I don't know if we can correlate it directly, that a TV would still be worth a month's wages, but an average month's wages would be £2,500, so a TV would be £2,500.

[OwlsChick 10]

As said before in this thread there is indeed an air raid shelter under totley co-op as I worked there in the 80s as a girl.Its quite spooky with all the posters still on the walls ect.Does anybody remember a mrs smart? A school teacher who had retired in the 80s who was quite a challenge back then?

[Bellers 10]

Prefab memories: How many Totley prefabs had 3 bedrooms? My friend John had two teenage sisters, so they put a divider into the front bedroom. The rooms weren't exactly large in the first place. John's was (shall we say) cosy. The divider seemed to be made of compressed cardboard

[Dreb48 35]

I'd no idea they did that. There'd be no room for anything other than a bed.

The compressed cardboard was what all the walls were built with I'm sure.

I remember going to somebody's prefab and his brother was in the bath. The bathroom shared a wall with the kitchen. His brother fell over and a bulge appeared in the kitchen wall where his backside had hit the bathroom wall.

They could be incredibly cold in the winter but really hot in the summer, which of course every summer was in those days. I think it was probably down to the large windows

[Plain Talker 11]

I'd no idea they did that. There'd be no room for anything other than a bed.

The compressed cardboard was what all the walls were built with I'm sure.

I remember going to somebody's prefab and his brother was in the bath. The bathroom shared a wall with the kitchen. His brother fell over and a bulge appeared in the kitchen wall where his backside had hit the bathroom wall.

They could be incredibly cold in the winter but really hot in the summer, which of course every summer was in those days. I think it was probably down to the large windows

 

I suspect it had more to do with the rooves, myself.

 

I lived in a prefab-style property on Arbourthorne, and the flat roof absorbed the heat during the day, and then released it downwards into the house at night, and it was absolutely stifling.

 

(the insulation in the hollow walls was good in winter, as it made my place really economical to heat, but I don't remember my aunt's prefab at intake in the 1960s as being very toasty.)

[Dreb48 35]

Must admit I'd never thought of that as an explanation.

Were the prefabs at Arbourthorne the 'American' version like at Green Oak?

I don't know the exact history but there were two styles being erected in Sheffield.

Ours had, I think, 5 huge windows along the front and 3 in the kitchen area and, as you say, had flat roofs.