An Idylic Retreat

Further Info

Following the war, homes were built quickly using prefabricated parts. Decades on, many of these temporary “prefabs” are still in use, and the people that live in them have come to love them and the community that surrounds them. A council decision to replace them is being fought. In this workshop, held over three days at the Southville centre, we find out why.

This workshop was led by Aikaterini Gegisian, Paul Matson and Paddy Uglow.

Transcript

My late husband and I moved into our prefab in 1987 because he had cancer and couldn’t manage the stairs where we lived. He died in 1992 and I lived there until 2002. We were very lucky: we lived in the corner of a cul-de-sac at Valerian Close, Shirehampton.

At the bottom of our garden there were allotments. One allotment holder planted a vine and this spread and eventually grew all along our bottom fence. Friends would pick the grapes for wine-making, and also the birds loved them.

The allotments were given up and the field was turned into a paddock in which two horses were kept. This was lovely as we could feed them apples (with the owner’s consent of course!).

At the bottom of the paddock was a pathway, which was fine for picking blackberries but edging the path was an embankment going down to the railway lines for the Severn Beach Railway so we did have the trains running every few hours, but we got used to them and ignored them.

[Sound of train passing]

The view was wonderful and we could see across the river and, in September, we could see the farmer mowing the fields, especially at night when he mowed by lights on the tractor.

To the left of us were woods leading to the viewing point for Horseshoe Bend. Because of the woods we had an abundance of wildlife. Regularly foxes would come, and at night you could hear the badgers. This was a secret due to badger baiting.

At the bottom of the field was a path and occasionally muntjac deer would walk along. Once a mother and fawn trotted along – a rare but exciting treat.

Squirrels would rob the birds’ feeding nets, completely taking them apart and, one winter in the snow, there was a squirrel in the garden, either chasing or being chased by a rat. They were going round in circles. I like to think they were playing.

[Sound of garden birds]

There was an abundance of birds. Apart from the usual garden birds we had the lesser spotted woodpecker, green woodpecker, yellowhammer and, once, a tree pipit.

Once a pair of pheasants flew into the paddock. It was empty of horses at that time. The male flew into my garden and it was lovely watching him strut around, really showing off.

Once on looking out of the window, perched on the rotary washing line was a sparrowhawk, and a flock of birds, starlings I think, flew down and chased him away.

[Sound of starlings]

By keeping a record, one year there were thirty different species. It was a bird-lover’s delight.

[Night-time sounds, with owl hooting, a thump]

One of my neighbours heard a loud bang one evening against her window and, when she went out to investigate, it was an owl. Luckily it wasn’t hurt and just flew away.

There being only sixteen prefabs, it was a very close community.

Parking, I must admit, was horrendous, especially if one had visitors. I had to park in the cul-de-sac and walk up a lane. I admit it wasn’t really safe in the winter because of the dark but, funnily enough, I was never frightened.

The prefabs themselves had a reputation of being cold but we had had Economy 7 installed and found this to be sufficient heat to keep the whole place warm.

Summer was different: because of the flat roofs, the heat was sometimes overpowering. We also had the problem with condensation which nowadays would be cured with double glazing.

The cupboard space was more than adequate. There were cupboards in every room and, in the hall, there were nine doors – a lot of painting!

Prefabs had good-sized rooms and were very cosy. Most prefabs had Parkway central heating but one or two tenants had had Calor Gas central heating installed.

[Sound of traffic]

Although we were situated below the Portway, the noise seemed to go over our heads and, basically, we never noticed it. [sound of water and jazz music in the distance]. We did however hear the noise of the jazz boat going up the river. However, that was always very noisy, especially on the return journey, late at night.

Because we were tucked away, very few people knew our road existed and therefore we were not troubled with the hooligan element.

The majority of prefab tenants were very happy. Prefabs were much sought after, in fact there was a waiting list for vacancies. The gardens were a big attraction and most gardens were enthusiastically very well kept.

The description I have given sounds rather idyllic, and I suppose, in its way, it was. If you had lived in a block of flats for twenty eight years as we did, then to have the freedom of space and a garden where we could keep pets and let our gardening capabilities run wild, then it was idyllic, and the memories will stay with me forever.

Credits

Brambles picture created by weardale (flickr.com), used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Deer picture created by Just (flickr.com), used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Flats picture created by floyd (flickr.com), used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Fox picture created by zoonie (flickr.com), used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Grapes picture created by enlewof (flickr.com), used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Horse picture created by Ben (flickr.com), used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Nightroad picture created by jeffk (flickr.com), used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Owl picture created by lizjones112 (flickr.com), used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Owlflying picture created by MarilynJane (flickr.com), used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Pheasent picture created by greenacre8 (flickr.com), used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Prefab advert picture created by DanieVDM (flickr.com) and Paddy Uglow, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Rat picture created by madaise (flickr.com), used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

River picture created by will (flickr.com), used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Squirrel picture created by EDgAr (flickr.com), used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 licence.

Birds sound created by fkurz, Freesound.iua.upf.edu, used under Creative Commons Sampling Plus 1.0 licence.

Cars sound created by Incarnadine, Freesound.iua.upf.edu, used under Creative Commons Sampling Plus 1.0 licence.

Jazzband sound created by Heigh_hoo, Freesound.iua.upf.edu, used under Creative Commons Sampling Plus 1.0 licence.

Owl sound created by ljudo.com, used under Creative Commons Sampling Plus 1.0 licence.

River sound created by b0bd0bbs, Freesound.iua.upf.edu, used under Creative Commons Sampling Plus 1.0 licence.

Starlings sound created by ERH, Freesound.iua.upf.edu, used under Creative Commons Sampling Plus 1.0 licence.

Train sound created by icmusic, Freesound.iua.upf.edu, used under Creative Commons Sampling Plus 1.0 licence.

Window thump sound created by Paddy Uglow, used under Public Domain licence.

All media not otherwise credited created by Pam and John, used under copyright licence.