'COUNCIL' HOUSES
'Homes for Heroes'
There is a prominent '1921' date on the two pairs of houses facing the unmade 'loke' from Long Lane to the Community Centre.
Towards the end of World War I, Lloyd-George's coalition government promised 'Homes for Heroes' which helped them win the 1919 election. The 'Addison Act' of that year subsidised local authorities to finance the building of half a million homes, nationwide, within 3 years. But the Heroes were soon disillusioned: not all the funds were made available and a total of only 213,800 homes were built before a Conservative government withdrew the subsidies.... Considering the nationwide need, I suppose Flordon was lucky to get 4 houses!
These were built by Henstead Rural District Council - the local authority for this part of South Norfolk set up by the 1894 Local Government Act. In 1935 it was amalgamated with most of neighbouring Forehoe District Council (Wymondham became a separate Town Council) to form Forehoe & Henstead Rural District Council until another local government reorganisation in 1974. The plot they were built on was part of land purchased by the then Rector back in 1869, though there is some uncertainty on who owned it by 1920.
A number of Housing Acts were passed between 1919 and 1939, enabling local authorities to achieve the target of more than a million homes, but not until all building stopped with World War 2. In that time, people began to expect a better standard of housing and no longer wanted a tied cottage that meant moving house (and probably parish, and school for the children) if they went to work on another farm. Some of the damp clay-lump cottages were condemned as unfit. More houses at affordable rents were needed, and there was a renewed effort by local councils to build houses in the 1930s. The distinctively-designed houses facing Long Lane probably date from that period.
After World War 2 there was another housing crisis: service personnel were de-mobbed and returned to their families, or married their sweethearts, and soon 'baby-boomers' needed accommodating. Council waiting lists were burgeoning. There was also great need for retirement homes for the older generation to free up family houses. St Michael's View was extended onto land acquired through compulsory purchase from Orchard Farm. Its mix of houses and bungalows date from the early 1950s, supplemented by the final building phase of Forehoe & Henstead Rural District Council in the 1960s, before local government reorganisation led to the creation of South Norfolk Council (Google map/satellite image below).
Moving In
In the '40s and '50s couples on the housing list for a council home waited to get married until they were allocated a house, which may not be in the area of their first choice. Peter and Jean Cook married in 1955 and moved into No. 3 Council Houses, Flordon - one of those built in 1921. It had not been left in a very good state, and Peter was still painting on his wedding day. 'Do you think he's forgotten he's getting married today?' asked one of the neighbours!
There was electricity, but no running water - that came from a pump shared by the four houses which froze in winter. The site of the pump is still there, but has been capped off. With no water, there was no flushing loo - the muck was buried in the back garden. There was a boiler, or 'copper' for washing clothes which had to be filled every washday, and an oven in the wall. Jean did have an electric cooker, and was so pleased to buy a new, though smoke-damaged, carpet cheaply from Peacocks. With Peter working a 50-hour week, for £10 a week, as a bricklayer it was hard to save for necessities, let alone luxuries. And he had to cycle to and from work, 7 miles, every day....
But Jean remembers her wonderful neighbours - the folk in the four houses were great friends. In the Flordon Parish Newsletter, Sept. 2018 she wrote: 'I have just discovered that I have no carrots for the casserole I am making and I am thinking back to when we first married 64 years ago and moved into 3, St Michael's View. What wonderful neighbours we had! They'd soon supply a carrot until next shopping day. People in the four houses looked after each other and some of the happiest days of my married life were spent there.' She supplemented the family income with seasonal work on local farms, picking fruit, beans, later sprouts, and finally mushrooms. Some cold days she'd arrive home to a lovely fire lit for them by one of the neighbours.
Hethel Camp had been built to provide accommodation for USAAF personnel in WW2, but after war ended was acquired by the District Council as emergency housing for civilians. Gradually, as more council houses were built, families were moved out to the villages around. One of these was the headmaster of Hethel CP School at the 'Camp', Richard Carder (known as Maurice) who was rehoused in Flordon with his wife and two children, Maureen and Malcolm. He cycled back to work each day until the school closed in 1958.
The late Donald Calton lived in 6 different houses before he moved to a retirement home in Wymondham. His father had worked for Gaymers Cider factory and came to Flordon to work at Hall Farm. Donald was born in The Street, and the family moved to one of the pair of thatched clay-lump cottages on the corner of The Street and Long Lane (now replaced by a brick bungalow). Later they moved the other side of the Black Horse to one of a pair of cottages that were condemned after World War 2 as water seeped through the walls - they had been flooded too often! Donald's legacy was a pair of chestnut trees that have grown from the conkers he and his next-door best friend Sidney Rackham planted. The family was rehoused at Hethel Camp and were fortunate enough to be offered a Council house back in Flordon, at no.6 St Michael's View. Later, Donald and his wife swapped houses with Joy Flatman, and moved into her old bungalow at no.11, where they lived from 1955 to 2010. He thought the Council Houses were palatial - hot and cold running water, electricity, indoor toilets and bathrooms, sewerage (to a common sceptic tank at first, then on main drainage by the mid-'50s).