HYDE CHESHIRE

Harry Rutherford's
Festival of Britain Mural




Friday 17 August 2012

Prefabs in Gee Cross

A few weeks ago we spoke about the prefabs and steel houses that were built after the end of WW2 . Someone mentioned the ones that stood behind the Grapes pub in Gee Cross and Ken Smith very kindly sent us this newspaper cutting and some information about them.
 
Over to Ken -
 
"Looking through the blogs recently I came across a request for information regarding  the prefab estate constructed behind the Grapes Hotel shortly after the end of WW2.
I lived on the estate with my parents from its first occupation until September 1952, when I joined the RAF as an Aircraft Apprentice, with just one short break during 1951 when our house burned down!
I enclose a newspaper cutting from the time which may remind some of your readers of the occasion.
Incidentally, I now live on the plot of land almost immediately opposite that of the house that burned down !!"
 
img416

Thanks very much for sharing , Ken. Much appreciated ! :)

6 comments:

Tom said...

A very sad story but a very interesting read... it must have been such an event at that time.. I like the bit that says 'Telephone messages were sent to Mr and Mrs Smith'

Werneth Low said...

Thank you, Ken, for sharing what must be an unforgettable memory. I'm one of those who mentioned the Wych Fold prefabs as I remember them and knew people who lived in them. This story is tragic. I like the North Cheshire reporter's attention to detail in his write-up.

Anonymous said...

thanks for sharing the story with us.Im sure it must have been heartbreaking at the time. The important thing is no one got hurt.

Trish said...

Must have been so tragic for you and your family at the time Ken. I was only aged five in 1951, so knew nothing about this prefab fire, but I vaguely remember the prefabs from my time spent at Enfield St infants school in the fifties, the teachers would sometimes take us on nature walks up into the fields around what must now be the top of Lord Derby Road. I seem to recall a dirt pathway somwhere near the well/dairy area on Wych Fold, Is this right Ken?

Trish said...

its me again, with a correction to my last comment, the path I vaguely remember from all those years ago was somewhere near the well, but I recall now that there was a bakery in this area of Wych Fold. Does anyone remember the bakery? And when did the Express Dairy arrive in the area?

Hydonian said...

Comment sent in from Ken Smith

" rish's comment about the path close to the well on Wych Fold is correct. It followed the boundary wall of the Grapes Hotel up past the bowling green. It was often overgrown and covered in puddles after rain but it did save walking all the way round the road! Trish also mentioned the dairy but when the prefabs were first built it was Wilson's bakery opposite which was Littlewood's farm from where the photograph appearing under the heading 'Gee Cross' of a view from the top of Hudson Road would seem to have been taken "

Ken Smith