Houses

Post-War Building

Planning permission was given in 1947 for the building of 100 houses on the Ford Bank estate. They were to be built by Romesh Chandra Roy. They were built over a number of years on Ford Lane, Fordbank Road, Harefield Drive, Granville Gardens, Westmorland Road and Dene Road with prices starting at approximately £1,400. Many of the men buying these properties would probably have seen active service in the war.

The houses

As with the pre-war houses, those built in the late 1940s and early ‘50s were designed for family living and had similar basic features in terms of rooms etc.

These features may be summarised as follows:

Ground floor

• Open rectangular porch

• Hallway

• Separate dining room at front

• Separate living room with fireplace at back

• Small kitchen with large window at the side facing the drive

• Small space under the stairs – a pantry – housing gas and electric meters, and sometimes used as a store for keeping food fresh. Small opaque window. Door measured 6 feet by 2 feet 2 inches.

• Back door from kitchen to rear garden

• Coal bunker outside the rear of the house.

A double turn staircase with handrails led up to the first floor.

First floor

• Three bedrooms. Large one at the front and two at the back, one with a fireplace.

• Separate W.C.

• Separate bathroom with distinctive circular window

• Airing cupboard with hot water cylinder

• L-shaped landing

• Water tank in loft.

Roofing

• Similar roofing tiles to those used in the 1930s

Rendering

• All houses were rendered, that is, the upper outside walls at the front were coated with plaster or cement after which they were painted white thereby giving each house and the estate generally a distinctive appearance and character, as with the circular bathroom windows. Some houses, of course, were also painted at the side. 

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