The Banstead Image Library
36 Hillside Close, Banstead
Meet Joy Hughes (with her knitting) and her son Berwyn, in their garden at 36 Hillside Close, Banstead, on 25th June 1955. According to the handwritten note on the reverse, Berwyn is celebrating his 19th birthday. In the background is their prefab home, a familiar sight in many parts of Banstead in the late 1940s and '50s.
The prefabs in Hillside Close – 40 of them – were built between February and May 1947, adding to the 10 already erected in this quiet cul-de-sac. According to 'The History of Banstead Volume 2' (BHRG, 2005), this was part of Banstead Urban District Council’s post-war accelerated housing plan which included schemes for 109 prefabs in Preston Lane and four sites covering 19 acres in the Merland Rise area.
There's another photograph of Joy here: picture #668.
• If anyone knows anything about Joy and/or Berwyn, we’d be pleased to hear from you. The photographs, incidentally, were bought on eBay and are now part of the BHRG permanent collection.
Picture added on 25 March 2021 at 16:51
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Banstead History
Banstead History
I lived in a prefab at Hillside when I was a toddler. The houses all looked like blown-over bins! But they were a blessing for families who had been bombed in London, or like my family, living in unsafe or unsanitary housing conditions. As far as I remember, they were still being used up until the 1960s. I lived there between 1955 and 1957.
Added by Ali Baillie on 20 July 2023
Mr and Mrs John Bray, both Irish and he a very fine baritone lived in one of the prefabs. When they had to leave they were so very upset as they had been so happy there. They were moved to a flat in Nork.
Added by Heather Lee on 20 July 2023
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