A collection of 8 black and white negatives, showing the construction of Stent type prefabricated houses, in New Haw, Surrey. The Ministry of Works was the government department tasked with the organisation and efficiency of the push for postwar housing construction. The Temporary Housing Act of 1944/5 was intended to alleviate the acute housing shortages of the immediate postwar years, mostly through the construction of prefabricated, modular housing. The Stent type was a precast reinforced concrete (PRC) dwelling. The PRC properties were quick to assemble and required less skilled labour as the concrete panels were bolted together to form the property. The homes were permanent and were intended to last 60 years. By the 1980s many of the PRC houses, such as the Stent, were showing defects, ensuring that they were classified as defective and in need of repair by the 1984/5 Housing Defects Act. Gaining a mortgage on unmodified PRC houses in the twenty-first century is consequently very difficult. The houses in the collection were constructed to the south of Chertsey, near to Woodham, on Park Side, where around 17 Stent houses remain standing in 2020.
It is unclear where exactly these homes were constructed. The original Ministry of Works storage envelope lists the operator as “W” and the division as “C.S.A”.
3 of the 8 images were catalogued and digitised as part of a 2020 project.
This is part of the Sub Series: PSA01/04/H Housing; within the Series: PSA01/04 Negatives; within the Collection: PSA01 Property Services Agency
Source: Historic England Archive
Concrete, Mid 20th Century Prefabricated House, Construction
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