then and now?

[Juju]

Apologies for completely rubbish photo - I took a photo with my mobile from an old book in an exhibition. Our house is the 3rd one along on the left. We're intrigued by the massive chimney out of the front of the roof! No sign of that now and in fact no fireplaces on that side of the house. Maybe it's a boiler flue?View attachment 1

And our house today - 3rd on the left, pale yellow colour

 

[robgil]

Of course. Naturally.

The pretty bits are at http://www.colouredlight.tithefarm.biz/

Biff when the time comes i shall give you a shout and we can discuss my options for the windows , might need a front door as well depending on how flush i am.

 

[Feltwell]

I haven't managed to find any old photos of my house. I've got one but I guess it's only from the 1980's.

What I have got though is a very nice aerial picture of the area around my house from about 1950 - it was a picture taken of the brewery that was behind my house (which my house belonged to - it was the Company Secretary's residence). It's surprising just how much has changed.

For example, behind us is a Victorian primary school, which is now a rather run-down arts centre. Behind that was 2 identical rows of early Victorian worker's terraces. One row survives and they are perfectly good, if very small, houses. The other row has gone - nothing built in it's place, it's ended up being a car park for the arts centre. What caused the demolition of a row of about 8 houses? It certainly wasn't to make a car park.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

I haven't managed to find any old photos of my house. I've got one but I guess it's only from the 1980's.

What I have got though is a very nice aerial picture of the area around my house from about 1950 - it was a picture taken of the brewery that was behind my house (which my house belonged to - it was the Company Secretary's residence). It's surprising just how much has changed.

For example, behind us is a Victorian primary school, which is now a rather run-down arts centre. Behind that was 2 identical rows of early Victorian worker's terraces. One row survives and they are perfectly good, if very small, houses. The other row has gone - nothing built in it's place, it's ended up being a car park for the arts centre. What caused the demolition of a row of about 8 houses? It certainly wasn't to make a car park.

It may have been - what's now the best-preserved Victorian terrace in Lincoln is as it is only because it was bought for slum clearance, and to create a car park, and to "better reveal" the north side of Lincoln Castle by the council in the late 1960s. Because it was "always going to be demolished" it largely escaped being "improved":
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?ie=UT...w1fC6g7yy55-rYMMzV6XYQ&cbp=12,165.19,,0,-2.64

(Though the continuation of the terraces either side weren't so lucky and have been replaced by car parks with wholly inappropriate trees along the roadside, which should have almost no place in a city centre)

 

[Feltwell]

It's possible Gareth, but I suspect not. I'm told they were knocked down in the 60's, when the primary school was still a school. I can't see the town council forking out to buy houses in order to create a car park for the teachers, especially when car useage was so much lower than now and there are suitable streets nearby to park in. We're too far out from the town centre for it to have been intended as a car park to serve there.

"Slum clearance" is a distinct possibility as I know that happened further down my road in the 60's. But if so why would one row disappear and the identical one next to it survive?

But the workings of local government can be a little strange. One of my team at work lives in a house that is surrounded on 3 sides by a large car park - again, in the 60's, the whole row of houses was subject to compulsory purchase orders to make a car park for the town centre. Somehow this one house and the small factory next to it was missed, so they built the car park round it. It really is most bizarre. The house has been in the same family for over 100 years and they are now "marooned" in this car park with no neighbours. Very odd indeed.

Not sure this will work but here's an attempt to show the aerial picture of this:-

http://www.bing.com/maps/?mm_src=ho...3MDM4NDI1MDk0MDAyJTdlLTIuNDQ5MjY1MzM1MzUwNTc=

 

[Gareth Hughes]

They always bought the commercial premises last - my house was a tobacconist until 1998, the rest were bought up for road widening which never happened, which is why the first floor front window is the original draughty one, rather than the nice cosy plastic the rest of the row has (even though this side of the road is a conservation area and you might expect the council to set an example :shock Could that be what happened in Shropshire too?

And there's a former department store in East London who couldn't buy out (private rather than public money) one jeweller's shop, so their grand 1920s baroque facade has a gap in it, with a little Victorian building. I wish I could remember where I saw it.

(Edit) here we are: Wickhams, Mile End

 

[robgil]

ha ha , i love to see a little stubborn guy take on a big guy and not give in.

 

[biffvernon]

It may have been - what's now the best-preserved Victorian terrace in Lincoln is as it is only because it was bought for slum clearance, and to create a car park, and to "better reveal" the north side of Lincoln Castle by the council in the late 1960s. Because it was "always going to be demolished" it largely escaped being "improved":
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?ie=UT...w1fC6g7yy55-rYMMzV6XYQ&cbp=12,165.19,,0,-2.64

(Though the continuation of the terraces either side weren't so lucky and have been replaced by car parks with wholly inappropriate trees along the roadside, which should have almost no place in a city centre)

On of Lincoln's better pubs, The Victoria, is just round the corner.

What makes a tree inappropriate?

 

[Feltwell]

That's a great picture Gareth. In America they call them "nail houses":-

http://googlesightseeing.com/2009/08/nail-houses/

My colleague's house really is a mystery, as it had nothing to do with the (now derelict) factory next to it. They are resigned that one day the house will go, which is a shame - it's a nice little early Victorian house with all it's original outbuildings, that hasn't been mucked about with. Ironically the land that it and the factory next door are on is now worth quite a bit commercially, as whatever is built there has a ready-made car park. There has been much talk over the years of a new doctor's surgery going on there.

What is not pleasant is that the property developer who now owns the derelict factory - which is very small and not large enough on it's own to be worth developing - keeps piling the pressure on my colleague's elderly father to sell the house to him. This developer is not a nice character.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

FW - he sounds familiar. Does he also own a land bank in Grantham? :twisted:

 

[Gareth Hughes]

It may have been - what's now the best-preserved Victorian terrace in Lincoln is as it is only because it was bought for slum clearance, and to create a car park, and to "better reveal" the north side of Lincoln Castle by the council in the late 1960s. Because it was "always going to be demolished" it largely escaped being "improved":
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?ie=UT...w1fC6g7yy55-rYMMzV6XYQ&cbp=12,165.19,,0,-2.64

(Though the continuation of the terraces either side weren't so lucky and have been replaced by car parks with wholly inappropriate trees along the roadside, which should have almost no place in a city centre)

On of Lincoln's better pubs, The Victoria, is just round the corner.

What makes a tree inappropriate?

I can't remember who it was, but someone once suggested that vacant town and city centre sites should be planted up with what would, in time, become dense forest. When someone wanted to build there, people would have to acquiesce to the loss of the trees. I think that's a great idea.

BUT

Town and city centres should, as a rule, have buildings on the sites where buildings ought to be. The Lincoln ones have been planted, not in the street but on the buildings' former footprint, to "screen" a car park (which begs the question, if it's so bad it needs to be screened, should it be there in the first place? and also rather undermines the other excuse for the demolitions, of "revealing" the castle).

Town trees, admittedly, aren't as bad as the pointless bits of shrubbery that highway engineers like to put in, anywhere that they've narrowed a road or done a bit of speciality paving. St Mark's Square, and the centre of Siena and Florence, or the Grande Place in Brussels, and most such places, manage perfectly well without tatty bits of crisp packet and condoms patriotically fluttering from a half-dead berberis. It seems to be a peculiarly British trait to look at a large expanse of paving, often surrounded by beautiful (or at least interesting) buildings, and think "what that needs is some planters and hanging baskets"

I wish Ian Nairn's Outrage and Subtopia were avaialable far more cheaply than they are.

 

[robgil]

speaking of using trees as screening , have you ever noticed driving through whats left of some of the countries forests that the forest is nothing more than trees along the road side screening an empty space that used to be a forest so as to give the impression that you are indeed driving through dense woodland?

 

[Gareth Hughes]

speaking of using trees as screening , have you ever noticed driving through whats left of some of the countries forests that the forest is nothing more than trees along the road side screening an empty space that used to be a forest so as to give the impression that you are indeed driving through dense woodland?

Probably because, even in the countryside, the forests are in the wrong place and were all (a slight exaggeration) planted by the Forestry Commission in 1917 as commercial forestry - meant to be cut down at some stage. Especially round Thetford (the bits the MOD aren't bombing).

 

[robgil]

i wish they would at least wait until ive had a chance to run through them naked, smeared all over in chocolate sauce and howling at the full moon,probably too much info there i suspect.
bedgebury forest was interesting, i gave my weeks wages to the man at the gate and entered the forest only to find the forest was not much more than a few tall trees and several shrubbery's, of course there was a shop , cafe etc etc etc.
does england have any real forests left? at one point in time most of the country was forest.

 

[EricD]

Great to have these old pictures to help in the decisions!

If we are voting for the plain ridge, porch and wooden sign, can I add reinstating the hedge to the list? Oh, and the old bike in the first pic!

Its much more fun planning someone else's work and spending their money!

Lovely homes really. But your eyes really powerful, first time I missed that old bikes...

 

[Flyfisher]

Probably because, even in the countryside, the forests are in the wrong place and were all (a slight exaggeration) planted by the Forestry Commission in 1917 as commercial forestry - meant to be cut down at some stage. Especially round Thetford (the bits the MOD aren't bombing).

Yes, there are plenty of examples along the roads around Thetford forest - the firs are a crop and, naturally, they are periodically harvested. i think it's good of the forestry commission to plant deciduous (non-cropping) trees along the roads - far nicer than dense firs right up to the roadside.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Probably because, even in the countryside, the forests are in the wrong place and were all (a slight exaggeration) planted by the Forestry Commission in 1917 as commercial forestry - meant to be cut down at some stage. Especially round Thetford (the bits the MOD aren't bombing).

Yes, there are plenty of examples along the roads around Thetford forest - the firs are a crop and, naturally, they are periodically harvested. i think it's good of the forestry commission to plant deciduous (non-cropping) trees along the roads - far nicer than dense firs right up to the roadside.

I agree entirely about the prettiness of it, but Thetford Heath used to be just that... a heath, cropped close by sheep. What is "The Countryside"?
And if the firs are a crop, does DWB get a Christmas tree from there? (just 12' of the top, can't be much use otherwise)

 

[Flyfisher]

What is "The Countryside"?

An almost entirely man-made environment these days, in the UK at least. "Built environment" seems to be a recent buzzword for urban lanscapes, perhaps "farmed environment" could be used for the countryside. But whatever it's called, it's certainly not "natural".

 

[robgil]

Great to have these old pictures to help in the decisions!

If we are voting for the plain ridge, porch and wooden sign, can I add reinstating the hedge to the list? Oh, and the old bike in the first pic!

Its much more fun planning someone else's work and spending their money!

Lovely homes really. But your eyes really powerful, first time I missed that old bikes...

same bike perhaps? but in the very very olden days, cant see the cottage (its on the left) but there used to be a pub next door.

 

[worms]

but there used to be a pub next door...

Ok, add reinstating the pub to the job-list!