South Yorkshire Times, May 23rd, 1970
£1,500,000 Housing scheme takes Swinton into the space age
Revolutionary ultra-modern, space-aged…these are some of the terms which have been used to describe Swinton Urban Council’s latest housing development, the £1 ½ million Fitzwilliam Street – Piccadilly Road housing scheme, officially opened. this week.
The project has become the focus of wide attention since its conception incorporating two of the most up-to-date facets of modern estate development – the Swedish patio style design layout, and all-embracing group heating system with a communal boilerhouse – the scheme is one of the most ambitious, far-reaching developments ever undertaken by a local authority the size of Swinton.
Representatives of local authorities and other bodies concerned with housing have been regular visitors to the town since the Swinton estate got underway. The development has already become a twentieth century landmark in South Yorkshire, and is destined in the very near future to be recognised as a milestone, not only in the West Riding, but much further afield.
Swinton Urban Council have long been respected for their efforts in providing up to date housing accommodation for the township’s 14,000 plus population. A glimpse at housing figures easily confirms this. Of a total of just over 5,000 dwellings in Swinton, with the completion of the Fitzwilliam estate, 2,800 of these will be Council-owned, in short well over half the houses in the town are Council houses. This in itself is no mean achievement.
The Fitzwilliam estate comprises 328 dwellings with garages or with garage space available on the estate. It also includes two strategically sited shops.
The dwellings vary in type, ranging from ground level bed-sitters, to six-person, four-bedroom bungalow flats, again at ground level.
Other types include one-bedroom, two-person flats at ground level, two-bedroom, four-person bungalows, two-bedroom, four person flats each having ground level entrances, three-bedroom, five-person bungalows, two-storey, five person, three-bedroom flats with ground level entrances, three-storey, three-bedroom, five-person flats with 72 with ground level entrances and 15 with car ports and four bedroom, six-person flats all at ground level.
The dwellings are built on a sloping site of just over 20 acres. The layout has been designed to make full use of this feature, and to provide both open views across the valley to the south-east, and also small intimate courts, around which dwellings are grouped. No habitable rooms face north.
Access
A notable feature of the scheme is the absence of roads across the site, in a Radburn-type layout. Vehicular access is from Fitzwilliam Street and Greno Road and a separate pedestrian access is obtained from Piccadilly Road. Vehicular traffic will therefore be restricted to the perimeter road and (from that road) to a number of cul-de-sac accesses to garages and garage spaces. Children will be able to play in safety in the courts and other areas around which the houses are grouped.
Dwellings are designed to the standards recommended by the Parker-Morris Committee, about half of them having paved patios and the remainder having open-area gardens. The latter, and the other open spaces, play areas, etc., on the estate will be grassed, and the maintenance carried out by direct labour by the Council.
Trees, a normal feature of the Swinton scene will be a feature of the Fitzwilliam-Piccadilly Road Housing Estate also.
Each dwelling is heated by a warm air unit system, and provided with domestic hot water, supplied from a coal-fired central boiler house, erected by the National Coal Board (in other words, by district or group heating). The other services provided are electricity, water, television and telephone point.
The scheme was begun with a view to accommodating, in addition to tenants on the Council’s waiting list, a number of mineworkers transferring from other areas in the South Yorkshire coalfield. It is, in fact, most unlikely that a scheme of this size or of this nature would otherwise have been undertaken by the Council. However, in the event, although the demand for houses by mineworkers is not as great as it was, there will still be a proportion of houses needed by, and available for, mineworkers.
This fact made it possible to ask the Coal Board to provider heating by a group or district scheme; and the simple arrangement is that the Coal Board will provide the heat at the boiler house, and the Council will take the supply and distribute it to their tenants.
There are, of course, no hot ashes. The heating is by warm air, controllable as to air volume and temperature, and provision has been made for metering the heat, if found desirable in the future.
The windows have draught-free louvres for winter ventilation. Incidentally, the main windows face south, thus catching the sun and light, and perhaps also to some extent reducing the necessity for heating inside the dwellings.
The colder, north walls have few windows, and any heat lost here will be minimised. All the windows are on one floor, and can therefore be cleaned by the householder without the use of ladders. The internal layout is very convenient; there are no stairs and the doors are all polished (no painting!).
Privacy
In addition to these general items of layout which aid the housewife, it should be noted that the majority of dwellings have a private enclosed patio or paved space. This patio area, with a southerly aspect, is enclosed and safe for children and is an ideal leisure area for the tenant. Windows from all the main rooms in the house overlook the patio; important for the supervision of children!
This patio ensures privacy to the tenant and is a particular feature of these dwellings. The other dwellings at ground floor level have a garden, on the “open planning” system, and these areas and other open spaces will be grassed, and then maintained by the Council.
The area in which the dwellings are situated is subject to smoke control and none of them will of course emit fumes – even invisible ones. Emission from the central boiler house, being at high level, will have no noticeable effect at ground level.
As there are no hot ashes the refuse containers are paper or plastic sacks, and the original plan showed a maximum walking distance for the refuse collectors of about 90 feet, although the final layout may include some distances a little greater than this. About two-thirds of the dwellings have refuse-container stores; where there is no store-place the sacks are placed inside plastic dustbins. New sacks are left each week – and the system is dustless and quiet.
Parking space is provided on the estate near to each dwelling. Provisionally, 58 garages are to be erected initially, and further erections will depend upon demand.
Rents
Rents vary from £4 5s for the four-bedroom six-person type dwelling to £1 18s for the one-bedroom bungalow type. Heating charges vary from £1 10s to 17s. The rents are inclusive of rates and water charges. Garages and car ports cost 10s per week gross rental.
Architects and engineers for the project are Messrs. Gillinson, Barnett and Partners, Leeds, who have worked in association with Mr. Harold Goodwin, Swinton Urban Council’s Engineer and Survey until April of this year and latterly with Mr. Cyril Batson, Mr. Goodwin’s successor. Mr. Goodwin, and the then chair of the Town and Country Planning Committee, Mr. Frank Calladine, on the lookout for inventive modern structural architects, first came across the work of Gillinson, Barnett on visiting another development, but both Swinton men were immediately impressed and it was only a short time before the Leeds architects were drawing up the outline plans of Swinton’s far-reaching development.
Messrs Henry Vale and Sons, Rotherham, were appointed quantity surveyors for the project. The Mexborough- based firm of O. Weaver and Sons Ltd were granted the main contract for the work. Swinton Urban Council were delighted to give the immense job to a local firm. In monetary value, the Fitzwilliam project, designed specifically for a sloping site, is the largest contract Weavers have handled since the firm’s inception over 50 years ago, although they have built over 12,000 dwellings for local authorities. The Council were also delighted to grant them the contract as most of the firm’s 140 direct employees are local people – many coming from Swinton itself. It was gratifying for both the Council and Weavers that a large proport of the building work involved in this exciting new development was undertaken by local craftsmen who have proved their ability.
Heating
Heating consultants on the scheme are Messrs. Charles Beal, Patterson and Partners, of Leeds. With the N.C.B. they have brought into operation one of only 40 district heating schemes in the country.
District heating operates on the principle of one large boiler house big enough to provide the heat, and hot water, requirements of a whole area of buildings. This is central heating on the grand scale, with a substantial saving of fuel costs and labour.
Britain has fallen behind many European and North American countries in realising the potential of district heating.
The N.C.B. was among the few organisations in this country to explore the potential and developed the first practical schemes adapted to British conditions. This includes the burning of British-mined coal.
The decision to install district heating for the heating and domestic hot water supply in all 328 dwellings of the Fitzwilliam Street Housing Development was based on more than fuel economy alone.
The central boiler house owned by the N.C.B. and operated by Associated Heat Services (Central) Ltd., obviates the need for individual fireplaces or stoves, fuel stores, chimneys and access roads for coal delivery vehicles.
This made possible an attractive, open development served only by pedestrian walkways. In addition, coal for the boiler house is totally enclosed from delivery to burning with automatic disposal of ash. Each householder enjoys ample heat and domestic hot water all the year round without ever seeing smoke or soot, or handling fuel. Just the flick of a switch or turn of a tap!
From the outset. N.C.B. technicians have worked closely with the Council, the architects, Gillinson, Barnett, and the consulting heating engineers, to ensure that the best distribution in this advanced development is as efficient and economical as possible.