South Yorkshire Times, February 1947
Swinton Prefab Complaints
Too Damp Say Tenants
One Housewife Refuses to Pay Rent
Complaints about the effect of dampness caused by condensation, have be made by occupants of prefabricated houses in Swinton, and providing Swinton Urban Council with a problem.
Although the rent is collected by the Council the houses are still under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Works, who are responsible for all maintenance for six months after erection. A housewife in one of the houses affected and refused to pay rent.
“Clothes Mildewed”
A visit to occupiers of prefabricated houses near the Woodman Inn by a “South Yorkshire Times” reporter revealed that some hardship was being experience, and one desperate housewife had, after many vain attempts to Swinton Urban Council, refused to pay her rent.
At number five, Woodlands Crescent, Mrs A. Greasby told of water running down the walls, curtains so wet that they could be wrung out, and clothes which became mildewed when left in a close closet.
“I have had to send a dozen articles of clothing to the cleaners this week because they were eaten with mould,” she said, “and we have to dry our clothes after leaving them overnight.”
The front and back to the Mrs Greasby’s home will not shut properly because the woodwork has swollen through damp. The drawers on the sideboard and dressing tables have also been affected and will not close.
“The Council says it is not their responsibility because the houses have not been handed over by the Ministry of Works. I have had to move my bed out of the bedroom and into the living room, where it is a little better, and I have had a bucket in one of the bedrooms to catch the water which comes through the ceiling. One morning when we walk there were icicles hanging from the ceiling,” she said.
I have refused to pay my rent until something is done, but the people at the Council officers say it won’t do much good,” she added. “I still say I won’t pay my rent until they do something about it.”
Mrs Greasby’s husband, who was wounded while serving with the Irish Guards in Holland four and a half years ago, and has been hospital ever since, comes home at weekends. Last week she was informed he was ill was influenza, which she attributed to the dampness of her home.
Pools on Window Sills
She showed our reporter water dripping through the ceiling and pointed out pools of water on the windowsill.
Often, she said, she had woken to find the bed clothes damp and an eiderdown on her baby daughters cot “as though it had been under a tap.”
At Christmas Mrs Greasby stayed up till 3 a.m. before going South to visit her parents, and cleaned and dried the house, but it was just as bad when she returned.
The house was ideal in the summer, she said, and she likes its location, but at present it is “hardly fit to live in.”
Next door at seven Woodlands Crescent, Mr and Mrs J Squires are experiencing similar conditions are and are having to slave and sleeping two rooms. Mrs Squire said there had been staying with his mother in overcrowded conditions before taking a prefab, and that their present conditions were worse than before. He thinks that a better heating system would improve things.
Mr and Mrs B Bowman live at seven Broadway, which is at the top end of the prefab essay, and Mr Bowman shows a reported effects of dampness on freshly decorated walls.
“Clothes have to be removed from wardrobes if we don’t want them to become mildewed.” He said. He is of the opinion that prefabs are ideal summer houses only.
A Swinton Council official yesterday said he was not able to make any statement on the matter until it was brought before the Council.