PLYMOUTH |
The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History |
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HOUSING AT WHITLEIGH
This estate covered land that had been a part of Whitleigh Hall and West Whitleigh Farm. Work was started in the middle of 1949 and the Lord Mayor, Alderman Frank Leatherby, laid the foundation stone in April 1950. The first houses were ready for occupation in June 1950 and consisted of 18 pairs of Easiform-style properties. Most of the land was purchased at £150 per acre. Intended to house 7,400 people. The first section to be tackled comprised 126 Easiform, 170 Cornish Units and 260 traditional houses. The first tenant moved in on August 14th 1950 for a rental of 25s 6d [£1.27½] per week. He was Mr Hector Daniel, his wife and four children and the address was 602 Budeshead Road. A plaque was placed on the property. Between 1950 and 1960 some 2,524 houses and flats were built. In 1951 Messrs John Laing & Son were paid £140,588 for building 126 houses. In fact it was largely due to Laing's that there was any community spirit as their large canteen building was loaned for use by the Tenants' Association, the Boy Scouts and Girls Guides, Toc H, St John Ambulance, the Methodists and for use as a temporary cinema. The Whitleigh Footbridge, linking the estate with the shops and bus services on the main Crownhill Road, was opened on September 5th 1953. Plymouth's 10,000th new post-war municipal dwelling was formally opened by the Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, Sir Thomas Sheepshanks, KCB, KBE, on Tuesday June 22nd 1954. It was in Kirkwall Road at Crownhill, part of the Whitleigh estate, and was one of the many Cornish Unit style properties erected by Messrs Selleck, Nicholls and Company Ltd, contractors to the Council for the Cornish Unit dwellings. The Twenty-fifth anniversary of the Estate was celebrated on June 30th 1975. In 1979 there was subsidence of an old mine shaft near Zoar Cottages. Sources:
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