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KEYHAM MEMORIES

8 - THE BIG BUILDING SCHEME

Under the headline of "Greater Devonport - A Big Building Scheme", the Western Daily Mercury of Tuesday October 5th 1897 remarked: 'Cheaper and better housing accommodation for the working class community of the naval and military borough of Devonport is promised by the great building scheme which will very shortly be started in the growing district of Keyham'.

The 33-acre site upon which the Keyham Barton houses are built was purchased by a syndicate of residents of the Three Towns after Devonport Corporation had failed to reach agreement with the Lord of the Manor to acquire it themselves. 

It was proposed to offer the land to the public in building sites of four sections.  Each section would contain 250 dwellings and each dwelling would comprise four or six rooms, the former having a frontage of 16 feet and the larger a frontage of 18 feet.  Each house would be set back from the roadway and railings placed in front.  At the rear would be a back lane of 15 feet in width, in accordance with the local bye-laws.  The owners of the land had tried to get permission to make the back lanes only 10 feet wide but the Corporation refused permission.

The south-facing site was approached from St Levan Road by a 24 feet wide thoroughfare running alongside the Great Western Railway viaduct: this presumably the present Warleigh Avenue.  Another roadway of some 40 feet in width would run through the centre of the site from St Levan Road (presumably Barton Avenue).   In addition a wide  business road was to be laid from the Great Western Railway arch through Keyham Barton Farm to the recently opened Ford Station on the London & South Western Railway.  Further access would be obtained from Kent Road.

One of the advantages of the site was its proximity to the Keyham Steam Yard, which would enable the workmen to go home for their meals in their own homes.

The vendors did not plan to erect any houses themselves but were offering workmen the opportunity to purchase one or two or more sites, if they wished.

 

Copyright:   Brian Moseley, Plymouth, UK

Page created: 15 May 2006

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