Yeovil Borough Council  - a Pioneering Housing Authority

During the first decade of the 20th century, the national housing problem had become acute and Yeovil, like many other towns and villages throughout the country, was suffering from a shortage of good cheap houses for rent.

Yeovil's first public housing scheme of 150 dwellings was built by the Borough Council on land to the east of Eastland Road and which now comprises Eastville, Mount Pleasant, Southville and Westville. The scheme was designed by local architects Messrs Percy J Warren and John Petter, at a total contract sum of £30,000. Weekly rents were 4 or 5 shillings (20 or 25 pence) depending upon the size of the dwelling and in 1912 workmen were earning an average weekly wage of between 15 and 35 shillings.

On 2 November 1912, the Rt Hon. John Burns MP, President of the Local Government Board, inaurgurated the scheme and the occasion was marked with the planting of an oak tree at the corner of Southville and Westville. The tree is still growing on the site and in May 2001, the local residents celebrated the event by placing a commemorative plaque by the tree.

Sixty two years later, on 31 March 1974, when Yeovil Borough passed into history following re-organisation of the local government, there were some 3200 council dwelling units of various types in the town.

The Nissen Petren Houses

During the First World War, tens of thousands of corrugated iron huts with semicircular roofs based on the designs of Lieut-Colonel P.N. Nissen DSO, Royal Engineers, were built to meet the demand of the armed forces - the Nissen Bow Hut could be constructed almost anywhere, quickly and efficiently. In the years immediately following the end of hostilities, housing was one of the most serious problems facing the nation. Sources of materials, labour and cash were all stretched and local authorities were wrestling with shortages, the lack of houses and the skilled labour to build them.

The Yeovil Borough Council had been one of the pioneering housing authorities in the years before the war, and was anxious to continue to provide houses to meet acute need in the town. In November 1924, it appeared that the answer had been found. Local architects Messrs Petter and Warren FF.R.I.B.A, presented plans showing a pair of experimental 'Nissen-Petren' houses of a unique design and method of construction and which was estimated could be built for £350 or possibly less per house. The design was for a new type of roof construction based on the Lieut-Colonel Nissen's design, and was unique in that the main framework of the roof consisted of semicircular steel ribs, both ends of which were bolted to the concrete foundations of the building and this would take the whole weight of the roof. There would be considerable savings in the cost of building load-bearing exterior walls estimated to be about £100 per house. The roof would be put on at an early stage and included a patent metal covering with an inner sheet of steel suitably weather-proofed. It was claimed that the early roofing of the building would enable the interior walls, chimney breasts and fireplaces to be built irrespective of the weather. The houses would be built of concrete and mass produced from factory-made components; therefore most of the construction work could be carried out very quickly by unskilled labour. The Nissen-Petren House would have a scullery, bathroom, WC, larder, living room and one bedroom on the ground floor with two bedrooms upstairs.

Work began on the prototype houses in Goldencroft at the end of 1924, and a company was formed entitled The Nissen-Petren Houses Ltd, with the object of providing local authorities with plans of the houses and the organisation and supervision of the manufacture of the standardised components. The directors of the company included Sir Ernest Petter of Westland Aircraft and oil engine fame and Liet.Colonel Nissen.

The pair of prototype houses were finished in 1925 and the Council carried out an offical inspection followed by visits from representatives of the War Office, the Air Ministry, other public authorities and Press. However after the final accounts were presented the costs of building each of the protoypes was £513 11s 7d, some £160 more than estimated. The Architects considered this increase was justified by the experimental nature of the project, the economies of standarisation were not available, and more men had been employed than for a large scheme, They believed that a large scale development would reduce costs.

However as the costs were much higher than anticipated no more Nissen-Petren houses were built in Yeovil, although the Yeovil Rural District Council built some at Barwick, South Petherton and West Camel and the War Office and Admiralty had decided to build some for married quarters.

The Pair in Goldencroft were the first, they are unique being the prototype of a house that the designers and patrons believed would herald a leap forward in providing houses cheaply and quickly for the thousands of families who needed them. In 1983 the Department of the Environment listed the Goldencroft houses as being of Special Architectural Interest.

Taken from an essay by Jack Sweet January 2008.

Pictures supplied courtesy of Jack Sweet