NextBackuring this period Bryants were building the flats in Salters Lane and the one side of the road in Foxlydiate Crescent and my firm went on to build the Cornish type houses on the opposite side of the road. These houses were pre-fabricated, the parts numbered like a giant Meccano set and were made from the waste china clay from St. Austell in Cornwall.
Two men came from Cornwall to show us how to assemble the units and two tradesmen assisted by two labourers were able to construct a pair of houses to chamber joist level (bedroom floor level) in three days. Some of the older tradesmen queried this method of construction because it was considered like living in a concrete box on the ground floor and was extremely liable to condensation problems leading to dampness and mould, I understand, many years later it was necessary to add insulation.
This was after the footings had be built and these were made from large concrete hollow blocks, made in Arthur Street by a firm owned by Mr Levine, who I believe was Swedish and was the second husband of local operatic singer Mavis Bennett. They were transported to the site by well known haulier called George Lostitch .
Unfortunately, during the winter of 1951 the continual rain water which came down the hill from Foxlydiate Wood kept on flooding the foundation trenches which had to be continually pumped out and re excavated causing my employer to go into liquidation.
