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Re: Woodnook slums!
Only just seen this forum point today and I see it has been going on for some time.
I grew up in the forties & fifties at number 5 Belfield road (2 up and 2 down), but left the UK in 1967 to go to Switzerland, where I’ve been ever since. I vividly remember the many happy times that we had sledging down Wilfred Street during the cold winters of the late Forties and early fifties. The pantomime shows for us Kids being put on in the social club of Highams, playing on Riley’s Hill and up Priestly Clough etc. etc.
I was back on a visit in May of this year after some 30 years or so. Wow have things changed!
I agree mainly with what has been said already regarding:
- Knocking down and rebuilding
- Keeping the houses as they are and refurbishing them
- The old Higham’s factory buildings
- Etc., etc
Whether to knock down, or refurbish depends mainly on what is possible at what price. What I saw in May on Wilfred Street and Augusta Street was very impressive, and where possible there should be more of this type of refurbishing continuing.
On the other hand when I got around to Belfield Road I was disgusted at what I saw, with windows being boarded up and some properties really looking dilapidated, not to mention (as somebody already said) the waste land that was Highams employing a few hundred people. It really is time that here something should be ASAP.
Cheers
Philip Kenyon
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