One hundred years of one house in Well Hall part 27 ....... answers

 This is the continuing story of one house in Well Hall Road and of the people who lived there including our family. *

Well Hall Road, 1950

Over the last few days, I have been exploring when the Progress Estate ceased being primarily a place for the families of Royal Arsenal Workers, and just when it became a place of home owners and not tenants.

Now most people know it was built to house those who made munitions in Woolwich during the Great War, and who paid rent rather than owned the properties.

When Dad bought 294 Well Hall in 1964, there were still plenty of people we knew who rented their homes, not that anyone of them worked making weapons.

Which begs the question of when things changed?

The dramatic fall in the number of Royal Arsenal workers at the end of the Great War is the most obvious reason for a change in the occupations of those who lived here.

In the case of our house, Mr. and Mrs Nunn who moved in 1916 from Ipswich were gone three years later and the house was occupied by a Police Sergeant and his family.

Walking in the estate, 1950

And that will have been replicated across the estate.  After all the London County Council who administered the houses for the Office of Works will have been keen to see no drop in the revenue from the rents they were paid.

But there is still the question of just when the properties begin to be sold off.

Dad bought 294 outright in 1964 from a young couple who had lived there since 1960, and if we still had access to the deeds, I could locate which of the residents after Mr. Nunn bought our house.

But I can’t.

Houses for sale, advert for houses, date unknown 

So instead, I have turned to Keith Billinghurst’s book, The Origins and Evolution of the Progress Estate, which is an excellent and very detailed account of the estate which sets the place in the context of the Garden Suburb development.

Along the way a series of tables on everything from the development of London’s suburbs to the numbers of residents on the estate.

As well as the inclusion of diagrams and plans showing houses and comparing them with similar garden suburbs.

But one of the real attractions has to be the descriptions of the roads around the estate and the origins of their names.

What’s more there is a comprehensive bibliography and index making it perfect for anyone wanting to follow up on the subject.

And the answers are all there.

Changes in housing legislation in 1967 made it easier for sitting tenants to buy their home and I guess many will have done so.

Our house, 1974

The surprise was that at the outset in 1916, 64 houses had been sold and while some were later bought back by the Progress Estate this was a surprise.

Even given that Royal Arsenal workers were well paid I wondered how they could have managed it, but in a conversation yesterday with Mr. Billinghurst it became apparent that some at least of the houses were reserved for managers who had to live close by.

So that is pretty much it, leaving me just to make the appeal for anyone who lives on the Estate and does have access to their deeds to check out when their home moved from rented to owned.

Location; Well Hall, Eltham

Picture; Well Hall Road in 1950, from Well Hall Estate, Eltham:  An Example of Good Housing Built in 1915, S.L.G. Beaufoy*** for sale advert undated advert courtesy of Philip Burkitt, and our house in 1974 from the collection of the Simpson family, cover of The Origins and Evolution of the Progress Estate, 2017

*One hundred years of one house in Well Hall, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2022/06/one-hundred-years-of-one-house-in-well_10.html

** The Origins and Evolution of the Progress Estate, Keith Billinghurst, 2017, costs £13.95 includes free delivery by second-class mail to addresses in the UK and there are discounts for those on the Estate and others living elsewhere in SE9.  

To order, either write to theprogressestate@gmail.com stating your name, address and phone number or call or text 07962 877389 to provide the same information.

*** Well Hall Estate, Eltham:  An Example of Good Housing Built in 1915, S.L.G. Beaufoy, The Town Planning Review Vol. 21, No 3, October 1950, Liverpool University Press