Building Butts Farm

The Building of Butts Farm Housing, Hanworth

Cast your mind back to the end of Word War II. What did our cities, towns and villages look like? Bomb damage everywhere. Many buildings just piles of rubble. More than 2,000,0000 homes were destroyed – more than 60% of these in London. A great many others were severely damaged. 1,400,00 Londoners were bombed out of their homes between September 1940 and May 1942 (The Blitz). It meant that many families that survived the bombardment were faced with the tragedy of homelessness.

Britain was not prepared for homelessness on such a scale. State assistance was inadequate. Emergency centres set up to deal with the problem could not cope. Many families had to rely on friends and relatives.

The job of repairing buildings during the war was hampered because many craftsmen and labourers had joined the Armed Services. Temporary dwellings – often little more than huts – began to spring up. In some of the worst affected arrears – for example the East End of London – the families were still living in pre-fabricated bungalows long after the war ended.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schoolradio/history/worldwar2audioclipslibrary_clip13.shtml

The Bombing of Feltham in WW II – by the Feltham History Group.

Statistics:

Feltham between 50 & 99 bomb per 1,000 acres

Daylight raids pre 7^th October1940: 20 HE bombs

Night bombing 7^th October 1940 to 19^th March 1941: 20 bombing raids

Heaviest night 29^th/30^th November 1940

Night bombing 19^th April 1941 to 28^th July 1941: 3 bombing raids

Night bombing 7th/8^th October 1943: 1 bombing raid

Night bombing 4^th January 1944 to 24^th March 1944: 5 bombing raids

V1 Flying bombs June to August 1944: 4 incidents

42 civilian fatalities

The Honeslaw Chronicle – The Hounslow & District History Society Autumn 2008. Feltham Library, Local History.

Many of those Londoners were relocated to the suburbs (which was a culture shock to some of them – even today we find them wishing they could return there). Where to rehouse all those people who were then in temporary and often over crowded accommodation? One of Twickenham Council’s ideas was to build a housing estate. Looking in their area they could not find enough spare land. Their eyes then rested on the area in Hanworth known as Butts Farm; which was then under the control of Feltham Council. There then was the reason for the foundation of Butts Farm housing estate.

All that most of the early residents of Butts Farm knew was that Twickenham Council had built Butts Farm, although it came under Feltham Urban District Council. Then came my visit to Richmond Local Studies Centre to read the Twickenham Council’s Committee Meetings’ Minutes. I thought there may be a glancing mention but there are many pages devoted to Butts Farm; some with just one sentence others go over to two or three pages. Thankfully they are typed and ordered into big ledgers with an index. This is my findings so far and more will be added.

Compulsory Purchase Orders were issued for the 36 different sites\plots that made up Butts Farm. The plots ranged in size from 17.5 acres to 0.3 of an acre. I was surprised that the plots were not all taken over on the same day e.g. I thought it would have been that on a particular time and date the possession would pass from the previous owners to the new owner, that was not so, as I have found that the purchasing happened over a period of years. Perhaps it was a case of saving money – no need to buy it until it was needed.

Previous to the estate being built there was only Sunningdale Avenue and the part of Saxon Avenue to the roundabout. The first homes to be built on Butts Farm were 100 steel-framed houses.

This is what I have noted so far from Twickenham Council Committee Meeting Minutes – Richmond Local Studies Library– updates are in red

And other exciting items mentioned: acquisition of land, allotments, dustbins, front fences, house numbering, kerbing, layout, and potato crop. I am a little puzzled as to why the council was purchasing seed potatoes in huge quantities.