Lavender Hill Housing Association

The Lavender Hill Housing Association Ltd was formed on 5th May 1952 as a private limited company under the Friendly Societies Act. It had 26 members and its members built 14 semi-detached bungalows in Scott Road, Olton (believed to be nos. 92-118) and 12 semi-detached bungalows in Rushbrook Close (believed to be nos. 2-16 and 15-21), with construction starting in summer 1954.

Founding of the Association

The secretary of the mutual house-building association, Mr Syd Harding, a floor layer, told the Birmingham Weekly Post the story of the association, which was published in the newspaper on 20th July 1956.

Early in 1952, two men, who subsequently left the group, posted advertisements in shops around Acocks Green and Yardley asking those interested in a self-building group to get in touch. In April 1952, 40 attended a first meeting, 36 of whom decided to go ahead.

They formed a committee of seven, elected a secretary and a foreman, and took a name from the film then very popular. Mostly they were engineering workers. Only the foreman, a carpenter, and a plumber had any experience useful in building. The committee, elected annually, was responsible for the group’s affairs.

Their eyes were open to the sacrifices entailed in building their own bungalows. They knew, too, that their families might find it an even greater sacrifice – this purchase of a home at the cost of four years’ deprivation of family life, given that almost all the men’s leisure time had to be devoted to building their home.

Waiting for land

An article about the Lavender Hill Housing Association appeared in the Birmingham Daily Gazette, 5th July 1954, describing how the group was formed 27 months previously and spent two years searching for a site.

On Sunday 4th July 1954, eight new members of the “Lavender Hill Mob” had a bricklaying training session with a Sheldon self-build housing group – the U-build It Housing Association. This group undertook to give them some training on the job, so for 18 months the U-Built-It Group got additional unpaid labour, while the Lavender Hill Mob got experience.

During the long wait for land the group met weekly at The Swan, Yardley. There the design of the bungalows was discussed and determined by popular vote: one large and two smaller bedrooms, a spacious breakfast-room kitchen, lounge, cloakroom, main hall, bathroom, and separate toilet.

Certain minimum standards were laid down, but prospective occupants could improve on these in the construction of their own bungalows, and at their own cost. Thus, while bathroom standard was half white tiles with a black cap, Harry Jones preferred pink tiles. Slight constructional modifications were allowed, in bedroom sizes, for instance, and photographer Arthur Greenwood arranged to have his bungalow wired to include a dark room.

The Lavender Hill Housing Association eventually found a suitable site on the Pierce Avenue estate at Chapel Fields, Olton, beneath the canal embankment just south of Lincoln Road North bridge, and were inspired by seeing the United Effort group just finishing their two dozen or so bungalows. A hut was erected, land drains put in, trees uprooted, and the now experienced bricklayers among their number found some second-hand bricks and taught the newer members.

The secretary of the mutual house-building association was Mr Syd Harding, 28-year-old floor layer. He said that during the wait for land, the original 36 members dwindled to 22.

Up to 70 had belonged during this period with some getting tired of waiting, some finding suitable accommodation. When the moment to begin construction arrived, a final decision was needed. Only those really serious need continue. They numbered 26.

The newspaper reported that the group – mostly workers in engineering factories – intended to start building during Birmingham’s industrial holiday fortnight, which would begin on 24th July 1954. The plan was to build 26 six-roomed bungalows.

Building begins

Each member put £25 into the group, and application was made through Solihull Council to the Public Works Loan Board for a group mortgage on 26 properties – £1,250 on each bungalow.

Each member paid a weekly subscription of 7s 6d, reduced by 1956 to 5s. This covered general running expenses and the purchase of the group’s tools, plumbing gear, a lorry, and three cement mixers. It was not redeemable, but any member leaving the group would get their £25 back.

Leases for the buildings were granted in three lots, for eight, eight and ten bungalows. In each lease, the first pair had to be advanced to the first stage – footings and concrete raft – before the mortgage was granted. Thereafter, it was paid as each stage of the building was completed, each stage being passed by the building inspector of Solihull Council.

By May 1955 it was reported that work on the first four of the 26 bungalows was underway. The Lavender Hill Mob, in workaday life, were grinders, fitters, sheet metal workers, machinists, floor layers – anything but builders. Their foreman, Harry Jones, was a carpenter.

The only jobs contracted out were roof-tiling, plastering and glazing – everything else was done by members of the Lavender Hill Association.

Working hours

As members of the association the men worked 24 hours a week – Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights (by floodlight in winter), Saturday 2 to 8pm (with a break for radio football results), and Sunday 9am to 6pm. The group’s Treasurer, Harry King, was allowed two evenings per week off building in order to work on the accounts.

Bank holidays were full work days except Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Members were asked, wherever possible, to take their annual holiday to coincide with Birmingham’s industrial fortnight. In 1955, there was full attendance during the fortnight and great progress.

The Birmingham Weekly Post, 20th July 1956, reported that working on the bungalows kept Raymond Hough and Harry Jones away from the terraces cheering the “Blues” into the First Division and into the Cup Final. Jack Mills forewent his Sunday fishing, Ray Whitehouse gave up his tennis, John Lane his model-making, George Smith his sports meetings, and Arthur Greenwood his photographic expeditions into the country.

Knowle Town Football Club turned out in the West Midland Alliance without Bill Kington and a works cricket eleven was short of Philip James. Reg Stokes was unable to augment his savings by spare-time work as a motor mechanic.

Always there was one man off site on a week’s leave, but as this does not coincide with his holiday from work he cannot use it to take his family away. A member missing any work period makes it up on a Saturday morning or non-working night.

Known members:

Jack Bartlett – moved into bungalow 2 (94 Scott Road) with his wife, and seven-year-old son, Keith.
Howard Campion – seems to have moved into the final (14th) bungalow in Scott Road (no. 118).
Arthur Greenwood – he learned glazed tiling so well with the U-Built-It group that he became the Lavender Hill mob’s acknowledged expert.
Sydney Harding – floor layer. Secretary of the group in 1954.Prior to the completion of his bungalow, he had a 90-min journey each way on three buses from Northfield.
Raymond Hough – painter and decorator
Philip James
Harry Jones – carpenter. Foreman in 1954
Harry King – treasurer of the group in 1956
Bill Kington – plumber
John Lane – whose wife, son and two daughters lived with John’s father.
Jack Mills – foreman storekeeper with the Midland Electricity Board who specialised in lintels and anything concrete during his work for the Lavender Hill Housing Association.
Fred Mosley – floor tile layer. He occupied bungalow 1 in December 1955 with his wife and two children
Derek Pegler – in bungalow 4. He travelled from Erdington prior to moving into his completed bungalow in Scott Road.
Jack Perks – secretary in 1956
Bill Reeve – occupied bungalow 3
George Smith – a press operator, aged 44 (in 1956) the oldest man in the group. After living with his mother-in-law, he moved into bungalow 8 with his wife and 12-year-old son.
Norman Smith
Reg Stokes – Motor mechanic. foreman in 1956
George Treen – worked in the same car factory as Norman Smith. They are mates in their spare time.
Ray Whitehouse – electrician

Allocation of houses

Bungalows were allocated on seniority in the group, and members became tenants only, although each owned one twenty-sixth part of 26 bungalows. It was hoped that the first pair of houses would be completed during the summer of 1955.

In fact, the first house, no. 92 Scott Road, was occupied in December 1955 by Fred Mosley with his wife and two children, followed by houses for Jack Bartlett and then Bill Reeve. Eight properties had been completed by July 1956 and the target was completion of an additional bungalow each month.

Completion

The group as a whole paid just the interest from the date of the first mortgage cheque until a bungalow was occupied.

When the tenant moved in, they took over payment of principal and interest. In 1956, this was £2 2s weekly.

While the limited company existed no member was the sole owner of his bungalow. Each owned one twenty-sixth of the property completed so far.

When the 26 bungalows were completed, the decision had to be made as regards whether the company remained in being it would have to be by a three-quarters majority, and with the benediction of Solihull Council.

A decision for the company to go into liquidation and make over each property to the occupier would be complicated by the fact that each property carried a Government subsidy of 9s 6d per week, because it is built for rent, not for sale. The accumulated subsidy would have to be refunded on a bungalow becoming private property.

Each bungalow cost around £1,100 by the time it was built but it was said that the completed homes were worth between £2,500 and £3,000 each.

If you have any further information about the Lavender Hill Housing Association, please let us know.

Tracey
Library Specialist: Heritage & Local Studies

© Solihull Council, 2025.
You are welcome to link to this article, but if you wish to reproduce more than a short extract, please email: heritage@solihull.gov.uk