Both Immingham and Scunthorpe have a varied collection of 20th century housing styles, much of it originally built as local authority housing. Various styles were pioneered in each community, both inter-War and post-War. The above photo. shows one such pioneering post-War style, the ‘Airey house’, so named from the surname of the architect/designer (the photo. above is of some examples in South Yorkshire and taken from Wikipedea). Airey houses were constructed from prefabricated walling sections bolted to a steel or concrete skeleton erected on site. Like the ‘prefabs’, small detached bungalows in ‘grounds’, Airey houses were designed so as to be built quickly to address the post-War housing shortage as well as the national commitment to build better housing. Initially things went well although transporting the ‘panels’ was not easy by road. However, it became apparent by the 1970s that the houses were suffering from ingress of water and damp which was weakening the structure, indeed by the 1980s it was difficult to get building society mortgages to buy such houses. There was also a problem with heating the houses as much heat was lost through the walling. Since then various ‘remedies’ have been tried as an alternative to demolition, some, I am informed, more successful than others. Damp and water getting into a building has been a constant problem across the ages, particularly in Great Britain, our variable maritime climate is as troublesome for buildings as it is for us (bronchitis use to be known as the ‘English disease’). Indeed the history of how this problem has been tackled is an interesting theme in itself.
It is interesting to note that medieval timber-frame buildings with wattle-and-daub infill as the walling could be surprisingly resistent to damp, especially if built on a low brick plinth. It was down to the carefullness that the daub was applied and the level of permiability of the bricks used.
(to be continued)