Keith emailed the Prefab Museum about the prefab he lived in, in Essex Square, Salisbury.
I was one-and-a-half when we moved in (Oct 53) and three-and-a-half when we moved out, so maybe three in the photos, and probably summer 55.
The girls would have been our neighbour’s two children, but that’s all I can tell you – my mum at 85 could have told you their names, favourite ice-cream flavour, etc, etc, and most likely was still exchanging Christmas cards with their parents…
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My father, Charles Arthur Samuel Standing, was a ‘charge hand’ at the Supermarine/ Vickers Armstrong ‘dispersed’ Spitfire factory located at first at the requisitioned Anna Valley Motor Works in New Street, Salisbury, and then at the relocated works in Castle Street, Salisbury. He, my mother, and my two older brothers were first of all evacuated from Woolston, Southampton to Ringwood, Hampshire, and then to 251 Essex Square, West Harnham at the very top of the road (nearest to Harnham Hill), where I was born on 26 December 1944! I can still remember the house, even though we moved to Wiltshire Road nearby when I was five. My mother always said how warm and comfortable the little ‘prefab’ bungalow was!
My father was also working in the Vickers factory on the 26th Sept 1940 in Woolston when it was bombed and was then moved to Salisbury working on the Spitfire, my parents lived at 208 Essex Square then. I was born in a home for unmarried mothers and in 1946 they adopted me and Essex Square was to be my first home. My father carried on working for Vickers and in the late 1940s he was transferred to Vickers in Swindon where I still live near. At this moment I am writing my autobiography, and obviously very thankful for the adoption they undertook in 1946.
At least some of the prefabs at Essex Square Salisbury must have been built during WW2. My Dad and Mum and my brother who was born in Feb 1941, lived at no. 227. Dad worked for Vickers Supermarine aircraft factory Woolston until it was destroyed by bombing on 26 September 1940. Dad was moved to Salisbury to work in the ‘Secret Spitfire’ factories. Dad and Mum and my brother lived at 227 Essex Square until the end of WW2 when they moved back home to Cornwall. Mum often talked fondly of their Prefab.
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