Hull Man to solve UK Housing Crisis (1925)

The current housing shortage crisis in the UK is nothing new. 

It is widely stated by activists and charitable housing organisations that there has been a systematic failure by successive governments over the last 40 years to come up with a committed and adequately funded policy to keep the population housed. 

In fact, the lack of a housing strategy goes back much further. 

There were good and laudable intentions after the First World War in the “Homes for Heroes” initiative and yes, some progressive and sustainable developments were taken through to completion and habitation. 

The actual numbers and locations however fell woefully short against actual need. We have, in this country, been on catch-up ever since. 

A prominent name in the mix to address the national housing shortage in the 1920’s was the Hull based, Robert Greenwood Tarran. 

He had seen a shortage in his home city alone of around 10000 homes and in 1925 he built, on Lorraine Street in the Stoneferry Area of East Hull, a pair of his Tarran build concrete houses for inspection and scrutiny by the Hull Corporation Housing Officials as well as inviting other Authorities and National Institutions. 

Other systems built houses were of course available and around the same time the Ministry of Health had been party to a demonstration of a Lord Weir Steel House. 

Robert Tarran had complete faith and confidence in his reinforced interlocking concrete block or panel method of house construction. 

His biggest obstacle was to persuade the Local Authorities but also the General Public that his methods and materials were as sound and durable as bricks and mortar. 

There was a strong resistance to the idea of anything other than traditional build and Tarran would have to work hard to achieve publicity and interest in his non traditional houses. There were also the equally important factors of cost and speed of building as in the years after the First World War there was a significant shortage of materials and skilled labour 

Tarran demonstrated that his houses could be built in just 28 days and with mainly unskilled labour. The key to his method was the casting of the concrete panels in moulds as a cheap and rapid factory based process. With suitable round iron reinforcement the panels came in 6 feet by 2 foot 9 inch units and with a 3 inch thickness. These were inserted into a timber or metal framework erected on a cast concrete base and under a pre-positioned up and over roof. 

Robert Tarran knew that, in order to win over the preconceived ideas of the authorities and the public, the finished product had to look like a standard house and not like a shed or outbuilding. The external finish was rendered, typically in smooth or pebble dash. Issues of inevitable sweating and condensation in the concrete components were countered by a good ventilation system which was an advancement of its type. 

Tarran was able to give an orthodox appearance to the house, a stable, rigid and weatherproof structure and a conventional floor plan. These attributes meant the houses could be regarded as permanent structures and would therefore be suitable to meet Government Funding Criteria for a 60 year loan. 

Two types were available, both of 3 bedrooms (at a time when older traditional brick houses in Hull were predominantly of just 2 bedrooms) and up to date amenities. The one living room version had a £425 cost in a ready to occupy condition and for £500 a parlour or second living room was available.

Tarran claimed that he could build 1000 of his houses over a 3 to 4 year period and would donate four homes for free to The Great War Trust. 

Housing Experts at that time were of the opinion that Tarran's houses exceeded any previous systems in replicating the expectations and public acceptability of a traditional bricks and mortar dwelling.

As a footnote, Tarran was well ahead of his time in the 1920's and although his company Tarran Industries were also Civil Engineers and prominent in major building projects in Hull in the pre war and inter war era it was not until the 1940's and beyond that his Concrete Houses came into their halcyon era. In all and on a National Basis Tarran built around 19000 houses. 

Tarran variant house types are still standing today but only where significant repair schemes to combat the corrosion and weakening of the metal reinforcement in the concrete panels and framing have been carried out. 

                                                Photograph of a post war era Tarran bungalow

The repatriation of Trump (The Goldfish - not the other)

I wrote this a few years ago now on the subject of the two goldfish that comprise the current official menagerie of our family, (Excluding the local wildlife of squirrels, magpies, pigeons and urban foxes) It is particularly relevant and not a little bit poignant because one of them died and the other is shortly to be repatriated to the Aquarium Shop as we are no longer able to keep him. The reasons are complicated. 

Here goes....

Having written the foregoing I am somewhat ashamed to admit that my two goldfish, constant companions to me in my work-room over the last 3 years remain without any names whatsoever.

I can explain this, partly, in that they were acquired as participants in the Iranian New Year Festival in 2015.

Amongst various symbols of renewal and tradition for Nowruz the fish represented life and creation as they swam around the glass bowl on a ceremonial table. I fully expected our Iranian friend to claim ownership of the fish and take them with him but no. It appears that after the New Year in Iranian Families the symbolic goldfish have served their purpose and just disappear. 

So, a few years further on and they are just behind where I sit at my desk, although in a much larger tank. The bubble and murmur of the filter and pump are hardly noticeable to me now although from time to time the fish flick the surface with their tales to disturb my concentration. This is usually as feeding time approaches or if they require a staring match through the thick glass of the tank which they seem to enjoy doing.

As for giving them names, well, I am pretty close to doing that with the catalyst being something that the pair of them have recently done within the few cubic feet of their environment.

It is only in the last week or so that, unbeknown to me and very much behind my back (actually behind where I sit) they have undertaken a large civil engineering project.

Half of the floor area of the tank is now exposed glass, devoid of any gravel or objects. In a painstakingly slow process by mouth or fin the two fish have created a sloping shelf or underwater beach from the small aggregate stones and pebbles that runs from the middle of the tank all of the way up to the outfall of the pump/filter.

Apparently this behaviour is quite normal for goldfish but in this case normal is not a word I would use.

The creation is geologically and topographically perfect over its 30 degree slope. In addition some sizeable stones which were collected during family holidays and excursions for their unusual shape and texture have been manoeuvred into very natural looking positions within and at the foot of the gradient.

This will have been no small feat given their density and ,what I had thought, immovability. 

I have been so engrossed in my own work that this major redevelopment scheme has gone unnoticed for so long. 

I cannot say which of the fish has assumed the roles of architect, designer, project manager and general labourer although they are very different in size and manner being from two distinct breeds

I can imagine that the larger of the two, a chubby, bossy and belligerent classical Carp shaped fish would be the instigator and the much smaller, delicate and flowing tailed one a bit of a fawning acolyte.

Yes, the fat fish is very bright orange, quite flamboyant and self assured and yet not in possession of the sharpest mind. His companion is subservient but I suspect very clever and a little bit devious in appearing to go along with the whims and fancies of the dominant partner and by doing so getting exactly what it wants.

I can therefore have the naming ceremony here and now.

The pair of fish will henceforth be called Trump and Kush.

There is some satisfaction in having reached this point but I am now a little bit concerned about what the outcome of the further fish tank based activities of Trump and Kush might be- a golf course, a wall or as a launch pad for aggression and mayhem in their own little world...............................................or beyond.

St Swithin and Soggy shoes

It has been the wettest July in the UK since records were made on such things. As Brits we complain but at the same time do not wish upon ourselves the other weather extreme being visited upon other parts of the world in heatwaves, wild fires, floods and drought. Here's a bit of a musing on water..... 

The following is an edited transcript of a BBC 4 extra radio play that aired some time ago now. The work, entitled "The State of Water" is a drama around a Welsh Hill farming family and the decisions they have to make to conserve the natural water resources on their land. 

The writer, Sarah Woods blends language and emotions with a factual thread which taps into the whole theme of water supplies and security which are becoming a significant consideration across the globe.

"Each of us is made up of 60% of water.

It is in our blood, heart, arteries, veins and capillaries.

It conducts the electrical signals in our brains to allow us to function. Water lubricates our joints, allows eyes to turn in their sockets, dissolves enzymes and hormones and carries amino acids, carbohydrates and minerals, carbon dioxide and electrolytes.

Of the 150 litres that each of us uses every day we drink only 6 litres. Some 50 litres is used in showers and spills from taps. 20 litres run through the washing machine, 45 litres are flushed down the toilet. The rest just drips away as we wash foodstuffs at the sink or brush our teeth.

We rely on water to produce just about everything in our lives.

A single tomato from seed to sandwich filling uses 13 litres of water. A hamburger from grazing pasture to the inside of a sesame seed bun takes 2400 litres. A pair of leather shoes is a consumer of 8000 litres and the production of a car, 400000 litres.

A sip of tea contains 136 drops of Indian water, the equivalent sip of coffee 1100 Brazilian drops. The perfect accompaniment for a roast dinner, potatoes were irrigated in Egypt. A refreshing orange comes from Spain and other citrus fruits from the sun drenched eastern Mediterranean.

Water surrounds particles and puts them in solution.

There are organic compounds from decaying plants, crypto spiridium from animal faeces, pesticides from the fields seep into the water in the absence of filtering peat and soils, slurry leaks into the watercourses and strangles the oxygen which asphyxiates the fish, over-use of fertilisers encourages a poisonous algae bloom, industrial processes leach iron, aluminium, tin, lead and cadmium into the water and this is joined by other toxic waste from car oil to rubbish tips, pollutants from cooling water as it is returned and heavy metals from panel beaters, dentists and university laboratories.

The solution bio-accumulates in our bodies and bones. The contraceptive pill and HRT put oestrogen into the water. Raindrops, thick and heavy with particulates from the burning of fossil fuels absorb Carbon and Nitrogen dioxides resulting in sulphuric and nitric acid. This increases as more rain releases aluminium and metals which kills insects and the wildlife that feed on them.

As the earth warms up ,water vapour fills the air. Summers around the globe and the natural aquifers become drier and as this happens there are greater demands for water.

Glaciers melt which causes problems for the 1 in 6 of the population who rely on meltwater. Sea level rises from glacial melt meaning that saltwater overwhelms freshwater supplies.

Downpours are more severe and concentrated and yet as half of the world suffers from devastating floods, the other withers from punishing drought.

Water is a finite resource and yet we take it for granted. Seagoing tankers take 36 million litres of freshwater from France to 330000 homes in Spain whose residents are in water crisis. 

There is no more and no less of it. We drink the water that our ancestors bathed in .

There is nothing to replace it with when it is gone."

Kick it Hard Lily

The second highest career goal scoring record behind Pele is from a much lesser known player whose games were played over the years 1920 to 1951.

Lily Parr's total of over 1000 goals is remarkable enough an achievement but even more so given the turbulence of the times which covered the implications and complications of two world wars, a major economic depression between and the emotive political and social events for the acceptance of women in the male dominated world of just about everything.

The mass and necessary recruitment of women as a labour force to cover for the conscripted male workers into the first world war drew the attention of the Government to the wider health and welfare issues of women. 

A healthy and happy workforce were a productive and less troublesome and potentially militant group.

The Preston, Lancashire based manufacturers Dick, Kerr and Company had been established in 1900 specialising in the tram and light railway sector but switched to essential war work in 1915 making munitions.. 

The factory employed a predominantly female staff on the production lines and within the remit of keeping key workers fit and healthy a football team was formed taking the company name.

Rival industrial and manufacturing companies also former their own teams and around 150 were registered within what became a very competitive league structure. 

The Munitions Cup, played for in 1917, by the Munitionettes as a wider descriptive term for the participating ladies teams was watched by a crowd of 10,000 at the ground of the great mens team of that era, Preston North End. The crowd attending raised £600 for wounded soldiers.

The ladies game was not confined to the war years and by the early 1920's it was well established and experiencing its halcyon days. 

The Dick, Kerr Ladies were prominent and played 60 competitive matches during the 1921 season in front of an aggregate attendance of 900,000. A crowd of 53,000 was present at Goodison Park in Liverpool to watch the Dick, Kerr Ladies beat close rivals St Helens Ladies.

The success and genuine support for the ladies league caused grave concern amongst the crusty old Football League administrators and in a calculated but spiteful move they issued a ban on the use of any League grounds for the playing of ladies matches. 

In their expert evidence to support the ban various medical practitioners were produced to express concern over what dangerous impact playing football could have on fertility and femininity. 

The ban remained in place until 1971.

The Dick, Kerr Ladies continued to flourish and amongst their honours were multiple league titles, International victories including tours to France and the USA and reaching a pinnacle in 1937 becoming World Champions. 

Against the well entrenched establishment and remnants of the austerity of the Victorians which still dominated society and attitudes the team were the first in the women's game to wear shorts. 

Archive photographs of the team resemble a line up of dancing girls, nimble,graceful and lithe but wearing heavy leather football boots and with a bit of a sun tan. The team fell out with the bosses over some undefined 'tut-trouble at factory' and reformed as Preston Ladies until 1965.

The significance of the achievements of the Dick, Kerr Ladies cannot be understated. 

They were brave pioneers at a time when women had no real voice in politics or society. They rose above the petty and what would always be temporary concessions required by the circumstances of the first world war and continued to excel and attract a very good following and fan base through the heady days of the 1920's. 

The names of Lily Parr, Florrie Redford and Alice Kell amongst all of the players have tended to be forgotten apart from dedicated archivists who maintain an excellent web based resource. The stars of the team were inducted into the Football League Hall of Fame but as a gesture it was too late and a bit patronising.

Lily Parr was challenged by a male goalkeeper to try to score a spot-kick past him. He had observed her obvious footballing skill and ability, in particular her reputed very hard shot, but was under the impression that it only looked to be a hard kick in the company of other women team mates. 

Taking up the challenge Lily was seen to smile when the unfortunate chauvinistic keeper was taken off to hospital with a broken arm from the impact of her penalty kick.