The builders and planners

Above: List of tenders for each plot and costs. Image courtesy Bolton Museum and Library Services.

Above: One of our researchers Linda with the original plan for the estate, in Bolton History Centre. This was a very exciting moment for the research team. We had received a tip-off from David French – volunteer at Bolton Museum and Library Services he was cataloging maps, he’d found ours!

Who built the houses?

Bolton Corporation’s Housing Committee minutes and newspaper cuttings for the late 1920s/early 1930s, show several references to the Council’s aspirations, to build through “Direct Labour”- essentially creating what we now know as Bolton at Home.

1925 the Committee refer to this department as the “Joint Permanent Committee for Building Industries.”

Costs are submitted by the Housing Director, August 1930, for half the estate to be built by William Townson & Sons Ltd; the rest by Direct Labour. However by September 1930 these plans change and, instead, William Townson & Sons Ltd are contracted to build all 477 homes within eight months. The Minutes do not tell us why there was a change of plan.

Above: 1950s advert for William Townson & Sons Ltd who won the tender to build the estate 1930s.. Bolton Directory courtesy Bolton Museum and Library Services.