The Estate - Bevendean History Project
Peter Grainge Remembers the Prefabs
Maud and Harry Dibbell, the tenants, are left and right of Peters mother Gladys Grainge.
The prefab in Heath Hill Avenue was the home of friends of my parents. As a child I spent most summer holidays there from the age of about five to about ten.
To get there from the town I recall that you turned off Lewes Road into The Avenue. Part of the way to the prefab there were some shops, maybe six or so. You then continued along the road until you came to the prefabs. (Peter has described how to get to the prefabs perfectly, but most of the shops have gone now.)
Peter continues, I think this particular one would be about half way along on the right with your back to the Lewes Road.
One of the features I remember is that the prefabs all had fridges, a rare luxury in the early 1950s.
I recall that if you walked further along the road away from the Lewes Road there was somewhere on the left that you could enter a track that lead up to a hill where you could look down on the prefabs. (This is the track known as Juggs Lane which goes over the Downs to Falmer and Lewes).
During the years I went there some bungalows were built on the hill behind the prefabs. Standing in Heath Hill Avenue with your back to the Lewes Road, the bungalows were on the right in another road. This was Plymouth Avenue where the bungalows were built in the early 1950s.
Harry and Maud Dibbell lived at 24 Heath Hill Avenue; they are listed in the electoral registers from 30 June 1948 to 16 February 1955.
In the electoral register dated 16 February 1960 there is no mention of 24 Heath Hill Avenue, but by this time demolition of the prefabs had started. Peter recalls that Harry was relocated to some flats possibly on the Lewes Road and he thinks that Maud was deceased before then. They took in a stray cat in 1946 and it was still alive in 1965!
Peter also remembers that one of the bungalows in Plymouth Avenue was occupied by a family by the name of Chessil and in addition to the husband and wife there was a daughter Angela, a child at that time. The electoral registers for Bevendean show that Herbert and Eileen Chessil lived at 26 Heath Hill Avenue in 1955, next door to Harry and Maud Dibbell and in 1960 they were living at 46 Plymouth Avenue. This would have been in one of the bungalows on the hill in the background of the photograph.
The prefabs were replaced by bungalows between built 1959 and 1960. Bevendean Self-Build Association constructed 24 semidetached bungalows on the south side of the road while Apex Self-build Association constructed 26 semidetached bungalows on the north side.
Diane George remembers Peter Grainge
Bev_Estate_story_021
