Liverpool & South West Lancashire FHS - Forum

Hi
Can anyone tell me when Lilac Avenue and Leigh Avenue Widnes Corporation houses where built please
amottershead

Hi
Dont know the exact years but sure they were in the 1930s Lilac Avenue is in the Fairfield estate of Peelhouse Lane I beleive that was the first council estate built it even had gas lighting. Leigh Avenue probably came soon after.
For exact dates the council may be able to help.
Cheers

You could try searching the Widnes Building Plans database which is available on the Cheshire Records Office website.
http://www.cheshirewestandchester.gov.u ... plans.aspx

Thankyou Chris for your reply-----I was born and lived in Widnes until I married so I know Widnes of the 1940's and 50's !!!!
Also to TexT --the site you suggested was a very good site but no Council Houses!
Cheers from amottershead

If you Google Lilac Avenue there a few for sale.
Perhaps email the real estate agents!

Tina

To Tex T
Thank you for the link to the Widnes building plans data base - very interesting.
I searched for Derby Road in Farnworth and quite a number of properties came up. Unfortunately it was not possible to identify the plans for a particular address - I am looking for 110 where I grew up and lived between 1945 and 1964. My family lived there for many years.
Any idea how I can identify the relevant plans? As I live in Sweden a personal visit is not possible.
Thanks
E Gandy
4873

In some cases, as you might have seen, house numbers are mentioned in the datebase entries. However, these seem to be when alterations are being made to existing buildings. So unless the one you are interested in has had alterations, it will be difficult to identify.

On the couple of plans I have seen there is usually a small drawing showing the location of the new houses in relation to existing buildings in the area. But you obviously have to see the plans to work out where they are located.

The (present) 110 Derby Road is one of eight terrace houses opposite the Griffin pub. Looking at the houses on Google Street View it seems to me that 110 and the three to its left are of a different style to the four on its right. So when looking for the plans for 110 it is likely that it would be an application for four houses, this would at least reduce the number of plans to look for.

Something to bear in mind though, house renumbering might have taken place at some point, so 110 now might have been a different number in the past (for example, my great great grandfathers house number in Widnes Road changed several times as more building were added to the road). Also, has that section of Derby Road containing 110 always been called Derby Road, as it is split by Peelhouse Lane/Farnworth Street at this point?

Thanks for your reply. The name Derby Road was in use at least as early as 1860 and continued at least as far as Marsh Hall. Earlier it was called Puzzle pate, reason and meaning unknown. The cottages Derby Road 102-108 were built aroud 1795, early Georgian, and had small walled front gardens when I lived there. Numbers 100-116 were built later in a different style and cheaper materials. No bathrooms in those days and outdoor WC, only coal fire for heating, no hot water. Very damp and unhealthy. Number 110 was damaged by the land mine which went down in Marsh Hall Road during the war.

As to the original query about Lilac Avenue, I found this in George Diggle's A History of Widnes (p.151)." Between the wars marked progress was made in the provision of more and better houses. Between the years 1919 and 1939, 4,692 houses were built, 2,092 of them erected by the local authority...
Housing estates, every house provided with a garden, grew up at Fairfield Road, Lockett Road, Kingsway, Moor Lane, Lowerhouse Lane, Halebank and Derby Road." The houses in the Lilac Avenue area are very similar in style to those mentioned and I think this indicates they were part of the same building programme.
Eric Gandy