Originally Posted by
Doris Mousdale
In the sixties we were offered a corporation house in Macketts Lane or Cantril Farm because of Slum Clearance in Liverpool 5. My parents went and had a look and decided they didn't want to live in either place ( You were given a choice of three places at the time ) They had a look at houses for sale and chose one in West Derby. The house was three thousand pounds with a four hundred pound deposit and fifteen pounds a month for twenty five years.
After paying a pound a week it was a big increase and just a bit more than the corporation rent would have been down Macketts Lane.They stayed in the house paid off the mortgage and houses in the road are selling for between 160 to 190 thousand pounds now. The neighbour who went to Halewood is still paying rent.
Much the same with my parents. When first married they lived as lodgers in a friend's house. My dad was away at sea and my mum worked in a factory. Later on my dad went on to work in factories and my mum became a shop girl. They didn't have unlimited income, but what they had they struggled to put down money for a 3 bed house in a quiet road which was Wolverton st. This was late 1950s, I think the cost was something similar to what you have quoted, but I've a feeling the price of our house was a bit less. (must ask for curiosity) .. but I do know the house price sounds laughable to today's prices!
div>
Originally Posted by
Doris Mousdale
Some good people coped with the change, flourished, treated their houses like little palaces,places of great pride,but you know it only takes one rubbish collector who stores broken down cars "for spares" one bad garden and a crowd of feral kids tagging fences, a couple of horrible dogs and an agressive loudmouth living in the street and it all turns to custard.
Yes, I definitely agree with this.
.. this is what I mean when I said about people can make or break a place.
As I said in another post, even if you are poor and don't have much resources, you can make the best of things until your situation improves. There is no excuse to live in your own tip of your own making ! Even in a bad situation, you can at least attempt to live in a civilised manner!
Originally Posted by
Doris Mousdale
My point is it was a leap of faith, a change from going with what was expected back then.
but what happens,years later, when a more needy family comes along, more deserving of your lovely little house and garden and legally all you are entitled to is a one bedroom flat in a run down block what rights do you have?
Funny you should mention this - it just happened to someone I know only last week - living in a 4 bedroom council house for over 16 or 17 years - family now flown the nest - so now been moved into a one bedroom place last week.
Originally Posted by
Doris Mousdale
I know it is the land value rather than the bricks and mortar which rises in value.
The point is nobody GAVE them anything. They bought the freehold on the land it was something like five pounds a year ground rent in the 60s. So they paid the landowner a couple of hundred to freehold.
ps, Doris, I just checked with my mum, she says our first house in Wolverton st was 11 hundred pounds !!
it sounds unbelievable now with todays prices !
She says you paid weekly - like paying rent - with no other costs. My mum says garden houses were a bit more expensive, ours was less because it was a terraced with a back yard.
Bookmarks