The Middy March 18 1999

Bricks and mortar

In 1936, a famous Austrian dowser Professor Emerich Herzog made an aerial survey of Mid Sussex

 Hs findings were startling. He claimed there were vast quantities of oil south of Haywards Heath – enough to produce ‘wealth beyond the dreams of any ordinary Englishman’.

Haywards Heath never became the Dallas of Mid Sussex. But the wealth he spoke of did materialise, in the form of bricks and mortar.

With vast tracts of land to the south of the town now earmarked for development, Haywards Heath has become a developer’s goldmine.

The history of house building  in the town is unique. For behind the demand for grand villas and detached executive style homes lie attempts to champion the needs of the lowest wage earners.

The needs of the poor were first addressed by Lindfield Quaker and philanthropist William Allen in the 1820s, when he set up an experimental settlement on a parcel of land near what is now America Lane.

The settlement kept labourers off the Poor Rate, providing them with cottages and allotments to grow crops and vegetables.

Linked by a bridleway to Graveley Lane House, where Allen lived, it became known as ‘The colony’ or ‘America’ – names which alluded to the activities of 17th-century Quaker William Penn, who was admired by Allen, and went to America to colonise Pennsylvania.

Gladys Mitchell's father, who earned £1 a week as a farm labourer, moved the family into Allen's colony in 1914. The tiny two bedroom cottage, with no running water, had formally been occupied by a family with 14 children.

The rent was 4s 6d a week with ground rent of 10s a year. Made of wattle and daub, the single story thatched cottage was lit by candles and oil lamps. The scullery and kitchen had brick floors, a built-in copper, bread oven and range. Water was drawn from a well shared by two other cottages.

The outside privy had a removable bucket and trough with ashes and was at the end of the cottage grounds which stretch for more than an acre

Cocooned by woods and meadows rich in wildflowers, Allen’s settlement was caught in a time warp, a world apart from Haywards Heath's rapid expansion characterised by almost chaotic unplanned development.

A network of new roads and avenues sprang up, but no ‘streets’ – a reflection of Haywards Heath’s status as an affluent commuter town. By the 1920s and 30s houses were going up in Edwards Road, Park Road and on Lucastes estate.

Such was the impetus for House building that essential services could barely keep pace. One complainant writing to the mid Sussex Times in 1924 declared: “The water supply is still poor, being cut off entirely on Mondays from about 8 am to 12:30 pm because forsooth, as I was told, ‘Haywards Heath washes on that day!’ Ye Gods, someone else must also wash on Saturdays and Sundays as the water supply is short on those mornings also.”

Gradually, there was a shift away from the renting properties to buying them.,Mortgages were being taken out in the less prosperous areas of town – Sydney Road, Gower Road and Queens Road – a sign that house buying was within the reach of skilled working men.

Private houses were still beyond the income of unskilled workers and with little, if any control over private rents, the demand for cheap affordable housing grew.

A survey by Haywards Heath Urban District Council in 1923 revealed 87 people in urgent housing need.

Builders were offered a subsidy of £76 18s 6d for each home they agreed to construct for rent. But the incentive is too low and not a single builder accepted the terms.

The council was left with the option of building its own houses using a government loan of 27,000

The building programme for the first 50 council houses began in 1924.

The site, off New England Road, was a logical choice. Already owned by the council and used for allotments it was close to New England Road main sewer. Woodlands Road and Mayflower Road linked the new homes together.

Bents Wood, part of the picturesque woodland backdrop to Allen's colony, was developed for more council housing in the late 1920s.

By the mid-30s, the governments housing subsidies had virtually dried up and councils could no longer afford such a massive house building programmes.

Haywards Heath Rotary club took up the course and set up a unique scheme to build cheap affordable housing on a site at Franklands Wood.

Their motives were not purely altruistic. The Rotarians were leading businessmen of the day and stood to gain by implementing a house building programme to stimulate the economy and employment.

Ronald Hardy, a notable Rotarian owned a brick works in Freshfield lane, Horsted Keynes, and supplied all the bricks for the development which became Franklands village.

Other Rotarians contributed financially or supplied vital raw materials.

Famous local architect and Rotarian H. G. Turner designed the estate which contained wide grass verges, flowering trees and ample room for gardens.

The 300 homes were made up of semi-detached three bedroom houses rented out for 12s 6d a week, two bedroom flats at 9s 6d and one bedroom flats at 7s 6d

The Rotarian set up the Haywards Heath Housing Society to run the village and prospective tenants were carefully vetted.

The first homes were left in 1935 and at a special dinner to mark the occasion, a speaker emphasised the need for community spirit to create a real village atmosphere: “Neighbours should be people you welcome, instead of putting your washing out so you can't see them, or at those whose cat you throw a  boot", he quipped.

The new village had its own post office and shop, library, social centre and weekly mother and baby clinic. Like Allen's colony, it was a carefully planned, self supporting community – a far cry from the worst excesses of piecemeal development.

The creation of the village coincided with the demise of Allen’s colony of America Lane. Suffering from damp and lacking adequate sanitary conditions, the old cottages were served with a demolition order in 1936.

Houses along Allen Road were built on the site of the former colony and some of the old bricks from the cottages chimney stacks were incorporated into the new homes.

Gladys Mitchell moved into a three bedroomed council house in Allen Road in 1938 and every evening she could look out onto an old apple tree in her new garden – the very same tree that had been in her old cottage grounds.

By the outbreak of World War II, the colony’s idyllic rural setting had been transformed into a bustling community of bricks and mortar. A lingering reminder of Allen's colony are the street names – Allen Road, America Lane, Mayflower Road, Boston Road, the Golden Eagle – formerly the Pilgrim 

Acknowledgements: The story. of Haywards Heath by Wyn Ford