Just under 100 years ago, Birstall had the unenviable title of the worst local authority in the country for its percentage of people living in overcrowded homes, though this by no means implied it had the worst slums problem.
In June, 1914, 23 per cent of the population of 7,072 were living in conditions of more than two persons per room: 2,067 people lived in two-room dwellings, 66 of those families having from six to nine people per house.
By March, 1918, not one hou
se had been built during the war and the council decided to advertise for suitable building land and engage a consulting surveyor.
A year later, more than 23 per cent of the population – 1,659 people – were still living in overcrowded conditions: 49 one-roomed houses contained 88 folk, 613 two-roomed houses contained 2,067 (as in 1914) and the 559 three-roomed houses contained 2,416.
Twenty five acres of land beyond Church Street was bought in 1919 and work started on the Nova Estate in 1920. The plan was for 197 houses, but cuts in government subsidies saw a modified scheme of 70 houses built within two years. All were three-bedroomed with living room and scullery.
The first tenants praised the houses, but found the cost high. They paid 14s a week for nine months (7s 9d rent plus rates and charges) and the bare rent of 7s 9d for three months.
A further 69 houses, mainly of the same type, were built from 1923 to 1926 and still only half the site had been built on.
By July, 1927, there were only 20 names on the UDC housing waiting list, but the overcrowding problem still existed, down only slightly to 20 per cent.
Private enterprise was responsible for pockets of housing here and there and the early 1930s saw increased private works.
A five-year programme included proposed demolition of 40 houses in Leeds Road, Gelderd Road, Raikes Lane, Sands Fold, Jackson Street and Cobbler Hill. But other matters intervened – first came municipal amalgamation with Batley in 1937 and then another war.
The old Birstall Council had acquired a 13.5-acre site at Fieldhead Lane and just weeks before the war started, Batley Council announced plans for 160 houses on it. But after the war the government would not allow building at Fieldhead as it was considered valuable agricultural land.
In mid-1947 Birstall had 1,000 people living in 300 unfit houses, with another 150 houses hopelessly overcrowded. It was said there were numerous cases of 10 people, adults and children, sleeping in one bedroom.
By 1949 the first houses were trickling on to Fieldhead Estate, displacing the endless rows of oats and barley. A slow build-up through the 1950s took the total to 120 by 1956, with four times as many more to come. Later that year came the start of demolition of property in the Chandler Hill area.
A big redevelopment plan announced in 1960 comprised a £100,000 estate on the feast ground site off Market Street and clearance of property in the triangle formed by Low Lane, High Street and Church Street. This triangle had prompted this description: "Dark, dismal houses with little windows and bulging walls, some of them well over 200 years old, are interlaced with dark alleys and steps, making it an uninviting area to live in."
But clearance was slow and piecemeal.
The 1960s saw both local authority and private house building expand with the rise of estates at the Windmill, Howden Clough, Carr Street and Copley Hill.
By the early 1980s after 70 years of fighting for and getting new housing for the area, some folk cried: "enough!" when a further housing scheme at Windmill Lane threatened to take more of the Birstall area's dwindling fields.
But fields in Gelderd Road, south of Nab Lane, were lost to private housing when the Greenacre site for 59 houses and 16 bungalows got the go-ahead in 1987.
Birstall's over-crowding problem had been well and truly sorted.
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