Prestwick Road
pre-cast concrete
By Peggy Maher
I came to live in Prestwick Road around 1954. About 15 years after I moved to South Oxhey they found the houses were made from pre-cast concrete. All the outside walls had to come down, the doors were still there and they put in temporary windows. All the builders had to build the houses back up with bricks. We had to pay for the re-building, and we hadn’t long bought the house.
It took about two or three months for the builders to complete the re-building. Some people moved out but we stayed with poles holding up the ceiling, the place was so dirty from the dust. After the houses were finished we got a proper porch and the house was much better and warmer to live in.
My mother, Mrs Hammond was one of the first people to move to South Oxhey. She moved in from flats in Shepherds Bush and loved it here in Oxhey as she had a garden. She loved the garden which she hadn’t been able to have in London and encouraged me to move to South Oxhey.
When my mother first moved here there were no shops and there used to be vans which came round or she had to walk to Watford for her shopping. By the time I moved in the shops were built.
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