Interesting.

I needed a quick web-search to check on this but I gather that "freehold land societies" had a political motive, contained in that name, namely to enfranchise [radical Liberal] householders by making them home owners. (Nothing to do with a later Lady Porter, of course!)

I assume from Nyra's comments that early 20th century "housing schemes" may also, in some sense, have been a campaign (whether or not politically motivated).

However the three examples I gave from my village seem to me to have been no more than small building firms taking advantage of a niche in the market.  Although at least one of them has been described in the past to me as "scheme houses" - which was the only context in which I had heard the expression before - perhaps that description was inaccurate.

Perhaps the "scheme" element was not (as I had supposed) to do with the kind of tenures made available but, rather, with how the capital outlay was covered.

As all three developments failed to complete (albeit with the incidence of the war), perhaps one or more of them hit cash-flow problems.  Perhaps they found that not enough properties were being sold outright (which may have been their preference) and too many had to be either rented or parted with under "scheme-house-style" rent-to-buy arrangements. In other words, I now seem to me quite likely that, in the examples I referred to, the developers weren't "campaigning" at all... and that perhaps they weren't, after all, "scheme houses" at all!

Sorry, Nyra, if I've given you a false trail.

I wonder what finance was available for "proper" scheme houses, and who put it up?

Mike

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On 28 May 2008, at 13:34, Peter King wrote:

It relates to a different period, but the subject of this discussion very much reminds me of what I have heard of freehold land societies of the mid Victorian period, even of the early terminating building societies. 

 

Peter King

49, Stourbridge Road,

Hagley,

Stourbridge

West Midlands

DY9 0QS

01562-720368

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-----Original Message-----
From: From: Local-History list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Mike Syer
Sent: 27 May 2008 22:05
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: scheme houses

And thanks for your prompt response, too - not least because it confirms that I wasn't barking up the wrong tree about what you meant by "scheme houses".

I've dug out another note since I wrote, which says that one of the houses in the third development I mentioned as sold in 1937 for £385. This was taken from the title deeds for that house, whereas the other prices I quoted were from people's memories.  The developers had paid £1,500 for the entire site, on which (as I said), they intended then to build 52 houses. (They bought it from what I assume was one of the firm's partners... who himself bought it the year before for £675... I am not sure that they were engaged "upon a mission to encourage property owning amongst the working class", even if that may have been an outcome!)

Mike

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On 27 May 2008, at 16:51, Nyra Wilson wrote:

Thank you very much for your reply. I was especially interested as you cited Bowburn as an example. I have been looking for material on scheme houses for quite some time, my husband[the family computer expert] has looked for possible sites for me and even bought me a copy of Moyes "Mostly mining" at Christmas because it mentioned them. Never a word from him about Bowburn scheme houses although he went to Bowburn Junior School and his mother's family had lived there for most of the twentieth century. At present he is doing his final session of the academic year in Sweden but when he gets back you can be sure that he will be thoroughly teased about it.

For now I will e-mail his cousin at Ferryhill to see if she remembers anything  and next time we come up to visit her we can swing by Bowburn to look for surviving examples. 

If you recollect anything else about the financing or any other aspects of the scheme houses I would be very interested as it seemed to be a very good way of encouraging property owning amongst the working class yet it is rarely mentioned in social history and I hope to rectify this in some work that I am doing on my home village of Easington.

Thank you very much for your prompt response.

Nyra Wilson