Roamer: Tragedy, terror and a world title for local ‘prefab people’
Last Saturday History Hub Ulster’s Nigel Henderson shared a short history here of the 4,000 prefabs erected in Northern Ireland after the Second World War.
There were two types - around 2,000 each of detached Arcon V bungalows and semi-detached Hawksley bungalows - and today Nigel writes about some of the folk who lived in them.
The former home of factory-worker Ernest Brown and his wife Mary since 1949, 102 Ravenhill Road was Northern Ireland’s last Arcon V prefab when it was dismantled in 1985.
After 68-year-old Ernest died in 1979, Mary stayed on until 1983 and passed away aged 88 in a nursing home in 2003.
100 Hawksley semi-detached prefabs had been erected at Whiterock by the end of 1950 - the Cush family (in 10 Westrock Parade, Whiterock) and the Meenan family (in 8 Westrock Gardens) lived in their prefabs from erection until they were dismantled in 1986 and 1989 respectively.
An unexpected visitor to 60 Westrock Drive momentarily terrified occupants Ernest and Sarah Tutin and their son Samuel in 1973.
After a blow-out in a tyre an out-of-control army vehicle veered into the Tutin’s prefab and completely demolished the gable-end!
Fortunately no one was hurt.
125 Arcon prefabs were erected in 1946/1947 near the Westland Road junction with Cavehill Road in Belfast.
David and Sarah Jane Griffiths were the first occupants of number 55 Westland Bungalows.
David was an 18-year-old tailor when he enlisted with the Royal Irish Rifles in November 1888.
He served with 2nd Battalion during the second phase of the Boer War and fought in the Battle of Stormberg on 10 December 1899, where the battalion lost four officers and 216 other ranks.
David was discharged in December 1901 and received a war gratuity of five pounds in January 1902, the equivalent of £521 today.
He was awarded both the King’s and Queen's South Africa Medal.
David was a long-serving member of the Royal Ulster Rifles Association and was still attending their events in his 90s, including the annual Battle of Stormberg commemoration in December 1964.
They were still residing in their prefab when Sarah Jane Griffiths died in September 1964, aged 91.
David John Griffiths died in April 1965, aged 95.
From a Boer war hero to a motorcycle champion whose dad was a Second World War bomber-crew hero!
Little Ralph Bryans was brought up in a Hawksley prefab at 25 Malbrook Gardens, Taughmonagh, South Belfast.
His father, 21-year-old Sergeant William Robert Bryans,
was Flight Engineer on a Handley Page Halifax. All eight crew died on a bombing raid over Germany in 1943.
Ralph became fascinated with motorbikes and when he retired from professional racing on 50cc, 125cc, 250cc and 350cc motorbikes in 1970, he’d achieved 10 wins, 40 podium finishes in 60 Grand Prix, seven fastest laps and the 1965 50cc World Championship.
Inevitably, people living in Northern Ireland’s prefabs were among the victims of ‘the Troubles’, and Nigel Henderson’s ongoing documentation includes some tragic accounts.
The Mateer family lived in the Hawksley prefab at 96 Ashmount Park in Belfast.
In 1975 32-year-old Stafford Mateer was in his car at Mountpottinger traffic lights when he was shot in the neck shortly after a bomb exploded at the Strand Bar in Anderson Street. The Belfast News Letter reported that he was shot by the occupants of the getaway car used by the bombers.
Stafford died in hospital on 14 April 1975.
Henry and Margaret Meenan were mentioned above, having resided at number 8 Westrock Gardens from 1950 until 1989.
Their married daughter Elizabeth Kirpatrick was abducted from their house on 13 May 1983 by the INLA amidst speculation that her husband, Harry, had ‘turned informer’.
The INLA demanded that he retract his statement implicating some of their members in return for Elizabeth’s release.
On 4 June he was jailed for life after pleading guilty to murder and a series of other terrorist charges.
Elizabeth was returned to her parents’ house on the evening of Thursday 25 August after over 100 days of imprisonment in houses in a number of different locations believed to have been in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. She hadn’t been mistreated.
Nigel Henderson will give an illustrated talk about Ulster’s prefabs and their occupants at the Public Records Office for Northern Ireland at 1pm on 8 April 2025 . Please register for the entrance-free event here:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/.../post-war-housing-huts