The Economy (Continued)
It was in the late 1920s that shops began to open. A grocer, newsagent, butcher and baker were all located
along Rugby Road. They tended to replace the mobile services that operated until then. A mobile fish and
chip van successfully operated from before the war until a permanent outlet was built in 1950. Some shops
were run by local people starting off using their front rooms. Two commercial garages opened on Rugby Road
at the start of the 1930s.
People in the side roads kept livestock such as chicken, pigs, sheep and goats. There was a chicken farm
for most of the inter-war period on Heather Road and a nursery in Oakdale Road. There were few other
smallholding enterprises though individuals made over their large plots to small scale market gardens. A
few gypsy families who owned land, but not permanent homes, on the edge of the estate made a living based
on scrap metal dealing.
Builders flourished and two in particular developed much of the semi-detached housing. It was the efforts
of Edward Hanson in building twenty such houses in Woodlands Road that gained it the local nickname
'Hanson's Drive'. On Rugby Road, A. H. Smart and his family were responsible for 48 of the houses built.
Rugby Road
Rugby Road received piped water within five years of the start of the development and street lighting by
the end of the 1930s.
The earliest properties were all large houses. The larger and more substantial buildings of Rugby Road set
a standard that was not echoed in the side roads. In the first eight years 127 homes were constructed
along Rugby Road despite the much greater frontage offered by the side roads.
By 1939 eight of the 138 homes on Rugby Road were of timber construction, the rest solidly brick houses,
three quarters being semi-detached. Many were set on subdivided plots that in size offered little more
than could be found in a city suburb.
The Side Roads
Safe drinking water could be obtained by 1929 from a couple of stand-pipe taps by the main road, but many
people had arrangements with main road neighbours if they lived too far from the taps.
The side roads had to make do with rain water collection tanks and wells until after the Second World War
The only exception being Woodlands Road where the owner of most of the plots paid for the water mains to
be extended from Rugby Road. The water table was quite shallow and wells rarely had to be dug more than
fourteen feet deep, but soak-away from earth toilets could contaminate the water.
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