South Yorkshire Times – Saturday 06 June 1942
Post-War Housing
Mrs. T. S. Charlton on Housing Council Work If as a housewife you have any practical ideas how postwar homes can be so planned as to provide a higher standard of comfort and convenience for the people who will spend most of their time in them, you should put those ideas on paper.
You should then post them — assuming you live in these parts—to Mrs. T. S. Charlton, Brampton House, West Melton, wife of Mr. T. S. Chariton, Managing Director of Cortonwood Collieries.
Mrs. Charlton is South Yorkshire representative of the Women’s Advisory Housing Council, who, with a view to ensuring that the housing mistakes of the — past are not repeated in the post-war reconstruction programme, are seeking information from the people who for this purpose matter most—the housewives.
At the moment the Council are distributing questionnaires, which, with the approval and support of the Ministry of Health, they hope to get into the hands of 6,000 people. The Council was formed in 1936 with a Central Executive Committee in London with a view to influencing architects and others building houses, flats and other dwellings either publicly or by private enterprise. It has set itself the task of collating useful ideas and information and with that object in view has formed branches in the provinces. Some interruption has been caused by the war, but three large and influential branches have now been formed, including the Yorkshire branch.
Lady Saunders, Chairman of the Council, has been appointed to a committee set up by the Ministry of Health, specially to study this problem. The questionnaire contains 21 groups of questions. It is specially addressed to what are referred to as the ” lower income ” housewives. Housewives are asked to state the type of dwelling in which they live and whether it has been built in the last 25 years. They are also invited to state how many people are living in the house and what are the outgoings, such as rent, rates and building society payments.
Then follow the questions: How many rooms, size of bedrooms, living rooms and kitchen? Is there a bathroom? Where is it? Have you a satisfactory larder? If not, what is wrong? Have you garden? How large is it? How far away is the nearest public park and children’s playground? Do you use coal, gas, electricity, oil or calor gas? Which do you like best? Would you like central heating?
Finally, there is the query: Can you make any suggestions for improvements in the interior and exterior of your home and the planning of houses in general, which will make for better and happier living conditions? Mrs. Charlton told a ” Times ” reporter that 300 of these questionnaires had been distributed in Sheffield and 200 in the Rotherham area. She had spent a lot of time visiting housing schemes and making observations, and had had useful assistance from Mr. Hughes, housing director in Sheffield and Mr. Burton, who holds a similar position at Rotherham.
“I am trying to do what I can through the various women’s organisations and the Co-operative Guilds.” she said. “My object is to see what is wrong in the various types of houses from the housewives’ point of view. People often remark in relation to their own houses that if they had had the designing of them they could have done it better. That is just what we want them to tell us.”
Mrs. Charlton also suggested that W.V.B. organisations and others might wish to distribute them among their members. Before coming to Cortonwood three years ago, Mrs. Charlton did a good deal of social and public welfare work in Leeds and for a long period has interested herself in housing. She is W.V.S. organiser for West Melton, a member of the Military Hardships Committee at Barnsley and President of the N.S.P.C.C. for the area. Last year she organised a Christmas Fair at Brampton in aid of Mrs. Churchill’s Aid for Russia Fund. She is housing member of the Electrical Association of Women (Sheffield branch), a member of the committee of Brampton Nursing Association and Employers’ Panel of the Court of Referees and the panel of the Local Appeal Board under the Essential Work Order.