Catalogue description Selected Housing and Industrial Projects

As explained in the introduction to this catalogue, the following sections (NTSK 9-24) relate to records concerning certain housing and industrial projects selected to represent the work of the Corporation in these areas. The following selection of certain projects and the choice of records to document them is summarised below.

Housing: there were about 35 housing contracts in all and the Corporation's Deputy Chief Planner, Mr. R.J. Brown, suggested the choice of Fir Tree 1/2 and Tanhouse 1/2 to represent industrialised house building and Chapel House 3 for a traditional house building scheme; all 3 were estates built to provide Corporation housing

The early housing contracts were for houses built by traditional methods while the different systems buildings were investigated. An interest in industrial systems for housing contracts followed but, as problems were found and as the political pressures to build houses quickly eased, the emphasis moved back to traditional systems - Chapel House 3 being an example of this final phase. Fuller details are given in the sections relating to each project.

The nature of the criteria adopted for selecting housing records ruled out certain types of development, including private developments and shared ownership properties.

Industry: the Corporation developed three main industrial areas, Gillibrands, Pimbo and Stanley. It was originally decided to select records relating to Gillibrands, considered to be a representative industrial estate, on the basis that it was being developed throughout the Corporation's life and therefore had a wide variety of the Corporation's standard and standard nursery factory types. In practice, it was thought best to concentrate on certain selected projects, each incorporating one of the variants of the standard factory (Marks I-VI) and standard nursery factory (Marks I-III). In cases where a particular variant was not built at Gillibrands, an example has been chosen from Pimbo.

Industrial building at Skelmersdale was not of course confined to the standard factory and standard nursery factory. Records relating to the Mills and Rockleys factory were chosen to represent a factory custom-built by the Corporation for a client; this factory was, according to the Corporation's former Industrial Architect, Mr. Woodward, one of only two such factories on Gillibrands. Some companies had factories built for them independently of the Corporation and it was decided not to select records relating to these, as the records tended to be held by the company itself. It was also decided not to take records relating to workshop units, as these were not considered to be of sufficient intrinsic merit.

The records chosen to document each of these housing and industrial projects generally comprised Central Registry files; architects plans ; and contract records from the Legal Section, although there is additional material for Chapel House 3 in particular. A selective approach was also adopted in respect of files relating to the chosen projects. Almost all files relating to the original building work were selected except for those, considered to be of lesser interest, concerned with public utilities and subcontractors. However, only the more general files such as Ministry and local authority correspondence but not, for example, architects' instructions, site meeting minutes and variation orders, were selected in connection with later alterations or improvements.

No files were chosen regarding Corporation housing tenants, since these would have passed to West Lancashire District Council. Tenancy files relating to the chosen industrial projects were selected, but only where it had been possible to select the general plan, sections and elevations for an individual factory on a particular development. Tenancy files still in current use in December 1986 were retained by the Commission so that, for example, the correspondence after 1970 with Dunlops, the tenants of the No. 1 Mark I factory on Gillibrands, has not been transferred to the Record Office.

As regards architects' plans, a clear distinction can be made between those relating to housing and those for factories. Many of the Corporation's plans relating to housing had been microfilmed and these films are retained by the Commission. However, as the so-called copy negatives had subsequently been destroyed, all that survives for Fir Tree 1/2 and Tanhouse 1/2 (except of course for the Commission's microfilms) are dyeline copies which had been kept by the Quantity Surveyor's section. An original set of copy negatives had however been retained for Chapel House 3 and these were transferred to the Record Office.

A more selective approach was adopted in the case of factory plans. The original copy negatives had in general survived and a representative selection was made in the case of each chosen industrial project, with the Commission taking dyeline copies of those copy negatives deposited. Two types of plan were taken, the Board presentation plans and the architects' working plans, the latter characterised by a table setting out the description of the plan, the architect's name, the original date and the dates and nature of any revisions. Only the general plans were taken, that is the ground plans, sections and elevations of one or more factories on each development but not the detailed drawings for each factory, such as reception counter, roof plan, office accommodation, window details and door schedules. Where there was more than one factory on a particular development, the selection was concentrated, if possible, on one particular factory. This was the case even where the factories on a particular development varied slightly in design. Most plans were amended with a series of, often minor, revisions; in these cases, only the original plan and the final version were selected, not the intermediate versions.

One point concerning terminology should perhaps be explained here. Ordinary plans on tracing paper are known as original negatives, while those on a plastic film base are known as copy negatives. The latter are used to make the third type of plan which is to be found in this catalogue, namely a dyeline copy.

All surviving contract records relating to the chosen projects were deposited at the Record Office, except those for the chosen Mark III Nursery Factory project which were retained by the Commission for audit purposes. The contract documents generally include priced bills of quantities and often also include a set of related plans. The presence of such plans is indicated in the catalogue but they are individually catalogued in the way that the plans deposited from the Planning/Architects and Quantity Surveyors sections have been.

The introduction to each project specifies the main contractor and his head office. It should be noted that the contract would often be carried through by the branch office of the contractor, and also that 'main contractor' is taken to be the contractor responsible for putting up the buildings concerned - a different contractor was sometimes used in preparation work.