NORMAN ROAD

The HSE would would have had a field day if they had been around then. Those aprons would have to go. The rubble on the ground is a trip hazard and I wouldn't want to be working on that scaffold, it doesn't look as though there is a guard rail, and that ladder looks a bit too upright, but it would be alright for Fred Dibnah. Where are the hard hats? but for all that I bet they were all good time-served tradesmen though. Unlike some of the people who I worked with before my retirement. After a six month course at college they think they can do the job when in fact very few of them can. Sorry will get off soap box now, I am just glad that I am retired.

I would have thought that the men in aprons were "chippies". wasn't that "dress" the norm for them to wear? We certainly always had to wear aprons in woodwork class at school. As for the scaffolding, lashed timber pole scaffolding is still used in some continental countries today without any trouble, and anyway there have been several occurrences of modern steel tube scaffolding collapsing in this country even with the HSE around

Yes, I always had to wear an apron when I was an apprentice. These days on big sites they don't like you wearing anything that can flap about. On some sites they don't like shorts or even short sleeve shirts. My sister-in-law and her husband live in Hungary, they don't have scaffold on re-roof jobs there, they lean a ladder on the gutter, climb on the roof and start work and on housing estates they still use wooden scaffolding with no guard rails. We have travelled all round the country and it's the same everywhere. They do however use lightweight scaffold towers on the high rise blocks and for working on the Cathedrals, but it still doesn't look very safe. As you say though, there have been collapses over here, I was on one a few years ago, not a nice feeling. I will see if I can find my photos of the Hungarians working just to compare with this scene. By the way Hungary is a fantastic place to visit, I can't wait to go again. The food is great.

This photo was taken in the early 1920's and shows my Grandfather, Thomas William Novis (third from left) and his crew.  His son Hugh Novis, is fourth from right in dark waistcoat.  Our oral history credits Tom Novis with most of the construction of Norman Road. 

Sorry, can't identify the others.

Note from editors:-  Sorry Terry this picture is the building of the east side of Norman Road and was taken in 1902. The road was completed by 1908.

Does anyone know how I could get a copy of this photo?  I’ve just done extensive work on my own house in Norman Road and would love to add this picture in to my own story book on my project.

Details of how to obtain a copy can be found HERE

John - Editor

I'm interested that you have researched your house in Norman Road Patricia. I'm currently writing my memoirs, and I was born at 26 Norman Road in 1954 and lived there until I left home in 1973. If I can be of any help, do get in touch.

Was the construction of housing on Norman and Saxon roads a planned development by one company, or was it done in blocks or stages by several builders ? The reason I ask is that I was born in Meeching Road, and owned a house in South Road. Both of these roads seem to be made up of groups of 4 to 6 houses built to the same design, and then there'll be another small group attached in a terrace to another design, and then so-on. I grew up in Fort Road where there were the original 5 double fronted Edwardian houses - #s 40 - 48 - built for the builder and his family and then the remainder were single fronted versions of the same design.