Rosalind's Family History

It is thought this picture was taken of Lizzie Yapp when a photographer was doing an article on the estate. This same picture had been on display in Longbridge Library and also on a website about The Austin Village.

William Yapp and Lizzie moved in to 5 Hawkesley Drive not long after they were built in 1917. They were built by Herbert Austin for the employees at Longbridge.

Herbert Austin needed the houses for his expanding work force at the Austin Motor Company at Longbridge and imported 200 cedar wood bungalows from the Alladin Company of Bay City, Michigan. The first shipment was sunk by a German u boat but the second successfully arrived.

Conventional brick houses were built as firebreaks every 25 houses and in over one hundred years only one was destroyed by fire in 1921.

Lizzie and William rented the bungalow before buying it on a ten year payment plan. I believe it was bought outright before the end of the ten years.

Lizzie later bought 24 Hawkesley Crescent for her daughter Sybil and her husband Arthur Thurgood.

The letter from the Austin Works detailing the cost of buying 5, Hawkesley Drive in 1923. Despite the letter being sent to Mrs E Yapp, it starts, Dear Sir!

This newspaper clipping was taken from the Evening Despatch on 13 December 2018. Interesting to note that the bungalows were sold at a loss if those figures are correct.