Geograph - photograph every grid square

Northfield, Keyingham

Local boys supervise the fitting of a replacement water main to houses on Northfield in Keyingham.

The houses on this small estate started life as 'prefabs' made by Spooners of Hull and built by the Holderness Rural District Council in 1947. The upper floors and roofs were originally made of asbestos.

In 1984 the old Spooner homes were greatly improved, the bottom storeys being clad in new brick and the upper storeys rebuilt from brick and timber, with the roofs being given a steeper pitch and tiled.

Before these council houses were built the people of Keyingham were relatively slow to take advantage of piped water, being put off by the prohibitive cost of getting connected to the mains supply. In 1932 low demand meant the water main to Keyingham was only two inches in diameter and it wasn't until well into the 1950s that nearly every house could boast hot and cold running water.