Item Details

New light on an old problem: Child-related archaeological finds and the impact of the ‘Radburn’ council estate plan.

Issue: Vol 6 No. 2 (2019)

Journal: Journal of Contemporary Archaeology

Subject Areas: Archaeology

DOI: 10.1558/jca.39686

Abstract:

This paper uses new data from archaeological excavations to explore the effectiveness of the “Radburn” layout used in many post-war social housing estates in the UK, the name referring to a design modelled on Radburn in New Jersey in the United States. Their design aimed to provide healthy living environments for less-affluent families by fronting homes onto communal pedestrianized “greens”, enabling people to circulate and children to “play out” safely near their homes. However, many Radburn estates are now socially deprived and explanations for this have included suggestions that the Radburn plan was inappropriate to the wants and needs of resident families. Analysis of 20 small archaeological excavations carried out in 2016 by residents of a Radburn-type council estate in Lincolnshire recovered lost aspects of its heritage, including a large number of child-related items from sites on the communal greens. This suggests that the greens were indeed used as intended for children’s play, undermining suggestions that inappropriate design was a significant factor in the decline of estates such as this.


Open Access Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives: CC BY-NC-ND

Author: Carenza Lewis, Ian Waites

View Full Text

References :

Allen, M. 2007. Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment and Metal Detector Survey: Land off Foxby Lane, Gainsborough, Lincolnshire. Lincoln, UK: Pre-Construct Archaeology. Available online: https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-1045-1/dissemination/pdf/2245_LandoffFoxbyLane_Gainsborough.pdf

Arnot, C. 2003. “Art of the Matter.” The Guardian, 13 August. Available online: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2003/aug/13/housingpolicy.guardiansocietysupplement

Baxter, J. E. 2004. The Archaeology of Childhood. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.

Beckett, J. V. 1988. The East Midlands from AD 1000. London: Longman.

Beckwith, I. 1972. The History of Farms and Fields in Gainsborough. Gainsborough, UK: Gainsborough Urban District Council.

Belford, P. 2014: “Contemporary and Recent Archaeology in Practice.” Industrial Archaeology Review 36 (1): 3–14. https://doi.org/10.1179/0309072814z.00000000025

Bettws in Bloom. n.d. Moving to Bettws: Starting a New Life on a 1960s Estate. Available online: https://moving2bettws.wordpress.com

Blachnicki, H. and K. Browne. 1961. “Over and Under – A Survey of Problems of Pedestrian and Vehicle Segregation.” Architectural Review (May): 321–336.

Blazevicius, P. 2013. “Toys as a Reflection of Player’s Social Status.” In Child and Childhood in the Light of Archaeology, edited by P. Romanowicz, 137–152. Wroclaw: Chromicon Wydawnictwo.

Boughton, J. 2018. Municipal Dreams: The Rise and Fall of Council Housing. London: Verso.

Brown, B., R. Mackett, Y. Gong, K. Kitazawa and J. Paskins. 2008. “Gender Differences in Children’s Pathways to Independent Mobility.” Children’s Geographies 6 (4): 385–401. https://doi.org/10.1080/14733280802338080

Buchli, V. and G. Lucas. 2000. “Children, Gender and the Material Culture of Domestic Abandonment in the Late Twentieth Century.” In Children and Material Culture, edited by J. Sofaer Derevenski, 131–137. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203991862

____. and G. Lucas. 2001. Archaeologies of the Contemporary Past. London: Routledge.

Cameron, K. 1998. A Dictionary of Lincolnshire Place-Names. English Place-Name Society Popular Series 1. Nottingham, UK: English Place-Name Society.

Clark, R. H. 1998. Steam Engine Builders of Lincolnshire. Lincoln, UK: Society for Lincolnshire History & Archaeology

Clay, C. 2007. Archaeological Investigation by Trial Trenching: The Becket School, Gainsborough, Lincolnshire. Lincoln, UK: Allen Archaeological Associates and University of Lincoln. Available online: http://eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/34469/1/GACA16-Report-FINALv6.pdf

Coleman, A. M. 1985. Utopia on Trial: Vision and Reality in Planned Housing. London: Hilary Shipman.

____. 2009. “The Psychology of Housing.” The Salisbury Review 28 (2): 10–12.

Dalken, L. 1949. Children’s Games Throughout the Year. London: Batsford.

Davis, O. 2017. Excavations at the Deserted Medieval Village, Michaelston-Super-Ely, 2016: An Interim Report. Cardiff Studies in Archaeology 37. Cardiff: Department of Archaeology and Conservation, University of Cardiff. Available online: http://orca.cf.ac.uk/98887/1/Michaelston%20interim%20reduced%20file%20size-1.pdf

____. and N. M. Sharples.2015. Excavations at Caerau Hillfort, Cardiff, South Wales, 2014: An Interim Report. Cardiff Studies in Archaeology 35. Cardiff: Department of Archaeology and Conservation, University of Cardiff. Available online: http://orca.cf.ac.uk/85310/1/caerau-interim-v1-1.pdf

____., N. M. Sharples and D. Wyatt. 2014.“The CAER Heritage Project: A Preliminary Note on Recent Research and Community Engagement at Caerau Hillfort, Cardiff.” Archaeology in Wales 53: 119–125.

De Nardi, S. 2014. “Senses of Place, Senses of the past: Making Experiential Maps as Part of Community Heritage Fieldwork.” Journal of Community Archaeology and Heritage 1 (1): 5–22. https://doi.org/10.1179/2051819613z.0000000001

Department of Archaeology, Sheffield University. 2017. “The Firth Park Bandstand Archaeology Project returns!” Departmental website, 10 July. Available online: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/archaeology/news/digit_2017-1.714348

Dunleavy, P. 1981. The Politics of Mass Housing in Britain, 1945-75: Study of Corporate Power and Professional Influence in the Welfare State. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Dwyer, E. 2015. Historical and Contemporary Archaeologies of Social Housing: Changing Experiences of the Modern and New, 1870 to Present. Unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Leicester, Leicester.

Esher, L. 1981. A Broken Wave: The Rebuilding of England 1940-1980. London: Allen Lane.

Glendinning, M. and S. Muthesius. 1994. Tower Block: Modern Public Housing in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. New Haven, CT: Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and Yale University Press.

Gomme, A. B. 1894. The Traditional Games of England, Scotland and Ireland, Volume 1. London: David Nutt (repr. 1984, London: Thames and Hudson).

____. 1898. The Traditional Games of England, Scotland and Ireland, Volume 2. London: David Nutt (repr. 1984, London: Thames and Hudson).

Grindrod, J. 2014. Concretopia: A Journey around the Rebuilding of Postwar Britain. London: Old Street.

Hanley, L. 2007. Estates: An Intimate History. London: Granta.

Harrison, R. 2009. “Towards an Archaeology of the Welfare State in Britain, 1945–2009.” Archaeologies 5 (2): 238–262. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11759-009-9105-0

____. and J. Schofield, 2010. After Modernity: Archaeological Approaches to the Contemporary Past. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Harwood, E and A. Powers. 2008. Housing the Twentieth Century Nation. London: Historic England.

Heck, S. 1987. “Oscar Newman Revisited.” The Architect’s Journal 185: 30.

Hills, J. 2004. Inequality and the State. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Holland, T. 2017. Segment on social housing, in “Dunkirk Spirit.” [audio] Making History [BBC Radio 4], 27 June, 00:01–12:59. Available online: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08vyfqf

Isherwood, R. 2013. “Rediscovering, Preserving and Making Memories at Community Archaeology Projects.” In Archaeology, the Public and the Recent Past, edited by C. Dalglish, 77–92. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press.

Jones, O. 2011. Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class. London: Verso.

Jones, S. 2017. “Wrestling with the Social Value of Heritage: Problems, Dilemmas and Opportunities.” Journal of Community Archaeology and Heritage 4 (1): 21–37. https://doi.org/10.1080/20518196.2016.1193996

Kiddey, R. 2018. “From the Ground Up: Cultural Heritage Practices as Tools for Empowerment in the Homeless Heritage Project.” International Journal of Heritage Studies 24 (7): 694–708. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2016.1274669

Larkin, K. and R. H. McGuire. (eds) 2009. The Archaeology of Class War: The Colorado Coalfield Strike of 1913-14. Boulder: University Press of Colorado.

Lewis, C. 2007. “New Avenues in the Investigation of Currently-Occupied Rural Settlements – Preliminary Results from the Higher Education Field Academy.” Medieval Archaeology 51 (1): 133–164. https://doi.org/10.1179/174581707x224697

____. 2014. “‘Cooler than a Trip to Alton Towers’: Assessing the Impact of the Higher Education Field Academy 2005-2011.” Public Archaeology 13 (4): 295–322. https://doi.org/10.1179/1465518715z.00000000076

____. 2015. “Archaeological Excavation and Deep Mapping in Historic Rural Communities.” Humanities 2015 (4): 393–417. https://doi.org/10.3390/h4030393

____. 2019. “Test Pit Excavation as a Method for Reconstructing the Development of Currently Occupied Rural Settlements: Evidence from England.” In Archaeology of Medieval Villages Currently Inhabited in Europe, edited by J. Fernández Fernández and M. Fernández Mier, 7–34. Oxford: Archaeopress. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvp2n2nt.7

____. and Ranson, C. 2011. Archaeological Test Pit Excavations in Clare, Suffolk, 2011. Cambridge: Access Cambridge Archaeology, University of Cambridge. Available online: https://www.access.arch.cam.ac.uk/reports/suffolk/clare/2011/ClareReport2011.pdf

____. and I. Waites. 2018. Interview with M. Sweet, in “Buses, Beer and VR – A Taste of University Research.” [audio] Free Thinking [BBC Radio 3], 15 November, 14:40–22:08. Available online: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00014qk

____. and I. Waites. In prep. “Tales of the Unexpected: Community Excavations on a Lincolnshire Council Estate.”

Macfarlane, A. 2002. “The Non-Use of Night Soil (Human Excrement) in England.” Available online: http://www.alanmacfarlane.com/savage/A-NIGHT.PDF

Martin, M. C. 2014. “Play, Toys and Memory in International Perspective: Grimsby, Poland, Lebanon and Australia, 1947 to the Present.” Childhood in the Past 7 (2): 77–81. https://doi.org/10.1179/1758571614z.00000000018

May, S. 2013. “The Contemporary Material Culture of the Infant: Constructing Children as Desiring Subjects.” In The Oxford Handbook of the Contemporary World, edited by P. Graves-Brown, R. Harrison and A. Piccini, 713–727. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199602001.013.042

Meaney, A. 1964. A Gazetteer of Early Anglo-Saxon Burial Sites. London: George Allen & Unwin.

Moore, S. 2009. “Working Parents and the Material Culture of Victorianism: Children’s Toys at the Ludlow Tent Colony.” In The Archaeology of Class War: The Colorado Coalfield Strike of 1913-14, edited by K. Larkin and R. H. McGuire, 285–309. Boulder: University Press of Colorado.

Morrison, W. and S. Crawford. 2013. “Re-assessing Toys in the Archaeological Assemblage: A Case Study from Dorchester-on-Thames.” Childhood in the Past 6 (1): 52–65. https://doi.org/10.1179/1758571613z.0000000001

Mullins, D. and A. Murie. 2006. Housing Policy in the UK. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Nevell, M. 2013. “Archaeology for All: Managing Expectations and Learning from the Past for the Future – the Dig Manchester Community Archaeology Experience.” In Archaeology, the Public and the Recent Past, edited by C. Dalglish, 65–76. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell and Brewer.

Newman, O. 1972. Defensible Space: Crime Prevention through Urban Design. New York: Macmillan.

Newman, R. and C. Collins. 2017. Peterborough Cathedral: “Peterborough 900: Letting it Speak for Itself”. Community Archaeology Programme, Summer 2016. Report 1365. Cambridge Archaeological Unit and Access Cambridge Archaeology. Available online: https://www.access.arch.cam.ac.uk/communities/current/1365PeterboroughCathedral.pdf

Opie, I. and P. Opie. 1997. Children’s Games with Things. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Parker, N. and C. Lewis (compilers). 2016. Archaeological Test Pit Excavations at Middlefield Lane, Gainsborough, Lincolnshire in 2016. Lincoln, UK: Archaeological Project Services and University of Lincoln. Available online: http://eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/34469/1/GACA16-Report-FINALv6.pdf

Parker, T. 1983. The People of Providence: A Housing Estate and Some of Its Inhabitants. London: Hutchinson.

Penrose, S. 2007. Images of Change: An Archaeology of England’s Contemporary Landscape. Swindon, UK: English Heritage.

Pool, S. 2016a. Middlefield Dig Hole 1. Edited rushes of film by University of Lincoln.

____. 2016b. Middlefield Dig Hole 2. Edited rushes of film by University of Lincoln.

Prezza, M., S. Pilloni, C. Morabito, C. Sersante, F. R. Alparone and M. V. Giuliani. 2001. “The Influence of Psychosocial and Environmental Factors on Children’s Independent Mobility and Relationship to Peer Frequentation” Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology 11 (6): 435–450. https://doi.org/10.1002/casp.643

Ravetz, A. 2001. Council Housing and Culture: The History of a Social Experiment. London: Routledge.

____. and R. Turkington. 1995. The Place of Home: English Domestic Environments 1914–2000. London: Taylor and Francis.

Reilly, S., C. Nolan and L. Monckton. 2018. Wellbeing and the Historic Environment. [Swindon, UK]: Historic England. Available online: https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/wellbeing-and-the-historic-environment/ (accessed 31/10/2019)

Richards, J. M. 1953. “Failure of the New Towns.” Architectural Review (July): 32.

Rimmer, J. 2011. “People and Their Buildings in the Working-Class Neighborhood of Hungate, York.” International Journal of Historical Archaeology 15 (4): 617–628. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-011-0163-9

Romanowicz, P. 2013. “Archaeological Finds of Playthings in Late Medieval Towns.” In Child and Childhood in the Light of Archaeology, edited by P. Romanowicz, 163–184. Wroclaw: Chromicon Wydawnictwo.

Rowlandson, I. 2003. Heapham Road, Gainsborough, Lincs: Archaeological Watching Brief. LAS Report 714. Lincoln, UK: Lindsey Archaeological Services. Available online: https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-1045-1/dissemination/pdf/2781_HeaphamRoad_Gainsborough.pdf

Santos, S. C., N. Bertolino, S. Hicks, C. Lewis and V. May. 2018. Home and Community: Lessons from a Modernist Housing Scheme. London: Routledge.

Sayer, F. 2015. “Can Digging Make you Happy? Archaeological Excavations, Happiness and Heritage.” Arts and Health 7 (3): 247–260. https://doi.org/10.1080/17533015.2015.1060615

Shelter. n.d. “What is Social Housing?” Available online: https://england.shelter.org.uk/support_us/campaigns/what_is_social_housing

Sidorenko, E. 2014. “Playing Free in the Polish People’s Republic: Making Do Without Consumerism.” Childhood in the Past 7 (2): 95–116. https://doi.org/10.1179/1758571614z.00000000020

Simpson, F. 2012. “Shoreditch Park Community Excavation: A Case Study.” In Community Archaeology: Themes, Methods and Practices, edited by G. Moshenska and S. Dhanjal, 115–119. Oxford: Oxbow Books. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvh1dn3q.18

Smith, J. A. 2014. “Memories of Childhood in Post-War Grimsby.” Childhood in the Past 7 (2): 82–94. https://doi.org/10.1179/1758571614z.00000000019

Somerville, P. and N. Sprigings. 2005. Housing and Social Policy: Contemporary Themes and Critical Perspectives. London: Routledge.

Spurrier, R. 1964. “The Architectural Implications of the Buchanan Report.” Architectural Review (May): 355–357.

Tann, G. 2010 Proposed SEN School, The William Harrison School, Middlefield Lane, Gainsborough, Lincolnshire: Archaeological Monitoring and Recording Report. Lincoln, UK: Pre-Construct Archaeological Services. Available online: https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/library/browse/issue.xhtml?recordId=1148124&recordType=GreyLitSeries

Thomson, M. 2013. Lost Freedom: The Land of the Child and the British Post-War Settlement. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Towers, G. and R. Turkington. 2000. Shelter is Not Enough: Transforming Multi-Storey Housing. London: Policy Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1t893fw

Tucker, F. and H. Matthews. 2001. “They Don’t Like Girls Hanging Around There: Conflicts over Recreational Space in Rural Northamptonshire.” Area 33 (2): 161–168. https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-4762.00019

Waites, I. 2015. “Middlefield: The Development of a Provincial Post-World War Two Council Estate in Lincolnshire 1960-1965.” Midland History 40 (2): 264–285. https://doi.org/10.1179/0047729x15z.00000000059

____. 2018. “‘One Big Playground for Kids’: A Contextual Appraisal of some 1970s Photographs of Children Hanging Out on a Post-Second-World-War British Council Estate.” Childhood in the Past 11 (2): 114–128. https://doi.org/10.1080/17585716.2018.1495095

West Lindsey District Council. 2019. State of the District. [Gainsborough, UK]: West Lindsey District Council. Available online: https://www.west-lindsey.gov.uk/_resources/assets/attachment/full/0/88044.pdf

Womersley, J. L. 1954. “Some Housing Experiments on Radburn Principles.” The Town Planning Review 25 (3): 182–194. https://doi.org/10.3828/tpr.25.3.g02379h684224k5w

Wyatt, D. 2016. “Community Impact.” in Excavations at Caerau Hillfort, Cardiff, South Wales 2015: An Interim Report, by N. Sharples and O. Davis. Cardiff Studies in Archaeology 36: 51–59. Cardiff: Department of Archaeology and Conservation, University of Cardiff. Available online: https://orca.cf.ac.uk/98885/1/caerau-interim-36-web.pdf

Young, M. and P. Willmott. 1957. Family and Kinship in East London. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.