Coalbrookdale heritage jewel was condemned as unfit to live in

Carpenters Row in Coalbrookdale is today held up as a rare and cherished example of terraced workers' houses worthy of preservation, but for Alan Millward, who was born and brought up there, life was tough.

Plans have been drawn up to renovate the 18th century row and make the homes habitable again, something Alan finds a bit ironic considering that his family were forced to leave as they were condemned as unfit to live in and seemed destined for demolition.

The historic homes were built by the Coalbrookdale Company to house its workers.

"I was born and raised at Carpenters Row, along with my two brothers, Arthur and Ted," said Alan, the youngest of the trio, who is 75, and lives these days in the comfort of Station Fields, Oakengates.

"I lived there until I was in my teens, 17 or 18 if I remember correctly. The houses belonged to the Coalbrookdale Company. I have given the rent contract to Enginuity at Coalbrookdale for their archives. The rent contract belonged to my father, and I thought if I leave it here it will get lost. Enginuity jumped at the chance to have it.

"My father, Billy Millward, was a moulder at the Coalbrookdale Company.

"They were two up and two down. There was no water and no toilet. In Carpenters Row there were three toilets at the beginning of the row at the Jiggers Bank end, and ours was the middle one. There was a wooden seat, and it was an earth toilet. You don't want me to go into details do you?

"If you wanted the toilet in the night you had to get up and walk down the road. It was not a very nice experience getting up in the night if you were desperate.

"There were about eight houses, and we were number 5."

Although residents knew them as Carpenters Row, their postal address was actually 5 Wellington Road.

"There were two bedrooms upstairs, and a lounge-cum-everything downstairs, and a bit of a kitchen at the back," added Alan.

"Living there was something we had to put up with, but when they wanted to move us we didn't want to go, but had to because they condemned the houses because there were no back doors, only a front door, and no running water and no toilets. We had to move up to Sunniside. My father was dead then, he died when I was 14 and a half.

"At Carpenters Row we had a bosh, which was a big water tank on the yard outside. All the houses had one. They were for washing, drinking, everything. Eventually they put a tap into the yard in front of the house. After they had done that my father had the pipe run through the house into the back. We had one cold water tap.

"The tin bath lived outside until we needed it, and then we brought it in. It had to go in the back in the kitchen, where we bathed one day a week. There was a fire in the lounge and a black-leaded range in the kitchen. You cooked everything on that black-leaded range.

"We were well off compared to some of the residents because we had a tap in the house eventually.

"What amazes me is that when they condemned them they said they would have to be bulldozed because they weren't fit, and had not all the amenities they should have. But then they just left them. I'm now 75. How long have they been empty?"

While Alan is pleased the homes are to be done up, he said: "Why has it taken them this long?"

He added: "In some respects I was sad that they turned us out and then didn't do anything with them, although the first two houses have been turned into a holiday let."

He was to follow his father in going to work at the Coalbrookdale Company, but was only there briefly.

"I went to the Coalbrookdale Works when I was 15. I went into the engine shop, which is now Enginuity. I was supposed to learn a trade, which I did start to do, but I stopped there for a couple of years and then moved on."