The Banner Homes Site Development in Caddington
This page has photographs of the building site on a monthly (approx) basis.
The Banner Homes Site in Caddington page has the picture of the site in early August 2000, before any development was done. This page chronicles the progress.
The site was cleared in August, so that by September, work on the road had begun.
By early October 2000, it looked like this:
The metalwork just the other side of the fence are reinforcing rods for the piles and the beams between the tops of the piles. The huge machine drills holes for the piles to be cast. You can see that a fence has been built around the site.
A close boarded fence has now been erected around most of the site. The south corner of the site has recently been extended to take in the section which had not been cleared (for some reason).It will probably become the back garden for the large building in that corner.
The foul sewer and the surface water drain which cross the site are being diverted to allow houses to be built above where they currently run. There were plans to put in a new sewer from the site, but this seems to have been "forgotten". Since the foul sewer sometimes flooded in bad weather, this may cause problems in the gardens which are in the west corner of the site. Watch out if you buy a house with a manhole by the fence at the bottom of the garden. (What goes down ...)
Foundations are now being dug and laid. The two (4 bed) detached houses at the west corner have the reinforced concrete piles incorporated into their foundations. The remainder of the houses along the southwest boundary will have "normal" foundations. The other houses with piles for the foundations are those along the northeast boudary into the east corner.
The foundations for the house in the west corner have been completed and the first rows of bricks and breeze blocks have been laid.
By the end of October 2000, things had progressed further:
The road is built and foundations have been dug and cast for many of the houses.
At the start of December the houses are rising fast, starting with the one in the west corner and progressing towards the south. I think that all of the foundations are cast by now. Pictures taken at the start of December are:
| The building that I expect will be the
show house had it roof added in early December 2000. The
process looked like this: If you want more detail, save the picture on the right to a local file and view it full size (at which time the copyright notice will be obvious, too). The standard of materials is not the highest! Look (below) at what passes for floor joists these days! They seem to be made up of strips of boarding with real(?) wood along the top and bottom to discourage bending. (The gap in the joists is where the stairs will rise.) |
 |
They seemed to get a lot done in December, so that by the time of the Christmas break, things were looking like this:
Although not shown above, the (presumed) show house has been completely roofed and glazed, and the one next to it has been roofed up to the stage of adding the tiles.
At the end of January 2001, the houses in the west corner are doing well, as the pictures below show. The far side of the development is now rising above ground level.
Torrential rain on the 12th Feb 2001 caused mayhem with water running of the site. Raising the level of the land and bringing large quantities of clay to the surface has caused havoc with the natural drainage, causing neighbouring gardens to flood.
In mid-February 2001 the Show home opened.
By the end of February, the houses at the east end are rising, while the roofs are going on the others.
The end of March shows the last house (in the south corner, nearest the foreground tree) rising above the floor level, while the east corner has had the roof timbers put in place. Note that the ridge tiles on the house shown on the left have still not been finished, and the entrance is not roofed, either!
The end of April (below) shows that the ridge tiles cannot be a high priority, but the house in the corner probably is - the roof timbers are on already!
In May 2001 there are signs of people moving into the finished houses, while effort is directed at the last ones. After the middle of May, things are looking tidier - even the ridge tiles are in place on plot 12.
The end of June 2001. These pictures show that the development is nearly finished. The garage is the only construction work to be done.
The end of July 2001. Just over a year since it all began. It all looks finished on the outside, but you can tell that the latest finished houses are not yet occupied (everyone has to have an external aerial - it seems!)
I don't intend to take any more pictures of the site now unless anyone is desperate enough to want to see what sort of aerials the other arrivals erect. In the last year a couple of fields and the hedgerow between them, which used to be home to a variety of wildlife all day, have have been converted into houses for the people who spend most of their time earning the money to pay the massive prices they had to pay. This is progress! (?)
That was intended to be the whole story, but the latest news:
In November 2001, a massive (compared to the size of the house!) conservatory was added to give the inhabitants somewhere to live. It does get used has been often illuminated at night. It usage does seem to be decreasing at nights, though.
If you go back up to the beginning of January 2001, you will see a large Hawthorn heavily covered in ivy. In late June 2002 this has been reduced to a minimal stump, which appears to be permitted although it is a protected tree.
©2001-2002, L.Thompson
Last edited: 07 August 2003