Yesterday posted about some of his local architecture that features a lot of red bricks. I thought I'd do a similar post about Arlesey, where I live. These pictures were taken on my walk home from the station. There a couple of things Arlesey is known for. One is the Arlesey Bomb fishing weight and the other is Arlesey White bricks made from the local clay. There used to be a brickworks here that was a major local employer, but it's all shut down now. The clay pits are now a lake and a landfill.
This is a typical terrace in Arlesey whites. There are several like this along the High Street. They often have a plaque saying when they were built. This one is not clear, but I think they are from the start of the last century.
The old school across the road also uses these bricks. Both use some red bricks for details. The school is now occupied by a piano repair man who comes to the pub music sessions. He's a better gardener than me.
Next to the school is The White Horse, where we play music. This is one of the older buildings in the town and has a large thatch roof. I say it's a town, but it feels like a long village as there is no big centre to it. There's the lower school, library, village hall and council office in the centre, but there are just a few isolated shops.
Across the road from The White Horse is a former pub that is now a house. I can remember there being at least nine pubs here, but now there are just four. Some are houses, one a nursery and another an indian restaurant. I think the white building further up was a blacksmiths many years ago.
The oldest building by far is Saint Peter's church that dates back to the 12th century. The part of the left is the oldest.
Next to the church is this old half-timbered building. The solar panels are a recent addition.
The old dairy is a mix of red brick and render. It's had a lot of interior work done recently. I've never been in most of these buildings.
More recent are these flats. I would think they were built in the 60s or 70s. There's quite a lot of housing here that was obviously built for the less well off workers at the brickworks and the asylum.
This bungalow looks fairly new, but it's a renovated 'pre-fab' that may have been built just after the way from a kit of concrete walls.
There are whole streets of council houses like these. They were owned by the local authority and rented to those who struggled to buy a house. Some are still owned by housing associations, but many tenants got the chance to buy them at a good price and you can see that many have been extended by the new owners.
More flats that include some of the few three-storey homes here. There are some much newer houses scattered around here and there's a plan for a further 900 in the next few years that will extend the area of the town. We knew this was coming. We're in commuting distance to London, so there's plenty of demand for housing.
I'm assuming these bungalows were built for retired people who don't want stairs. They have a little sitting area by the front door. There's some sheltered housing around here where they get regular visits.
Finally another terrace in Arlesey whites. This is Cooperative Terrace that hint at its origins. For some reason most of these do not have a letterbox in what you would assume is the front door, so the postman has to go around the back.
I haven't featured the new houses around here this time, but I may do those another day. You can see we have a mix of homes here. We've lived here over 20 years and seen a lot of changes.
I was trying to think of a tag for posts like this. How about #LocalHomes ? Even in the UK you can see a lot of variety around the country and I'm interested to see where you live.
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