The prefab at Avoncroft

It’s a lovely prefab in a lovely museum, which takes you back in time and over 700 years of history.

Home to over 30 different buildings and structures which have been rescued and re-built in rural Worcestershire, Avoncroft Museum is spread over 19 acres of beautiful Worcestershire countryside and includes a wildflower meadow, period gardens, a traditional cider and perry orchard as well as the collection of historic buildings… and a post-war prefab!

We went to visit the open air museum – open in 1967, it was the first UK open air museum – last Friday with Jane, my friend and partner in The Prefab Museum.

We were kindly invited by the museum’s staff to discuss the possibility of a future collaboration as 2016 is marking 70 years of post-war prefabs, although they were supposed to last 10 years!

Here is a bit of history of this lovely prefab: It used to be located 85 Moat Lane, Yardley, Birmingham and its first tenant was Mrs Davies… In the 80s the Arcon was rescued and re-built at Avoncroft Museum.

It’s fantastic to discover the inside of the prefab too, how comfortable, cosy and modern…

and to imagine how prefab post-war life was through the furniture, the objects, the knick knacks and the photos displayed…

Some of them were kindly donated by the family who lived in the prefab.

If you want to see more photos of life in an Arcon in the 50s, here are a few from Alan Page’s collection in Newport, Wales.

Follow the adventures of the Prefab Museum on FB and Twitter! We’ll be back soon… 2016 is the year of the prefab!!!!