A view of Low Santon bungalows with the hostel to the right and the rooftops of New Row Terrace Villas bottom left – Bottom right is Emmanuel Beck which becomes Bottesford Beck.
What became known Santon Hostel was the first home in Scunthorpe area for hundreds of families and steelworkers after the housing shortage in Britain following the Second World War. It was an unusual little community just a short distance from the noise and pollution of the works near Dawes Lane, close to Low Santon.
Although there had been a small community in the area for some years, mostly along what was called Old Row, Santon and then New Row, the story of Santon Hostel comes from The North Ironworks which were some distance from Scunthorpe, after the First World War the problem of housing to take up those who were coming to work at the Ironworks called for a speedy solution.
In 1919 the idea was first mooted to build some bungalows at Low Santon, opposite ‘New Row Villas’ but it wasn’t until April 1921 that 40 of them were completed, to serve the need of the men at the North Ironworks – dubbed The Frozen North because of its exposed position.
View of the bungalows with Low Santon ‘New Row’ Villas seen at the end
The new homes were in four blocks of 10, laid out in two streets parallel to one another, each bungalow was of a 4 room design.
Shortly after the Second World War, in 1948, the building of the APEX plant at the Appleby-Frodingham steelworks saw huge influxes of contractors in need of short term accommodation. Some of the bungalows were used for that purpose but the available accommodation could not meet the demand, the solution by the company was to build huts nearby which became known as Santon Hostel.
App-Frod Chronicle
In the early 1950’s some of the bungalows were used to house those working on the SERAPHIM Project. In the mid 1950’s the huts had been converted into what were described at ‘rather superior living accommodation’ and were used to house men working at Appleby-Frodingham and the Ore Mining branch.
An article in the Appleby-Frodingham Chronical of 1956 reports that hostel accommodation was available to employees in the form of completely refurbished ‘lock-up’ cubicles with a canteen in the centre of the site (see picture right). These consisted of two classes of accommodation – 112 Class 1 cubicles which had a door and a lock, and 128 Class 2 cubicles which just had a draw to curtain.
Chronicle shows a typical cubicle
The Appleby-Frodingham Recorder newspaper reported in 1956 that the bungalows were showing their age, it said, “At the time they were built they were no doubt desirable places for their purpose, but since then we have become accustomed to improved conditions and the bungalows are far below the desirable standard. Today only a very small number of these dwellings are used for married people. One street of bungalows has recently been demolished.”
Demolition of bungalows in 1956
This left one street remaining.
The closure of the remaining hostel came in 1965.
The closure announcement was given to the Works Council by general works manager George Elliot, who said, “no-one would be thrown out at a minutes notice.”
He recalled that the hostel had come into use at a time when Appleby-Frodingham was short of labour and the town was short of housing. But it was not the company’s job to run hostels and the accommodation problems in the town were easier than before the war.
There was little sign of regret at the news of the closure, the hostel was described as a transit camp, but Mr George Bunch had pointed out that some men had lived there for 12 to 15 years.
New Row Villas at Low Santon remained until the early 1970’s.
A panoramic view
Pre WW2 view of Redbourn Iron & Steelworks are seen in the bottom left quarter of this picture, the North Ironworks at the top with New Row Low Santon Villas in front of the large gas holder and top right the bungalows. Old Row can be seen running along the road from the left to the white fronted house to the right of the row.
A 1948 view with Redbourn Iron & Steelworks top left, North Ironworks on the right – bottom middle are New Row Low Santon Villas whilst bottom right are the bungalows and hostel, Old Row can be seen further along the road.
c1936 to early 40’s view, from a different angle to above, of Low Santon Villas and bungalows to the bottom left.
A wider view from the one above, Santon school can be seen bottom center of the photo
A cropped view as of above, the long building seen bottom right was the Santon School
Santon school 1932
Santon school children c1930
This photo has, “Keep Cool, Santon 1936” written on it. The ice-cream vendor is thought to be sat in an Austin 7 – seen in the background are a row of Low Santon bungalows.
A view from North Ironworks gas holder taken 2nd May 1956 of New Row, Low Santon and the remaining bungalows to the right.
The row of 3 bedroom terrace houses was built by North Ironworks and officially called New Santon Terrace. They were well-built and quite spacious, with an outside toilet and indoor bathroom but with no hot running water. The near end two houses were later removed to allow easier access to the Eccles Slag Company site.
A similar view to the image above, to the right is the North Ironworks gas holder and in the background are cooling towers and gas holders belonging tho the Redbourn Hill Ironworks.
A photo from 1928 showing girls outside No24
New Row, Low Santon. This image shows how close people live to the Iron & Steel Works. To the right, just out of shot, would be the Eccles Slag Company from where the lorry would have just come from. The end two houses by this time had been taken down to allow easier access to the Eccles Slag Company site.
A 1960s view with the Eccles Slag Company buildings to the right
An early 1950’s view, looking East, shows the back of New Row, Low Santon on the right with Eccles Slag Company to the left. A small shop owned by Mrs Emma Potts, was in the end house, she lived at No4 New Row. A weighbridge is situated between the two buildings to the rear of the lorry, these were offices – the buildings behind the transport company garages. Further along the road is the rail bridge and beyond are three houses belonging to the Santon Underground Mine Safety Men.
This view, looking West, is taken from the roof of the Santon Underground Mine buildings in 1951. Just beyond the flooded brickworks clay pit are three houses which housed the Mine Safety Men. Further along the road the rail bridge can be seen which to the right is Eccles Slag Company. The gasholder on the right belonged to the North Ironworks while Redbourn Works is to the left and Appleby-Frodingham Works is in the distance. The building to the right of the large gasholder was a power house which also supplied the Appleby-Frodingham Works
This view was taken the year before the image above. Taken in 1950 it shows a similar view but the brick works can still be seen and the Safety Men’s houses had yet to be built.
The Santon Underground Mine Safety Men’s houses bearing completion in 1951
This view from the 1960’s (thought to have been taken from the Redbourn CEW office block) shows the North Ironworks and gas holder with Low Santon, New Row Villas running alongside.
Demolition of Santon Villas, New Row, in March 1973
Demolition underway in March 1973
This grainy image from March 1973 shows the demolition of New Row, Low Santon underway.
Newspaper cutting tells of former New Row villas tenant who knocked his house down.
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