The bulk of the prefabs that were made to house families under the Marshall Aid Plan in war-torn Europe were made by the American motor industry. More 500,000 were sent across the Atlantic and the first British consignment started arriving in April 1944. Offering some 616 square-feet they measured roughly 19 feet by 21 feet, plus a rear and side entrance lobby. As Barry Henderson states in his nostalgic six-volume photographic record of Efford “Little America” estate, “many of the prefab sites were cleared by German and Italian prisoners of war, who also constructed the roads, steps, paths, walls and concrete foundations for the prefabs.”
Ergonomically designed they had two bedroom (10ft by 9ft and 9ft square) a lounge (10 by 12) and kitchen and bathroom and at the time, “they proved to be very substantial and desirable dwellings”.
Oregon Way is one of the few names to survive, although none of the prefabs do, and the line of the street is not quite what it was when the prefabs reigned between 1944 and 1969.
