View source for Wooden Shacks

[[File:shack.jpg|thumb|300px|right |Shack based on railway carriage at Hill Farm.]]
A notable feature of the [[Severn Valley]] landscape is the large number of wooden shacks, particularly on Hill Farm on the east bank and Hawkbatch Farm on the west bank between [[Northwood Halt]] and [[Folly Point]] with smaller numbers north of [[Arley]] at Bank Farm and at [[Highley]]. Hill Farm contains 160 such dwellings and is the largest plotland area in the Midlands.<ref>[https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/features/2021/09/06/severn-redoubt-of-the-lost-plotlands/ Neal, Toby, 'Severn redoubt of the lost plotlands', Shropshire Star, 6 September 2021] (Retrieved 31 May 2024)</ref>   

'''Plotlands''' refer to small pieces of land laid out in regular plots on which a number of self-built settlements were established from the late 1800s and up to the Second World War, typically on former low-value farmland. These sere sold to build dwellings outside the conventional planning system, and often using converted buildings or reused materials.<ref>[https://www.spatialagency.net/database/the.plotlanders 'Plotlands', spatialagency.net] (Retrieved 31 May 2024)</ref><ref>[https://englishbuildings.blogspot.com/2011/06/bewdley-worcestershire.html Wilkinson, Philip, 'Bewdley, Worcestershire', English Buildings blog, 5 June 2011] (Retrieved 31 May 2024)</ref>

Most around the SVR were built in the 1920s and '30s as holiday homes, with more being added in the 1940s until the introduction of the 1947 Town and Country Planning Act. Many are now permanently occupied. In the 2006 local plan there were 380 such shacks in total within the Wyre Forest District.<ref>[https://archive.wyreforestdc.gov.uk/media/106049/Adopted-Site-Allocations-and-Policies-LP-1-.pdf Wyre Forest District Council Local Plan 2006] Section 7.103</ref>

It is likely that many were originally based on railway carriages, although after several decades of repairs and extensions, none of them retains any outward evidence of this. The last one recognisable as a railway carriage was demolished in early 2017.

There are local history books on the Wyre Forest plotlands, and academic works on the wider movement. 

==See also==
[[From The Window]]

==References==
<references/>

==Links==
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEeulyPsuOk Meades, Jonathan, Abroad in Britain TV series, BBC, Ep. 5 'Severn Heaven' (1990)] from 4:25 onwards. LMS [[48773|8233]] features briefly at around 23:00.
*[https://www.facebook.com/p/Hill-Farm-and-the-History-of-Bewdley-Plotlands-100071947996935/ Hill Farm and the History of Bewdley Plotlands Facebook Group]