HORSA huts vs Horsa huts
Immediately following Word War II Britain was faced with two competing visions of temporary buildings, both called Horsa huts. The first, and most well known, were the huts built for the urgent need of schools, who by 1947 were expected to keep on pupils to the outrageous age of 15 and thus required bigger premises. This 'Hutting Operation for the Raising of the School-leaving Age', or HORSA for short, resulted in the concrete walled, asbestos roofed and metal-framed windowed hut many of us recognise from their lingering legacy.
A Mr Munns from Surrey had quite a different idea, even if it used the same name. He'd been eagerly chopping up the airframe of a number of ex-RAF Airspeed Horsa gliders, like the ones used in the invasion of Sicily or the Batttle of Normandy. Then he'd mounted them on wheels or stuck them in the ground and they became caravans or prefab homes. The success of his enterprise must have been rather temporary at best... Here's a charming little Movie Tone newsreel.
A Mr Munns from Surrey had quite a different idea, even if it used the same name. He'd been eagerly chopping up the airframe of a number of ex-RAF Airspeed Horsa gliders, like the ones used in the invasion of Sicily or the Batttle of Normandy. Then he'd mounted them on wheels or stuck them in the ground and they became caravans or prefab homes. The success of his enterprise must have been rather temporary at best... Here's a charming little Movie Tone newsreel.
Chris Guest - possibly of interest - in the 1950's a Christchurch man came up with a timber-based alternative for school buildings, which he patented. I don't know if it's coincidence but some of the HORSA gliders were build locally. Our hall is an example, albeit larger, of his patented design (see www.druitthall.org.uk) which locals have been fighting over years to save from demolition.
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