A quaint little building looking like a small barn, with its
thatched roof and black weatherboard sides designed by Mr G C Holme
in 1929, it is situated right in the centre of the new “model
village” created by the industrialist Francis Henry Crittall in
1926 around the factory there to manufacture components for metal
windows
Mr Crittall (later Lord Braintree) had a vision to provide his
workforce with houses and amenities in close proximity to his
window factory. Thus over six years from 1926 Silver End village
was built.
The village includes some noteworthy early examples of modernist
architectural design; the distinctive white, flat-roofed houses on
Frances Way and Silver Street are the work of influential Scottish
architect Thomas Tait leading designer of Art Deco and Streamline
Moderne buildings in the 20th Century who is also credited with
designing the concrete pylons on Sydney Harbour Bridge. Of note are
the steel window frames manufactured by Crittalls’s firm as a test
for their use in the damp English climate.