North Prospect

North Prospect, previously officially named and still colloquially known as Swilly, was the name given to the first council estate built in Plymouth during the 1920s, primarily to accommodate officers settling back in Britain following the devastation of the First World War. The housing act of 1919 promised “Homes for Heroes” and an improvement on the overcrowded and inadequate living conditions that existed in early twentieth century Britain. Swilly was Plymouth’s response to this Act.

Swilly House had been at the centre of a prosperous country estate. Much of the former mansion was transferred from Swilly, being reconstructed at a site known as Woodtown on the edge of Dartmoor. The original word may have derived from the Anglo-Saxon word meaning “farmland”, but also it may have a Celtic derivation associated to water (refer to the Irish "Lough Swilly" and "River Swilly") as the earliest reference in Plymouth to "Swilly creek" in 1578 pre-dates the subsequent farm. Before the Second World War much of the locality of what is now North Prospect and the western edge of Beacon Park was known as Swilly. Swilly Post Office was at the corner of South Down Road and West Down Road.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Prospect

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