Prattens

F. Pratten and Co Ltd, commonly known as Prattens, was a company based on a site in Midsomer Norton and Westfield, Somerset that manufactured prefabricated buildings, most notably portable classrooms that were widely used after the second world war and became synonymous with the company name. The company was founded in 1912 and was acquired by Beazer in 1980, finally ceasing trading in 1993.

The company was founded in 1912 by Frank Pratten, a coal miner's son from Westfield, near , Somerset, then aged around 26. He had previously worked for another local firm, W. Edgell, but acquired a small building off Charlton Road, Midsomer Norton, and formed his own company making prefabricated sheds and other buildings with a Mr. Frank Bourne. There are indications that the new company then manufactured items such as ammunition sheds for the first world war effort. After the war, Frank's brothers Ernest and Bertram joined the company. The economic decline during the inter-war years made low-cost prefabricated buildings attractive to individuals and institutions and the company continued to grow. In the late 1920s Mr Halvor Angle was appointed to lead on advertising, for which he had responsibility for forty years.

Founder Frank Pratten was the father-in-law of cricketer Louis Powell who married his daughter Nora at the Church of St John the Baptist, Midsomer Norton in 1935. Frank died suddenly aged 55 in December 1941.

During World War II, in common with many other factories, the company took on female factory workers to cover the shortfall left by men joining the armed forces.

The raising of the school leaving age in the UK to 15 in 1945 prompted the government HORSA programme (Hutting Operation for the Raising of the School-Leaving Age). Later the increase to 16 in 1972 prompted ROSLA (Raising of School Leaving Age) classroom 'blocks'. Both age increases generated huge demand for prefabricated 'hut' classrooms. The Pratten name became synonymous with such prefabricated classrooms. Their expected lifespan was twenty-five years but many have been used well beyond this period and some examples from the 1950s - 1970s are still in use. Many schools still refer to their surviving “Pratten huts” and “prattens”, with the company name sometimes even retained in the name the school gives to the building.

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