HORSA is the acronym for the 'Hutting Operation for the Raising of the School-Leaving Age', a programme of hut-building in schools introduced by the UK Government to support the expansion of education under the Education Act 1944 to raise the compulsory education age by a year to age 15.
Government plans to increase the school leaving age resulted in the need to accommodate 168,000 additional pupils.[1] Along with the need to replace buildings lost and damaged in World War II and the post-war baby boom, this contributed to massive demand for low cost prefabricated 'hut'-style classrooms and other school buildings. 7,000 new classrooms and 928 new primary schools were built in 1945-50.[2][3]
The programme was the responsibility of George Tomlinson, the Minister of Education in the post-war Clement Attlee government. There is some evidence the programme struggled to cope with demand.[4] However, the scheme progressed and was regarded as complete by 1950.[5]
HORSA huts were constructed of concrete and timber with corrugated asbestos-filled roofs, arrived onsite as flat pack deliveries and once assembled they resembled the spartan buildings used in army camps in the war.[6] Although intended as temporary accommodation with an expected lifespan of only ten years,[7] 'Horsa huts' were often used well beyond this and some still survived as of 2012[update].[8] Although now often in poor physical condition and regarded as having little architectural merit, demolition of those built before 1 July 1948 requires listed building consent if they fall within the curtilage of a listed building.[9]