of housing, schools, retail and offices around a communal open space, a concept which was created by Clarence Stein in Radburn, New Jersey in 1929. The council attempted to limit the damage caused to their reputation as a result of the scandal surrounding the resignation of Fidler by agreeing to embark on the major building project at Castle Bromwich with five new goals. These were increasing housing output at the estate by a further 4,000 homes, which was aimed to reduce the cost of dwellings, introducing industrialised forms of construction to save labour, attracting new national contractors to work in Birmingham, and increase capacity by providing continuous work for contractors. Construction At a time when major house-building firms were receiving large subsidies from the Government for the construction and pioneering prefabricated, system-built tower blocks, there was major competition between companies who offered various construction systems. Concrete Ltd. had developed a system called the Bison Wall Frame system which was offered to the council who then accepted it and commissioned Bryants as the contractor. Construction of the layout designed by J. R. Sheridan-Shedden, which consisted of housing for 5,000 housing units along two spines of housing running along the length of the estate, commenced in 1963 and the first residents moved in a year later. The estate was completed in 1969. Reinforced concrete was the main material used due to its low cost and ease of use. 30% of the houses constructed were intended for private sale, an unusually high percentage, with most of the privately sold houses being around the Park Lane area of the estate. As well as residential properties, there was also a shopping centre in the eastern part of the estate, five schools, two churches and a swimming pool. There were some clear links to the aviation heritage of the site within the names of the roads, with the three main roads running the length of the estate being constructed on the runways of the airfield, and the 34 tower blocks that contained 2,000 flats. There were two major concentrations of tower blocks within the estate: fourteen along Farnborough Road, and the 'Centre 8', a group of eight large tower blocks in the centre of the estate. The following is a list of the tower blocks constructed on the estate. By the end of the 1960s, Castle Vale had a population of around 20,000 people, with the