wood-and-iron, adjective

Forms:
Also wood-an’-iron.
Of a building: consisting of a wooden frame and (usually galvanized and) corrugated iron walls and roof. Used of two distinct types of building:
1. Dating from a previous era, especially from Victorian times: usually having wooden floors, often a verandah, and sometimes with wooden wall cladding instead of iron.
1871 E.J. Dugmore Diary. 21 Nov.There are a few wood and iron stores to be seen.
1888 Barberton Herald 24 Jan.Tenders are invited for the two Wood and Iron Buildings Known as Bayly’s Piano Depot, and Bayly’s Stationery Store.
1982 Weekend Post 10 July 4Mrs Vernon said the wood-and-iron houses found in the older parts of East London were the poor man’s answer to his desire to have his own home...In 1903, the building of these houses was restricted.
1991 S. Du Toit in Weekend Post 9 Mar. (Leisure) 5A tent town sprang up but these temporary homes were gradually replaced by wood-and-iron buildings. Today the old wood-and-iron houses and shops have been meticulously restored and no modern buildings spoil the Victorian atmosphere.
2. In recent times: small, owner-built, often ramshackle and without flooring, usually forming part of an informal settlement; occasionally applied to a sturdier dwelling built under government supervision in a township.
1948 A. Paton Cry, Beloved Country 222The wood-and-iron building was like an oven.
1979 Sunday Times 12 Aug. (Extra) 1Their wood and iron shanty..was demolished.
1983 Daily Dispatch 12 May 7Ciskei Public Works Department staff battled against the clock yesterday putting up wood and iron shacks to accommodate 70 families moved from Blue Rock squatter camp.
1986 E. Prov. Herald 19 July 2Council officials..asked them to pull down their shacks or have it done for them. One said when he saw how council officials had flattened one of the wood-and-iron structures earlier this week, he decided to pull down his own himself.
1990 R. Gool Cape Town Coolie 166A settlement of a dozen or so wood-an’-iron houses clustered anxiously around a trading store.
consisting of a wooden frame and (usually galvanized and) corrugated iron walls and roof. Used of two distinct types of building:
usually having wooden floors, often a verandah, and sometimes with wooden wall cladding instead of iron.
small, owner-built, often ramshackle and without flooring, usually forming part of an informal settlement; occasionally applied to a sturdier dwelling built under government supervision in a township.
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18711991

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