His son had seen an online article and contacted Eddie’s then neighbour.

The two former wartime foes started corresponding.

“I wanted him to know how much his work has been appreciated, how I had every sympathy for all the German people who lost their homes to bombs like we did.”

Graham Burton lives hundreds of miles from Eddie, and having moved into his Chesterfield prefab in 1987 is a relative newcomer.

But he is right behind the fight to preserve this important part of Britain’s social history.

“We feel like the King and Queen here,” he says.

“What more could people want?”

Graham, 77, a former British Coal worker, and his wife Maureen, 71, moved in after she had a stroke and like Eddie they went on to buy their home from the council, paying £10,000 in 1990.

“It was a bargain,” he says.

“Over the years we’ve looked after it but these homes were so well built and designed.

“I think we should be restoring them and learning from them, not knocking them down.

“There are blocks of flats built years later being pulled down yet here we are more than 60 years on talking about something that was supposed to last 10.”

Graham’s prefab was built by PoWs in 1947 from parts made at the Bristol Aeroplane Company.

“Behind me is a complete sheet from a Lancaster bomber.

“That is really special,” he says.

“These are lovely homes, very forward thinking.

“Some even came with curtains attached.

“We had a built-in socket for the radio by the fireplace.

“There are cupboards everywhere. It’s like Doctor Who’s Tardis in here.”

Visitors to the Prefab Museum agree.

“We have had architecture students who tell us this is far bigger and lighter than their flats,” says Elisabeth.

As well as the young and curious, and residents from the estate, the museum and its busy website draw a steady stream of nostalgic former prefab dwellers.

“They come in for tea and cake and to share their stories.

“Lots of them end up volunteering here, bringing us things to display.

“We’ve been given carpets, furniture, tea sets, record players, ornaments. It is evolving.”

The museum has already hosted tea parties, VE Day celebrations and art exhibitions.

It will soon include sound installations so that stories can be shared with visitors.

The only complaint visitors make about their prefab years, says Elisabeth, is the cold in winter.

“The windows would ice up but they loved the space, the light, the smell, the modern fittings, the garden, the fact you could see the sky.

“It felt like a holiday village.

“People arrived at the same sort of time with young families and the same sorts of backgrounds.

“There was a wonderful community spirit. It is probably the most successful social housing model ever.”

Yet Eddie admits that his first reaction to living in a prefab was outrage.

“I told the council I wanted a proper house.

“I was sick of living in tents and Nissen huts.” Then he adds:

“But he persuaded us to have a look and I have loved it ever since.

“They’ll have a job to move me that’s for sure.”

• For details of the museum and Elisabeth Blanchet’s Prefab Homes (Shire, £7.95) see prefabmuseum.uk