Croudace was founded in 1946 by Jack Brotherton-Ratcliffe: following a distinguished wartime career he saw an opening to renovate and build new council and private housing during the post-war building boom. He acquired the first sites for new private homes in Surrey to meet the rising shortage of housing stock, and this locality remained the core area of operation for the company for many years. Opportunities for private residential developers increased in the 1980s when housing demand was no longer satisfied by public development and both earnings and the availability of credit were growing, and Croudace responded by significantly increasing its private house-building programme and widening its spread of operations to cover the whole of the south east of England. The company grew from strength to strength and despite periods of economic recession which saw many competitors fail, Jack’s firm control, prudence and lucid appreciation of the market enabled him to sustain Croudace’s success.