Every few days a removal van would turn up

I moved to 169 Longridge when I was 16 years old. It was unusual, because it had 6 bedrooms.  But the path wasn’t even completed yet when we moved in. I remember my mum got the key to the property two days before her birthday. She said it was her birthday present. I remember the house had speckled backing wallpaper.

In 1970s the properties were built but people were not living in them. They moved in in  stages; every few days a removal van would turn up.

People already knew each other because they’d lived in the same area in Manchester. People moved here for the countryside.

I’d just started working at Sullivans [sewing factory] then I worked for Melia’s [now a hairdressers].

From an interview with Rowena Acton in 2014
Interviewer: Lucy Beesley

We waited months to move

Mum had four kids (Thomas, Pat, me and Sandra) when we moved into 237 Longridge, from Wythenshawe. My other sister and brother, Kathy and Kenneth, came later. It was a shell of a house. There was a garage, and a farm that sold milk, and orchards. We waited months to move. It was quiet. Everyone had their own place on the bus. I was at Knutsford High School at 11.

We played in the woods, where the tip is now. Thomas was the worst – he climbed into buildings and the police had to come for him. Dad used to come out of the house and whistle for us. We came home like sheep, usually. People weren’t in each other’s pockets though. It was only at Christmas and New Year that the doors all opened. There was a slightly wild family next to us too.

From an interview with Christine Coad, 2015
Interviewers: Ged Martin and Simon Grennan

Moving to Longridge 1970

Anne Comley moved to Longridge in May 1970 with her husband and children. The picture shows Anne’s daughter Denise Comley as a small child in Manchester, where the family moved from. When they came to Longridge., Denise was 14. She remembers:

Some of the houses weren’t built. There were no buses or anything when we came up here, except I think there was a school bus. But I was ready to leave school anyway; it was May and I was leaving in the July. So I thought I didn’t have to go! I hated that high school, it was horrible.

Photo courtesy of Anne Comley.

Moving from Manchester

From an interview with Rose Oliver in 2015 about moving to Longridge:

I moved to Longridge in 1970 with my partner and five children.

I think most people came to Longridge from Wythenshawe in Manchester. I had 5 children and a pram, and I lived in a top floor flat in Wythenshawe Park in Northern Moor, in Manchester. It was difficult! I asked to be housed locally, but there was nothing available in Manchester and I was offered a place in Longridge: a 3 bedroom house in the country where the children could play outside.

Interviewers: Diane Lomax and Lucy Beesley.

Removals receipt, 1970

A receipt from the removal company that was used by Rose Oliver when she and her family moved to Longridge from Northern Moor, Wythenshawe, Manchester in February 1970.

In an interview, Rose said:

Shaw Heath was already built when I arrived. We were one of the first families to move onto Longridge and we still live here today, so we’re amongst the longest Longridge residents.

I used Osborne Transport for the removals. The smaller children stayed back with my mother until everything was moved in. The children saw it as a real adventure. It was all very exciting and a new step in Life; everything was new, with lots of the development still to be completed – there were no gardens or paths, no lighting in alleyways, no shops and no pub!  The Falcon Bearer opened a year later; it was run by Colin and Brenda. The shops also opened at the same time, including a supermarket, newsagent, chemist and Chinese takeaway.”

Object courtesy of Rose Oliver; photographed by Creation Of A Community project.

The oldest person on Longridge

I’m definitely the oldest person on Longridge, that is, the longest here. I’m 83 years old. I came with my wife and kids from South Street, Manchester in 1968, when I was 36. At the time, I worked in Stockport at English Steel. There was a compulsory purchase made by Manchester City Council order on our Manchester house. We were offered a move to either Hattersley or Longridge. I’d been past here before. I’d worked on the railways and been past it on trains. I’d seen into it.

The move from Manchester was a great success. I love it here. You’ve got fields. It’s nice, if you come from Manchester South Street. When we got the offer of the move, I thought “Yes, I’ll take the kids there.”

From an interview with Stanley Seddon in 2015.
Interviewers: Ged Martin and Simon Grennan.