We split up over dancing

I’ve got 13 grandchildren now and 2 great-grandchildren. And I see my family a lot. That’s why I’m skint! Margaret, my wife, lives in Cuddington now. We split up after 41 years of marriage, over dancing. She wanted to do all the fancy steps and I wasn’t interested. We danced, of course, but nothing fancy. She worked silver service, waiting on at posh events, and I discovered that after her work she’d go dancing behind my back.

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

There was a land grab

Great Places Housing Group is a different type of landlord to Manchester City Council. With MCC, there were no fenced gardens, they weren’t allowed, and two full time groundsmen/ gardeners, an older one and a younger one. All the free space was grass back then on both estates. When GPHG took over, there was a land grab. People pinched the land to make their own back gardens, for anything, flowers, bowling, big sheds. I couldn’t have taken advantage of that, even if I’d wanted to: my house was on the edge, so I was hemmed in.

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

Every job I applied for, I got

Later, in the 1980s, I got a job at Land Rover in Solihull, Birmingham. My job was to check the production line for the new car, the TR2. Four lads used to drive from here to work and back. It was a 2 hour community [commute], twice a day. But the M6 was empty at 6.00 am, though it was busy on the way back.

Every job I applied for, I got. Right until I retired at 65. I was lucky. I left school at 14. The last job I had was at Ilford’s at Mobberley. There were 2000 workers and buses from Northwich full of men, to and from work. At one time, every interview I went for, there were the same people going for the jobs. And I always got them. I don’t know what happened to the others.

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

On strike at English Steel

In the 70s, I was always on strike at English Steel. I turned up and they said “No work” and “All out.” I was fed up. So one day I got off the train to work at Altrincham Navigation Road. In my mind, I’d quit and I wanted a new job. So I looked for one. I wanted to knock some money off the travel costs, for a start. I just wandered around the works down there asking for jobs. I was offered one driving at Linotype, but it wasn’t enough money, so I turned it down. But they said, hang about, we’ve got a furnace job, like the one at English Steel. So I took it!

After Linotype, I got a job at a paper mill as a shift operator, moving materials by crane and machine. I enjoyed working and of course, I needed the money because I had three kids. I drove a barge at Kennedy’s. It had a pump sucking up sand to use as raw material. It was lovely in summer, with the radio to keep me company. Then we hit a seam of clay. No more sand and that was that.

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

There were grave stones but no bodies

I had 3 children and my wife with me [when I moved here]. My kids were 10, 11 (that’s my daughters) and my son was 14. They went to school at St John’s on Mobberley Road, then Knutsford High. They loved it around here. But they never got involved with the Carnival here, rather the one in Knutsford. But here they could paddle in the lake. That’s gone now. Built over. Same with the old church. They dug up the graveyard. That was earlier, when they were building. There were grave stones but no bodies.

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

It was like an open prison!

When we moved, it was a building site still. There were no buses, no shops, no pub. It was like an open prison! It cost £1.50 for a week train ticket return into Stockport and I walked to Knutsford station to get the train at 6.30 am, to work at English Steel. I’ve never had a car to this day. My wife had one. I bought it.

My wife Margaret got a job soon after we moved here, at Glynn’s Interiors in Knutsford on the bottom street. The owner had a Penny Farthing bicycle. He was an enthusiast!

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

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.

A Stockport and a City fan

I’ve always been a Stockport and a City fan. I went to see Stockport every Friday with my dad in the 1960s. I remember we played Liverpool in the FA cup and drew. The replay was advertised as a free tickets match, but there were only 6 free tickets available! Anyway, we got into the replay and my dad stood me on one of those floodlights so I could see. But the fencing around the match went over because of the crowds and dad pulled me away. It was dangerous. We went home and we were on telly! Me in my black and white hat with my rattle.

I was in the famous schools choir in Stockport as a lad, before coming here. The Moir Choir. I’ve always liked music, but not this bump, bump modern stuff.

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