The estate that 'blew up' its last link to Manchester

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

For Maria Murphy her new home was 'like a palace'. Having moved from a post-war prefab bungalow in Blackley, just the fact of having stairs seemed exotic and exciting to the then 10-year-old. "I just thought it was fabulous being able to go upstairs to bed," said Maria. "It was so, so different to where we'd come from." In 1962, Maria, her two sisters and their parents became one of the first families to move onto Darnhill in Heywood, then a Lancashire town.

It was one of several overspill estates built by Manchester council during the slum clearances of the 1950s and 60s. But while Maria's new living arrangements were certainly up to scratch, the same couldn't be said for the rest of the estate. "When we moved in it was still being built," said Maria. READ MORE: First they fought snobbery, then they fought for an Aldi...

Life in the Manc estate in a Cheshire millionaires' town READ MORE: The rise and spectacular fall of the 'high-rise estate in the countryside' demolished in seconds "There were no pavements yet, it was like these cinder paths and there was no school so I had to catch the train to Moston with my mum while she went to work, then walk to Blackley.

But it was a kids' paradise. We used to play on the building sites and get told off all the time." The idea for Darnhill was first proposed in 1950. 'Plan to accommodate Manchester people in Heywood', ran the headline in the Heywood Advertiser, on March 3 that year.