The 'riff raff' Mancs given homes in posh town's council estate

In the 60s about 300 Mancunian families made a new life in Longridge, an overspill estate built on the outskirts of Knutsford, writes Damon Wilkinson

- DAMON WILKINSON

PAT Marney was one of eight siblings and the first to leave home. A young mum with another baby on the way, the then 22-year-old could have been forgiven for wanting to stay close to her family in Burnage.

Instead she took the bold step of making a new life for herself in Longridge, a brand new overspill estate being built on the outskirts of Knutsford in Cheshire as part of the innercity slum clearances of the 1960s. It came with the promise of fresh air, modern homes, countryside and opportunity.

But at first her new home took some getting used to. "We came here in 1976," said Pat. "Ours was one of the last houses to be finished.

"They moved people in before the estate was built. Other people told me when they came there was no shops, no pub, the pavements were just mud paths.

"My husband was still working in Manchester so I was on my own all day. I was 22 years old, expecting and away from my family for the first time. It was heartbreaking at first."

Longridge was one of several estates built by Manchester council as part of the slum clearances of the 1960s. Surrounded by trees and countryside, it was far cry from the inner-city streets of Gorton, Ardwick and Collyhurst.

But, initially, at least the newcomers weren't exactly welcomed with open arms by the middle-class market town. Having been built on an old tip, the estate was soon nicknamed 'Ratridge' and the parochialism didn't stop there.

"People in Knutsford were not friendly, and they treated Longridge residents as 'interlopers," Rose Oliver, one of the early tenants, told Creation of a Community, an online history of the estate.

"For example, the shopkeepers served Knutsford people ahead of Longridge residents, even though they were behind them in the queue. I felt that there was a divide between more middle-class people in Knutsford town and the working-class who moved to Longridge. Those in Knutsford saw Longridge people as riff-raff".