Alone on the Hattersley Estate: the Couple Who Refused to Move As Streets Emptied
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NEWS Alone on the Hattersley estate: the couple who refused to move as streets emptied Bob Pendleton is searching for “For over three years we lived he said. “At the meetings I became frequent. “You raise the words to sum up the last with the rumour hanging over attended, it felt like barely a these things but don’t really decade. us that our homes were to be word was said about how to get very far,” said Pendleton. “Well, 10 years ago there were demolished,” said Pendleton, make it easier for those people “Over the years we had five or 107 homes standing right here a retired heating engineer and who were going to be uprooted.” six written commitments saying where we’re looking,” he said, union shop steward and safety Gradually the social houses that our whole row would pointing at a huge expanse of rep. “Officials wouldn’t confirm were boarded up, leaving remain intact until our property mud beyond his gate. what was happening though. owners marooned. Windows was vacated, but that meant “But everyone left and the It was not until July 2003 that were smashed and youths set nothing. The two end properties houses all came down – so for we learned via the newspaper about torching the wooden were bulldozed in 2010.” the last six or seven years we’ve that the properties were coming buildings. been alone on this plot. It’s down.” Pendleton said: “The Condemned been a battle – the hostility, the fire engines were out – no A Tesco Extra supermarket was contractors and now the mess. ‘Money and land values’ exaggeration – two and three opened on the northern half of And now it feels like they are The official explanation was times a day and it got so bad the site in 2012 but the southern waiting for us to die, to get rid that the low-rise, timber frame that they stationed an engine side remains vacant except of this problem.” housing was structurally near here all night with a crew. for Pendleton’s forlorn row of Pendleton and his wife Hazel unsound and too costly to We’d spend our nights watching houses. moved to Hattersley in 1965, renovate. An independent these kids going into the houses Gradually the others gave when their house was new. surveyor who examined the and we felt very vulnerable. in and moved away. Some Built by Manchester Council, Pendletons’ property disagreed, the overspill estate in nearby and similar council homes had Postcode discontinued Tameside became home to been modernised in Manchester “It could be scary and it made families displaced in the city’s and the Peak District. my wife quite ill with stress.” slum clearances. When the Of the 200 condemned From 2007 the wrecking Hate crime victim’s name kept alive Right to Buy scheme began, the homes in Pendleton’s area crews moved in. Dust and noise couple bought their mid-terrace – a site valued early on at meant they could not open house from the council. around £13 million – 27 were windows or put washing on the In the early 2000s there was privately owned. They attended line, and one day a crane jib hit A play about the murder of a vague talk about regeneration regeneration meetings but soon an adjoining property, smashing young woman for dressing like in Hattersley, and in 2006 the grew frustrated by the process. a hole in the roof. a goth is to tour communities in social housing stock transferred “All I heard was money, land Their postcode was the North West. to Peak Valley Housing values and prices – there was discontinued, causing problems Black Roses – which tells how Association. hardly any mention of people,” with mail, and fly tipping Sophie Lancaster was kicked and stamped to death simply because of her appearance – is being taken on the road and into schools from next week. The stage piece – adapted from a BBC radio drama by Sue Roberts – premiered at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre in 2012 to acclaim. Life sentences Twenty-year-old Lancaster and her art student boyfriend Robert Maltby were beaten into comas in 2007 by a gang of teenagers who objected to their goth appearance. During the attack in a park in Bacup, Maltby was kicked unconscious before the gang set upon Lancaster, a gap year student, as she tried to protect him. He eventually recovered but Bob Pendleton insists he has spent a decade waiting for a fair deal. Photo: Ciara Leeming his girlfriend never regained 4 THE BIG ISSUE IN THE NORTH · 3-9 MARCH 2014 BITN 1019_04,05 (News).indd 4 28/02/2014 11:23 NEWS say the weekly £100 rent and move from here. We’ve spent maintenance charges would the past decade fighting for a Alone on the Hattersley estate: the couple leave them out of pocket. fair deal for everyone but we’re “It feels like if you refuse still waiting.” these places it’s held against Phil Corris, managing you by the officials,” he said. director of Peak Valley “But they have a gun to your Housing Association, said: “We NEWS IN BRIEF who refused to move as streets emptied head all the time – with the first understand the situation has new-build properties we had 10 been very difficult for Mr and days to sign up for one or we’d Mrs Pendleton and we have lose them. They have been so always tried our best to work accepted empty council difficult with us that we find it with them to find a solution properties and did them up with hard to even deal with them. that causes them the minimum a grant. “We also don’t feel we should upheaval. New-build houses cost have to live where Peak Valley “Over the years we have tried £195,000, around four times wants to put us, and don’t see repeatedly to work with Mr and what the condemned houses why we should have to pay Mrs Pendleton and have made Music, film, drama and poetry were valued at. Some signed them money every week out of numerous offers of rehousing. combine to mark the 30th up for new homes off plan our pensions. On each occasion our offers anniversary of the year-long miners’ but Pendleton declined when have been rejected and, in strike in an event at Chesterfield’s he saw how waterlogged that ‘Unfortunate predicament’ recent weeks, a further offer has Winding Wheel on 8 March. Born building site was. Another “My valuer has never agreed been made. In ‘84 will celebrate the legacy of house the couple were shown with theirs about what these “We are yet to hear back from the 1984/85 dispute 30 years since by the regeneration team had houses are worth. He thinks this Mr and Mrs Pendleton on this it began. Volunteers are bringing a pylon over it, which they land is valuable because of its latest offer and remain willing together strike-themed music, film, feared could make it difficult proximity to the motorway but to engage further to reach a drama, poetry and photography to to sell. A rented bungalow what they are offering wouldn’t satisfactory resolution to their highlight the dispute and its impact they were shown was too far even get us an equivalent long-standing, unfortunate on generations past and present. from shops and up a big hill. property. This is not about predicament.” Jeremy Deller, Turner Prize-winning They were recently sent details profiteering – all we want is like artist and the creative director of about another new-build, but for like. We weren’t asking to CIARA LEEMING the film The Battle of Orgreave, will take part in a Q&A session in the afternoon after a screening of the film. Any funds raised will go to the Orgreave Truth and Justice Hate crime victim’s name kept alive Campaign. For more information see www.bornin84.co.uk or phone Colin Hampton on 07870 387999. consciousness and died in and young people to see it, as hospital 13 days later. well as a regular theatre-going WeCORRECTION omitted to credit the archive Five teenagers were convicted audience.” of the killing – which the judge Lancaster’s mother went on described as a “hate crime” – to set up the Sophie Lancaster including Ryan Herbert, then Foundation, which builds 16, and Brendan Harris, then understanding of subcultures 15, who were both given life and campaigns to ensure their sentences. protection by the law. Smaller communities Court transcripts The latest run of Black Roses, at The tour ends in London at the the Royal Exchange, ends this end of March at the Southbank Saturday. Centre. A second radio piece From 11 March it will tour Julie Hesmondhalgh in Black Roses about the case has recently been smaller communities with produced – this time focusing We omitted to credit the archive little theatre offering, including on the murder trial. Porcelain images used last week to illustrate Tameside, Burnley, Maryport Armitage, while her mother’s was developed using interviews the BBC’s World War One At Home and Workington – with many words are her own. with Sylvia Lancaster and stories, which should have read: performances in schools. Senior producer Richard dramatised scenes based on Lizzie The Elephant: courtesy In the play, Lancaster is Morgan said: “In it, Sophie court transcripts. Due to play of Sheffield Archive and Local played by Rachel Austin and talks about her life and hopes, on BBC Radio 4, it is also being Studies Library; Little Khaki George her mother Sylvia is played by and Sylvia remembers what aired on 8 March at the Royal (pictured): Bankfield Museum Julie Hesmondhalgh, who until happened and how they had Exchange in a pay-what-you- Halifax; Edith Smith: Lincolnshire recently played Hayley Cropper to go to the hospital and the can event to raise funds for the Police; Arthur Fisher Painted Fabrics: in Coronation Street.