This estate has gone from a thriving community to a desolate row of empty homes (Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)
The gardens are overgrown, rubbish is piled up in the streets and windows are boarded up. On the wall of one derelict bungalow, in neon pink capital letters, is the word “Pride!” — an emotion that’s now sadly scarce in this area.
This is Highfield Close in Stretford, on the southern fringes of Manchester, and it wasn’t always like this. The 38 one-bedroom houses on this cul-de-sac were built in 1947 and, for many years, this small council estate was home to a tight-knit community of pensioners, including Michael Keogh, 81, who moved into number 46 Highfield Close in 1997.
“When I first moved I thought it had real potential,” he told . “The back garden was incredible.”
Former resident Michael Keogh (Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)
He fondly remembers the trees and views over the fields, and how he invested money in building a courtyard and planting, creating a pleasant place to sit outside.
“It was such a nice community,” he said.
Around eight years ago, rumours began circulating that Trafford Housing Trust, the residents’ landlord at the time, planned to demolish around half-a-dozen homes. As it turned out, the plan was to flatten all of them.
The trust said the bungalows were on a ‘high risk’ flood plain and were constructed in a manner that had ‘created severe damp and mould issues’ – allegations some residents disputed. They said the plan was to rehouse the tenants and replace the bungalows with ‘new high-quality homes’.
Soon, the pensioners started moving out. However, a few steadfastly refused to leave.
Among them was 72-year-old Lynda Mawdsley, who fiercely declared to the Manchester Evening News in 2022: “They’re not taking my bloody home away from me, over my dead body.”
She said: “When they said they had decided to demolish them, I just burst out crying. We’re not just a community, we’re a family. We look after each other here.”
However, eventually, Lynda did move out, as did all her neighbours. One of the last to leave on June 8 last year was Michael, who found a new place just around the corner and still visits Highfield Close to check on his former street.
What he finds now is disheartening: the estate he once called home for 25 years has turned into a ghost town, marred by vandalism and metal thefts. Racist and far-right graffiti has defaced some of the homes.
“The gates went first, then it was the lead flashing,” he laments, standing outside his old, boarded-up home. “It was bad enough when they ripped out the front doors and back doors, but then they got ransacked again and again. Look at it now, it’s desolate. It’s very sad.”
The abandoned bungalows have been vandalised and targeted by metal thieves (Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)
The bungalows were scheduled for demolition long ago, with a sign on a lamp-post indicating the work should have been completed by August 1. But they’re still here. Meanwhile, a caravan has appeared by the roadside, the current abode of a man, who gives his name as Corbyn, and his dog.
He says he’s there after being priced out of nearby supported accommodation: “It’s an insult when you have so many people waiting for housing. It all boils down to the fact we have privatised housing – we’ve privatised everything.”
Having received a formal eviction notice, he is preparing to leave but won’t be moving far. “I’m going round the corner,” he remarks. “With the housing situation as it is I don’t know where they expect me to go.”
The caravan on Highfield Close (Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)
Homes on Highfield Close have been defaced and stripped (Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)
In 2022, Graeme Scott, executive director of development at Trafford Housing Trust, told the MEN his organisation wanted to ‘continue to offer quality homes of choice that meet the housing standards of the future and that help to tackle the housing crisis’.
Since then trust has been subsumed by East London-based social housing developer L&Q. Ben Townsend, New business director for L&Q in the north west, said: “We still plan to demolish the bungalows as per our previously submitted proposals, but unfortunately it has taken longer than we expected to disconnect all the utilities.
“As soon as this work has been completed we will progress our plans to hoard off the site and demolish the properties. We are considering a range of options for the future of the site following demolition, and will consult with local residents and stakeholders when we have clearer plans.
“We are keen to support ongoing regeneration in Stretford and to work closely with Trafford council. Tackling the housing crisis is key to L&Q, and we aim to create more and better homes that will improve residents’ lives.”