Hattersley

Hattersley
A view over Hattersley, from Werneth Low
Hattersley  Hattersley shown within Greater Manchester
OS grid reference	SJ982945
Metropolitan borough	Tameside
Metropolitan county	Greater Manchester
Region	North West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	HYDE
Postcode district	SK14
Dialling code	0161
Police	Greater Manchester
Fire	Greater Manchester
Ambulance	North West
EU Parliament	North West England
UK Parliament	Stalybridge and Hyde
List of places UK England Greater Manchester

Coordinates: 53°26′52″N 2°01′40″W / 53.4479°N 2.0278°W

Hattersley is an area of Tameside, Greater Manchester, England, 4 miles west of Glossop and 10 miles east of Manchester city centre at the eastern terminus of the M67. Historically part of Tintwistle Rural District in Cheshire until 1974, it is the site of an overspill estate built by Manchester City Council.^[1]

History

Construction of the estate

Council homes originally built by Manchester in the 1960s

Between 1894 and 1936 Hattersley was a civil parish in the Tintwistle Rural District in the historical county of Cheshire. In 1936 it was annexed to the municipal borough of Hyde but remained undeveloped. In the 1960s most of the area was purchased by Manchester City Council to build a large overspill estate. Another estate was built in Gamesley. Both these estates consist primarily of council-owned houses.

Renewal and privatisation

Regeneration in Hattersley is coordinated by Hattersley Neighbourhood Partnership.

The city council transferred control of most of Hattersley's housing stock to Peak Valley Housing Association in 2006 after an attempt to transfer it to the Harvest Housing Group which collapsed when a £20 million gap in funding to refurbish the homes to new housing standards was identified. The transfer will bring a £40 million, seven-year improvement plan for existing housing tied to a £140m investment from a private developer.

Selective demolition has begun to remove some obsolete housing leaving space for redevelopment and investment in education and public services. Seven 1960s tower blocks were demolished in 2000.^[2] Demolition of 1960s low-rise houses on the estate took place in 2007 and 2008.^[3]

In 2008 the Tameside Advertiser reported that leader of Tameside Council, Roy Oldham, claimed that a Tesco supermarket would be built on part of a site earmarked for a new district centre, causing concern to residents.^[4]

Crime

Moors murderers Myra Hindley and her grandmother (the actual tenant) were rehoused in Hattersley in 1964 and lived at 16 Wardle Brook Avenue. Ian Brady spent much of his time at the house with Hindley and together they carried out the killings of ten-year-old Lesley-Ann Downey and seventeen-year-old Edward Evans, at the property. The body of Lesley-Ann Downey was buried on nearby Saddleworth Moor the day after her murder on Boxing Day 1964, but the body of Edward Evans was found at the house in October 1965 before the couple could dispose of it. In October 1987, Manchester City Council demolished the house as they could not find tenants willing to live there.^[5]

According to football hooligan Colin Blaney in his book The Undesirables, Hattersley was also home to members of a network of football hooligans known as the Wide Awake Firm who travelled the world, stealing jewellery and committing other acquisitive forms of crime.^[6] A member of the Hattersley contingent of this group was recently interviewed for Vice magazine and stated that they specialized in a form of crime called 'twining' that involved performing confidence tricks on shop keepers to con them out of their money. They travelled as far afield as Thailand and Australia committing this trick.^[7]

Convicted murderer and drug dealer Dale Cregan, who shot two police officers, resided in Hattersley.

Culture and community

Hattersley as a large overspill estate had four main shopping areas and five pubs, as well as another four pubs adjoining the main estate. The main shopping area was The Precinct, and contained around twenty shops. Notable shops included a post office, Wilds butchers, a large Co-op, the chippy, a sewing shop, a charity store, Battersby chemists, a launderette, a large supermarket called Hugh Fayes, a hardware shop, a bookmakers, Lowes paper shop, a clothes shop run by Asian brothers, a Greggs bakery, and a double unit which sold new and second-hand electronics. Attached to this precinct were a community centre, a large library and a large pub called the Four in Hand.

Hattersley has a monthly community newspaper, the Hattersley & Mottram Community News, produced by local people. It is home to No 468 (Hyde and Hatterley) Squadron Air Cadets.^[8]

Notable people

• Ricky Hatton, the former two-weight world champion boxer, is Hattersley's most notable resident.
• Lisa Huo, brought up in Hattersley, was a contestant on Big Brother 7.
• Shayne Ward, from Hattersley, was on The X Factor.

References

1. "Hattersley History". Hattersley 2005. Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 23 August 2007.
2. "Hattersley Project Demolition of 7 Multi-storey Tower Blocks". Connell Brothers. Archived from the original on 20 April 2009. Retrieved 8 March 2014.
3. "BASE Regeneration - Hattersley – Public consultion for Phase 1b and new phase 2" (PDF). Taylor Young. November 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 August 2008. Retrieved 8 March 2014.
4. Carr, Sue (18 April 2010). "Superstore Traffic 'danger' to kids". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 8 March 2014.
5. "Hindley link goes". The Times. 6 October 1987.
6. Blaney, Colin (2014). Undesirables. John Blake. pp. 129–132. ISBN 978-1782198970.
7. Chester, Nick (17 April 2013). "Manchester's King of Twining Could Steal Your Money and Your Fags". Vice Media.
8. "468 Air Cadets". Retrieved 15 May 2012.