EAW020442 ENGLAND (1948). Sladen Wood Cotton Mill and environs, Calderbrook, from the south-west, 1948. This image was marked by Aerofilms Ltd for photo editing.

The building of Timbercliffe estate was begun after the 1914/18 war and was built to provide good housing for the workers at Fothergill and Harvey's factories in the area. My Grandfather was the foreman builder on the project and moved into the first house completed no.9, in 1920 with my Grandmother and 3 children, namely my mother, aunt and uncle who also was a builder on the estate. My aunt got married and went to live in no.41 and when she moved to Manchester my mother and father moved into the same house, I lived there till I was 4 years old and we left to live in Rochdale in 1939. The houses were still lit by gaslight at this time. My uncle after marrying in 1933 lived in no.19 until his death in the early 1990's. When we left the roads were not made up and got very muddy in wet weather.

The small estate on the right had just been built a couple of years earlier.It is called Timbercliffe. Both my parents bought one of these just after WW2 with my late Grandad who was born in 1881 and disabled from WW1. Apparently, the houses were made from ashes burnt at the nearby Fothegill & Harveys owned Sladen Wood mill or 'Factory end' as it was called.