First people to live on infamous Greater Manchester estate 'felt like guinea pigs'

A Greater Manchester estate has hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons in the last few years. From the tragic death of a young boy to issues with antisocial behaviour, the Freehold Estate has attracted media attention for a range of problems.

Awaab Ishak was two years old when he died in 2020 - his young lungs were exposed to the rancid dampness and mould of a 'sweatbox' flat on the estate in Rochdale.

The two-year-old's death shocked Britain, with widespread issues of damp and mould on the estate uncovered by the Manchester Evening News. Awaab Ishak's tragic life led to a much-needed change in the law.

But this is only one of the problems that has haunted Freehold in recent years. The M.E.N. recently reported how crime and anti-social behaviour continue to plague the Falinge estate.

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Strangers are now banned from Freehold. GMP have issued a closure order across 19 blocks of flats in an attempt to reduce drug dealing and crime. Police say it will prevent people from congregating in open spaces, including "stairwells, landings, bridges and near bin chutes," leaving some residents too scared to leave their doors at night.

But sadly, there have been problems at the estate since the beginning.

How it all began

The 1970s saw the beginning of the end of the mill chimneys which had marked Rochdale's industry since the 19th Century. In their place came the buildings of a new Rochdale - a planner's town of concrete, steel, and glass.

Plans to build on the Freehold site were mooted in the mid-1950s, with Rochdale Council starting Compulsory Purchase Orders on houses in the area. Many of these dwellings on Spring Street, Ruby Street, Stephen Street, Allotment Street, Franchise Street, Mills Street, Trafford Street and Harris Street were around 100 years old and in poor condition. Along with the streets themselves, the houses would eventually be demolished to make way for the flats.

In 1967, the building of the new Freehold estate was given the green light. And by 1969, work had begun on the 104 acre development bounded by Manchester Road, Tweedale Street, Drake Street and Castlemere Street.

The four-storey development was to provide 414 dwellings with deck access, ramps and overhead walkways. The walkways were constructed so people could walk from any point in the area to another without having to return to ground level.

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Work was completed in the early 1970s - and by August 1971 - 11 of the eventual 19 blocks were occupied. The total cost of the scheme was more than £1.5M, which included a three-storey car park for 384 vehicles.

It wasn't the only new estate built in Rochdale during the era. Freehold was one of a series of apartment blocks that also included the vast Ashfield Valley estate, the Seven Sisters, and Lower Falinge flats.

Fear of intimidation and issues with damp

And like several other estates that emerged in the late 1960s and early '70s, such as Hulme Crescents and Fort Ardwick (Coverdale Crescents), problems with their design and construction became apparent from the start.

The first signs of trouble began soon after the first tenants moved into the new flats in Falinge. In September 1972, the Rochdale Observer reported that tenants at a residents' meeting had complained they felt like "guinea pigs" in a corporation's "trial and error" experiment.

Rochdale's director of housing, Mr Harold Syson, vehemently denied the claims, saying: "There is no suggestion of 'Let's try it out on Falinge' although tenants may feel so."

The newspaper reported that the main complaint at the tenants' meeting was damp in the flats. Other complaints included the stairs, which were described as a "disgrace," while others said the deck access had become "running tracks," with people too afraid to report this due to "fear of intimidation."

Another complaint was when it rained, the widows of their flats became stained by 'concrete water' running down them, making them difficult to clean. Modifications to the flats' original flat roofs with pitched roofs were made in the early 1990s.

Sub-standard conditions including 'paper-thin walls'

A couple of months earlier, another council meeting was reported to have turned into a "free for all" when tenants from Freehold flats harangued councillors on what they saw as the sub-standard conditions on the new estate.

The Rochdale Observer reported in July 1972: "For about 20 minutes, councillors, an alderman and a corporation official faced a barrage of complaints...many voiced simultaneously.

"Why were different age groups segregated from each other on the estate? Why were there no play areas? Why were the inside walls paper-thin?"

Near the turn of the 21st Century, official statistics reported in the Rochdale Observer gave a damning verdict on the state of both the Lower Falinge and Freehold estates. In 1999, the newspaper reported that crime statistics for both estates showed they were responsible for 15% of crimes committed in the borough.

In response, the Housing Committee agreed to £350,000 in funding to install more security alarms on both estates, remove or block off walkways that were "currently used as rat runs by criminals," and install extra security panels.

For many years, it was Rochdale's Lower Falinge flats had that had garnered negative attention. Since 2010, several newspaper stories centred on Lower Falinge, dubbing it a 'sink estate' and a 'welfare ghetto'. In 2018, The Guardian described Lower Falinge as an estate that had become a "symbol of poverty, poor-quality housing and inequality."

But since the death of Awaab Ishak in 2020, it's the flats at Freehold that have come under greater scrutiny. The police closure order that the estate is currently under is set to last three months and will see out the end of 2024.

What the housing association has to say

Commenting on the issues at the estate, Hayley Stockham, director of neighbourhood services at Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH), said recently: "We continue to be fully committed to improving our communities, and a crucial part of this is having zero tolerance for crime and anti-social behaviour.

"We know that there is crime and criminal behaviour taking place in the stairwells and communal areas at Freehold, and these new powers will help to tackle this criminal activity and help us to meet our goal of making sure Freehold is a safe neighbourhood that our customers are proud to call home."

If you were one of Freehold flats' first tenants and would like to share your experiences, get in touch with the M.E.N's nostalgia reporter at lee.grimsditch@reachplc.com