At the time that the ‘Three Sisters’ at Langley were being built, there was a need for better homes.

Every local authority had a long waiting list of families wanting better living conditions. Thousands visited the post war "Festival of Britain" in London. Day trips were organised from Middleton during 1951. This, along with newsreels of the day, gave an account of what was on offer in the future, an insight of things to come.

During the 1950s people wanted better homes in which to live. Remember the outside toilet? By the 1960s they demanded better living conditions.

On 5 July 1963 news broke that Manchester City Council was to build three 13 storey skyscrapers at Langley. Relations were not happy between the City Council and the Borough of Middleton who requested that one block should be allocated for the use of old people of the town. Manchester, however, would not be tied down to anything definite.

On 6 September 1963, approval for three 12 storey blocks of flats and 41 garages at Langley Estate was granted to Manchester Council. Total cost of the build, half a million pounds.

One of the first tenants to move into the ‘Three Sisters’ was an elderly widow who moved to Lancashire from Ireland.

She took the decision to re-locate to be close to her relatives. Also the troubles in Northern Ireland were causing her concern.

Her flat on the fifth floor was ideal. She said she had "fallen in love with her new home." It was very comfortable, warm, secure and has a lovely view from her living room window. The flats were economical to heat, many residents paid between 15/- to a max of 25/- per week, that is 75p and £1-25 in decimal currency.

Bowness, Millbeck and Keswick Courts were completed by February 1965. By September half of the flats were occupied, all hand picked by Manchester Housing Department. But following a fatal accident at Heywood flats where a child fell down a lift shaft, families with children under the age of 14 years were not offered a tenancy.

Without exception, everyone was delighted with their new high rise homes. Many of the new tenants had transferred from houses on the estate. But what was on offer that made these flats so desirable?

Security. Entrance to the tower block was by key, the entrance door was permanently locked, every tenant had a key. Entrance to their flat was via a hallway which gave access to the bathroom-toilet, bedroom and living room. Every flat had a fitted kitchen in stainless steel, and a verandah.

There wasunderfloor heating controlled by a wall mounted thermostat and a state-of-the-art water heater. An economy button would provide enough hot water to wash the dishes and within 10 minutes too. A communal aerial provided a ‘plug in and go’ for the television set, all at no extra cost.

On the ground floor was a fully fitted laundry for residents’ use. Open until 9pm, a batch of laundry could be washed and dry within 90 minutes. Most tenants sold their washing machines once they moved in.

Looking back at the rents paid in 1965, gives an idea why they were so popular. A one bedroom flat was 30/- (£1.50) per week, two bedroom at 50/- (£2.50) and a limited number of three bedroom flats were available on the ground floor at 56/- (£2.80) per week.

A visitor would push a button on a control board to alert a resident, they would simply press a button on the telephone to admit the visitor. In the early days children would cause a nuisance by constantly pressing the buttons, but the police were called in to scare them away.

One young boy found a way of pressing every button at once. He plastered the control board with wet clay which held the buttons in the call mode.

Tenants in the higher storeys had magnificent views. Those in the lower level’s had landscaped gardens filled with flowers in summer to look out on, pleasing to the eye.

In 1973 I was cutting the grass around the flats with a 30 inch mower. These machines by their very nature are noisy. One chap arrived semi naked on his balcony shouting at me, he said: "Would I please go away with that noisy machine because it was having an effect on his love life..." or words to that effect, have cleaned it up for publication.

Seeing that his activity was more pleasurable than mine, I carried on mowing.

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