Thousands of elderly people who live alone in Greater Manchester are going without central heating amidst the ever-growing cost of living crisis.
02.04.2023 - 06:49 / manchestereveningnews.co.uk
It's just after 1pm on a Monday and three old friends are attempting to dredge a section of the Manchester, Bolton & Bury Canal by hand. It's dirty, smelly, back-breaking work, but Carol Garner, Sarah Greenhalgh and Lynne Curley are happily giving up their free time to do it.
"When we were kids this canal was clear," says Carol. "Everyone learnt to swim in here. We're just trying to get it back to how it was."
Read more: Life in Greater Manchester's isolated terraced houses
The canal is an important landmark in Prestolee. With the River Irwell also running to north, south and west, it means the 'island village' on the outskirts of Bolton is surrounded on all sides by water.
And, if you don't count the narrow dirt track over the canal bridge, there's only one road in and out. The unique location means the people who live have a sense of identity and kinship all of their own.
"We're not from Bolton, we're not from Radcliffe - we're Prestoleeians," laughs Lynne. "But you're not a true villager unless you were born here... or lived here for at least 50 years."
Prestolee's valley setting at the confluence of the Irwell and Croal meant that it was the ideal spot for industry. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the wider area was home to cotton and paper mills, coal mines, chemical works and iron foundries.
There were three mills in Prestolee alone, including the Irwell Bank Spinning Company, at one time said to be the largest in Europe. During the boom years hundreds of people were employed in the village's thriving cotton and paper industries.
But it was to be short-lived. From the 1910s onwards Lancashire's cotton industry went into terminal decline.
The two Irwell Bank mills were demolished in the late 1970s and
Thousands of elderly people who live alone in Greater Manchester are going without central heating amidst the ever-growing cost of living crisis.
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