History

Located in Heaton Norris, Stockport Cheshire, built in 1962/63 and sponsored by a competition run by Ideal Home Magazine and the Royal Institute of British Architects Dene Park exemplifies group design.

Built over a 4 and a 1/2 acre site it is comprised of 71,  4, 3 and 2 bed roomed houses. The sharp modernist architecture is currently experiencing a revival and is extremely popular.

The Dene Park ethos was primarily about creating a sense of community and place, organised around an infrastructure of shared spaces, these are the common ground of the estate. The aim is to encourage a sense of community and neighbourly spirit.

Buying one of the Dene Park properties means buying into the community.

“Dene Park links five landscaped courtyards. Each courtyard is planned as an intimate precinct with two, three and four bedroomed houses grouped around it. Every house has its own screened patio and garage space.” Ideal Home Magazine,

Dene park is a wonderful, idyllic place to live, safe, with great play areas, great landscaping and light airy houses.

Originally predominantly occupied by young professionals, Dene Park residents now span a wide age range. Many have never left since buying their houses in the sixties, and many of the children who were brought up on the estate have returned to bring up their own families in the tranquil surroundings.

Residents sign up to a “Covenant” the aim of which is to maintain a consistency of appearance of the estate. The covenant can be viewed here:

Memories of Early Days

We moved into 9 Deneway Close, a 4-bed town house, at Easter 1964.
We paid £3,800 for it – a fair amount of money at the time bearing in mind a wife’s earnings couldn’t be taken into
consideration when arranging a mortgage. Having been teaching for 5 years I was earning just over £1,000 a year (no
equal pay then).

The estate was very “modern” with an emphasis on ‘natural’ (flower power) and a string leaning towards the
Scandinavian style. G Plan and Ercol furniture were all the rage.

Special Features:
1. Wood finishes with varnish not paint.
2. Marley tiled floors and Formica work tops.
3. Bare brick walls.
4. Fitted kitchen with fitted wardrobes hand built by the joiners on site.
I marvel at the joiner’s skill particularly the ones who made the curved stairs in the 4-bed houses.
5. Every house had either a garage or a carport (not everyone had a car) and there were extra parking spaces for
visitors!
6. By the front door was a delivery box half way up for the milk and bread to be left daily.
7. The electric and gas meters were outside the house as more and more women were out at work.
8. The hallways were large to allow room for the big Silver Cross prams and children’s bikes.
9. An early form of double glazing.

Shopping:
Milk, bread and post delivered daily – milk from the farm where Norris Bank School is now.
There were three shops: a butcher, a grocer and a dress shop where Morrisons now stands.
Green Lane was a farm track and had a wooden sled on it selling fresh fruit and vegetables from the smallholding where
the Green Lane Church now stands.
There were two farms in the school area and the fields went all the way down to Didsbury Road with a cattle crossing
sign there.

We are now at 11 Burley Court and have some original features:
1. Plain brick wall in lounge.
2. Exposed beams in lounge.
3. Marley tiled floor now covered in carpet.
4. “Fitted” wardrobes in bedrooms.

Early Years and Social Events

As the estate was mainly young professionals and young families, it became known as “nappy town” (only Terry nappies
at that time).
The men had a lot of sporting competitions with cups and trophies annually: snooker, darts and bowling (Crescent Park).
We formed a baby-sitting circle with 20 1-hour vouchers to start with – double vouchers needed after midnight!
On special occasions (like the Silver Jubilee, Royal Weddings etc.) we had sports days and street parties.
The children made use of the play areas; and were able to play unsupervised all over the estate in complete safety.

One whole summer holidays Andrea and Kalie – helped by Ruth and Nicky Clarke (one of The Dallas Boys) – planned a
concert for the estate. Every child on the estate took part. I remember Sophie, Melanie and Elizabeth dancing; Gareth
and Alex with wigs and fancy costumes were on the drums.

Many of the memories involved Deneway Close, mainly with summer BBQs when they became fashionable. We often
had mince pies, mulled wine and carol singing at Christmas.
I must have photographs of some of these events somewhere but, for the life of me, I can’t them – sorry.

Best Wishes,
Bo

Dene Park won a British Architects’ Award for “Group Housing” when first built in 1964.

Below is a scanned version of the original transcript of the award. To the left is an original 1960’s image of the Dene Court Townhouses.