ABSTRACT
In 1968 Mr and Mrs Nelson, 35 and 32, lived with their three sons of 13, 9 and 6 in a four-roomed council flat in a poor district of Oldham, overlooked by a rubber factory belching smoke all day long and near a canal. They believe the flat is a danger to their health. ‘One bedroom is so damp it stripped itself.’ The living room has a fire but they can only afford a one-bar electric fire to heat the bedrooms which are terribly damp. The fire is taken from one room to the next. At Christmas the bedroom window was smashed by a brick. Because the family cannot afford new glass, the room gets too cold and the boys sleep in one bedroom. The family had been moved out of a house which was also very damp and had been demolished in a clearance scheme two years before. They have no garden or yard, and though there is a playground attached to the flats, Mrs Nelson thinks the slides and swings are dangerous and too near to an adjoining busy main road. The flat is poorly furnished with linoleum and no carpets, no washing machine or refrigerator and just battered settees and chairs.
