'If the Yorkshiremen invade, we're the first line of defence'

Sitting on the edge of Greater Manchester, at the foot of the Pennines, sits a town and a village bisected by the M62 motorway.

Milnrow and Newhey are both quaint settings with connections to the historic textiles industry in the city-region, which garnered Manchester the 19th century nickname ‘Cottonopolis’. The cotton trade history is evident in the area through their remaining mill sites still looming over the streets.

The neighbouring town and village were created long before the invention of cars, so when the M62 motorway came trampling through the middle of them in the 1970s, it must have come as a shock.

To this day, residents are still living with the effects of that build - particularly when the motorway closes and diversions take thousands of cars past their homes.

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