Michael Cotter reminisces on the feeling of freedom after moving into his Stevenage home

“I can remember my wife standing now in four bedroom house in Rockingham Way still there, standing at the bottom of the steps and looking up the stairs and saying ‘is it all mine?’”

Stevenage Museum

Rockingham Way, Stevenage

Transcript:

Michael: Eventually the day after King George was buried; he was buried the 14th February. 15th February ’52 with our three kids we very proudly moved to Stevenage. And I can remember my wife standing now in four bedroom house in Rockingham Way still there, standing at the bottom of the steps and looking up the stairs and saying “is it all mine?” and the kids were having a great time the two eldest ones running in the front room through the dining room through the kitchen and back in the front room again round and round in circles couldn’t believe it the freedom you know. And that was it for the hard grind we moved in the same boat as everybody else who moved in at the time, we had very little furniture because you lived in one room and we didn’t have the money to buy it that was make do and mend you know. But they were great days. They were absolutely…

Interviewer: The freedom is…

Michael: Well not only that but the community spirit. I would say that was the best time from the point of communal living that Stevenage has ever enjoyed. We were all together we were all in the same boat and we hung together.