Mr Alford discusses choosing his home in Stevenage and his eventual move.

Transcript:

After we’d been for an interview, we were then asked to come and see a house, and we met Miss Tabor, who was the Housing Manager, and then in a small shop in the High Street.  So we walked from the station, Stevenage station to the shop in the High Street and she said there were 2 possible properties. One in Broadview which is at the top of Sish Lane and one in Rockingham Way, which was out in Monkswood. So we said we’d like to look at both, and there was a form of bus service in those days running through the mud out to Monkswood, and we caught the bus out there; and looked at this house, which was a brand new house, but still in a lot of mud, and rather rough conditions which one gets from a building site.  We then walked back up through the mud to Stoney Hall and to Broadview, and this house was one that had been occupied for about 6 months, and was now empty.  And we rather liked that, it was in a situation the building had gone past that, things were clean and fairly tidy around.  It was nearer the Old Town, which was the sole source of shopping in those days.  So we decided we’d ask for the Broadview house, which we were allocated.  So when we moved from Grays, well actually we were living in Stanford-Le-Hope at the time, but I worked in Grays.  We moved from Stanford-Le-Hope to Stevenage on a rather wet day and arrived at number 6 Broadview…

Alford 1987