When my parents moved to Clayton, a working class suburb of Manchester in 1963, it was a large sprawling council estate surrounded by engineering and manufacturing factories and dominated by two busy main roads, Ashton New and Ashton Old Roads. The population was very white working class with a small Irish community that had lived there for many years.
It had a radical edge due to some of the people who lived there including Harry Pollitt General Secretary of the Communist party and communist activist and co-founder of the WCML: Eddie Frow. It was Eddie who encouraged my partner, Michael Herbert to write about another less-known Claytonian, communist and boxer Len Johnson (1902-1974).
Eddie and Ruth had known Len through the CP and were keen that his life should be written up. By this time, Len was dead, but some of his family, boxing pals, and comrades were still alive…
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Anarchy in the Sticks! 