One night thirty years ago marked the beginning of the end for the ‘first’ Arkwright Town, as Jamie Waller reports.
IT WAS QUARTER TO NINE one night in 1988 when the gas man arrived at the house opposite Gerald Briddon’s home. A fire was burning in a hearth without any fuel to light it. Gerald looked across Hardwick Street and saw the gas man go inside and take some readings. Then he came outside and repeated the tests. From the look on his face, it was obvious something was terribly wrong. That night was the beginning of the end for the town of Arkwright.