“Graham went to Bronley Green secondary school and left to take up an apprenticeship when he was 15 years old. He was made redundant in the early 1970s and did several different jobs, finally ending up in an old peoples' retirement home as an odd job man and mini bus driver. It was there that he discovered he loved talking to the residents about their earlier lives and what it was like living in Heald Green and surrounding areas. Sadly the home eventually closed and Graham decided to better his education. He studied and finally got his B.A. and a diploma in Higher Ed.

He loved the research he did and continued researching the areas of Cheadle, Heald Green and Gatley. He picked up his old hobby of taking photos of the areas.

We got our first computer in 1981, which once computers 'took off' helped him with his research along with the local libraries and talking to people.

He was a regular visitor to the local pub (The Griffin), where again people would reminisce about how things used to be in the area.

He set up a Facebook page to tell his stories and of course he got even more feedback including copies of old photos.
On one occasion, he had been to the 'new' mosque on the edge of Heald Green where he was made very welcome and they explained their various ritual and services. He then went to the Tabernacle on the corner of Gatley road and Kingsway so he could also write about the Jewish lifestyle in the area. He met a gentleman outside and asked permission to take some photos, which was granted so he went ahead. This was about 2008ish when Britain was on high alert about terrorism. He then put his photos on the computer as usual and we sat down to eat our tea.

There was a knock on the door and two police officers asked to come in - which we allowed. They started quizzing Graham on what he had been doing at the Tabernacle. They also studied a large map I had on the wall where I had marked with red dots the places I had ridden to on my motorbike all over the UK.   It finally came out that somebody had seen Graham taking photos and had reported him to the police as a suspected terrorist - fortunately they believed us that he obviously wasn't, and the red dots on the map were not terrorist cells!”

Joyce Gill, September 2021