Home Watch

Home Watch Area signs

For a number of years these were features on the estate and most roads had at least one. A Home Watch area sign would have the words This is a Home Watch Area along with a logo or symbol associated with the local Home Watch scheme. The sign would indicate that residents were actively participating in crime prevention efforts with the primary focus on deterring burglaries and other crimes.

The signs were of a distinctive colour scheme, perhaps using a combination of red or orange, black and white, to ensure visibility and make them easily recognisable. The signs were generally placed in prominent locations. In Granville Gardens and Whitehaven Gardens, for instance, they were affixed to lamp posts at both the entrance to the roads and at the circle end.

Each road on the estate would have a resident who volunteered to act as a representative and would liaise with the local police regarding matters of crime and crime prevention. The Home Watch rep would then disseminate information to other residents on their road. Occasionally, the reps would meet up with the police – I can recall one such meeting being held at the Didsbury Cricket Club on Wilmslow Road.

With the passage of time, the Home Watch scheme became somewhat outdated and was supplanted by modern communication technology in the form of WhatsApp.

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