The '50s Slough estate that felt like 'paradise'

"All we had was a small amount of furniture in the van and a budgie in a cage."

Denis Collman remembers clearly the day in 1956 when he and his mum, dad and three brothers squeezed into the back of a removal van, leaving behind their cramped two-room flat in London's Ladbroke Grove for a new life in Slough.

When the vehicle pulled up to the then fledgling Britwell Estate he said: "It was absolute heaven moving into a brand new house with a bath, a flushing toilet and bed all of my own."

70 years on, Collman will be celebrating the rich history of the Berkshire town's housing estate at the weekend, sharing old memories and creating new ones with residents both young and old.

The Collmans were one of the very first families who would go on to call "the Britwell" home.

Families who could prove they had a job lined up in the rapidly growing town were given council houses there in the late 1950s and 1960s, with the government keen to give a new start to people cramped in often bomb-damaged homes in west London.

However, it was not all plain sailing, said Collman.

"There was a bit of resentment at first from people in differing areas of Slough about us Britwell lot moving in," he said he realised later.

But arriving there at the age of nine was "like moving into paradise", he added.

Collman is not the only one with fond memories of the place. The Britwell's arguably most famous son was a postman who would go on to reach the highest levels of government.

Alan Johnson moved to the estate from west London in 1969 with his wife and baby. By that time, it had grown rapidly, getting close to what would soon be nearly 3,000 new low-rise properties.

He said: "The Britwell Estate was a kind of nirvana for people who'd come from often very rough circumstances and very poor parts of London."

Johnson, who would go on to become a home secretary in Gordon Brown's Labour government, said it was a great time to be in Slough with its rapidly growing trading estate offering jobs for people willing to leave London behind.

"It was a very, very happy time and, to us, it seemed like moving out to the country," he said. "For many people, this was an escape from pretty awful conditions."

A festival is being held later to mark the 70th anniversary of the arrival of the first families to the estate.

Stories will be told of days gone by and one word is likely encapsulate what the Britwell means to residents both young and old - community.

Those who live there are fiercely proud of their little corner of Berkshire.

Ask people outside of Slough what comes to mind when they think of the town and Ricky Gervais' The Office is where many people's knowledge of the place begins and ends.

For those who know a bit about poetry, Sir John Betjeman's satirical Slough poem is another cultural reference that does not sit well with Britwellians.

The people who know the area best, including Theresa Carter and her friends, are doing their bit for the estate this weekend, using their knitting and crochet skills to make a 70th birthday mural, which will take pride of place in Britwell's library.

While Carter does not live in Britwell, but just down the road in Burnham, she said she has been welcomed by the locals.

"I love coming here because it's my happy place," she said. "We're going to start teaching and knitting in September so that we can get a few more adults here."

It has been 70 years since Collman jumped out of the back of a removal van, excited at the prospect of having a bedroom all of his own.

He, Carter and Johnson all agree one thing - building a housing estate means building a community.

The lessons learned from bringing people together as the estate grew went a long way to create what they say it is today.

A place with community at its very heart.