Low Moor was a village of forty semi-detached rented cottages, that formed the shape of a vesica piscis around the village green. The cottages were inhabited entirely by local families, none of whom had ever left, but had handed their tenancies down through succeeding generations for as long as anyone could remember. Their landlord was the Church of England and the rents were comparatively low, as a result it was a community where change was minimal.
All the cottages in the village had large gardens, where tenants grew vegetables and fruit and kept livestock. The largest garden to the eastern end of the village green was the walled garden that belonged to the vicarage. Its neatly trimmed lawn was surrounded by mature native trees – mostly oak and birch – and flowering shrubs. A flight of
