'The busiest road in the North is practically at the end of our garden'

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

If you thought getting stuck in one of the M62's numerous traffic jams was bad enough, imagine living right next door to it.

That's the reality for the residents of one hamlet who live just 30 metres from one of the busiest motorways in the country.

Rakewood near Littleborough in Rochdale is surrounded dramatic rolling hills and close to popular beauty sport Hollingworth Lake.

But for the 80-year-old man living at a farm near to the M62 summit - which sees 144k vehicles a day passing by - life is not quite as peaceful and idyllic. READ MORE: Join the FREE Manchester Evening News WhatsApp community The elderly farmer told YorkshireLive that the stunning scenery is spoilt by the frequent roar of lorries and cars thundering past, with only a small space of garden separating him from the motorway which connects Liverpool and Manchester with Yorkshire. "When it's wet it sounds like you're on the seafront and when it's summer we have to shut the windows because of the dust." When plans were announced to build the motorway in the early 1970s, the farmer said his family "had no choice" but to sell part of their land and outbuildings. "It's like what's happened in a lot of places; they've done away with the countryside." Another family who live on the opposite side of the motorway to the farm at Rakewood, said they moved out of the frying pan and into the fire in the 1960s, when they left their previous home at the site which has since become Manchester Airport.