Louise Donnelly had wanted to live at Hey Top ever since she was a schoolgirl. Growing up in nearby Mossley she was fascinated by the rugged row of old stone terraces standing in splendid isolation above Dovestones Reservoir.
"When I was a kid we'd do a sponsored walk with school past here and think 'I'd love to live there', but never thought I would," she says. But last March her dream came true.
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When a three bed house at Hey Top came up for rent, Louise and her family, who'd been living in Cornwall, jumped at the chance to return home.
Now, surrounded on all sides by the Pennine hills, she can't imagine living anywhere else. "In the summer it's brilliant," says Louise, 43.
"I've never lived anywhere where you feel safe to let the kids play out. But here it's like the Famous Five.
"The kids are all out on the front riding their bikes and playing on pogo sticks, or they're out in the woods and the grown-ups are sat out front having a glass of wine or a beer. It's like growing up in the 70s.
"The other day we counted there were 22 children in just our half of the row. It's brilliant."
'Forty Row', as its known locally, was originally a row of 40 back-to-back homes built in the early 19th Century for workers in the nearby Greenfield woollen mill in what was - and still is - a fairly remote location. An archway towards to the end of the row is thought to have led to a path to the mill.
When they started construction in the 1820s Greenfield consisted of just the mill and Greenfield farm, the village itself wouldn't come into existence for another 30 years or so.
The first meeting of Greenfield Co-operative Society, Saddleworth's first co-operative society, was held in one the terraces while another has at various times acted as a meeting place for Sunday schools and religious services and served as a chapel for navvies who worked on the building of the reservoir at Chew.
The mill switched to producing paper in the 1920s and went on to make cigarette papers, before eventually closing for good in 2001. And over the years the 40 houses were knocked through to make 20 to meet modern demands for more living space.
Now the area is a designated conservation zone and the row is mostly three-bed cottages with converted attics, all rented from the same landlord. Although if you know where to look, a clue to their back-to-back past can be found as each house has a 'hidden staircase that leads to nowhere'.
Nowadays, the textile industry which gave birth to the villages of Saddleworth is long gone and the area is most well-known for its stunning countryside. Debbie Tompkins, 55, grew up in South Africa, but instantly fell in love with the place after visiting a family friend in Diggle in 2010.
Three weeks later she'd quit her job in London and moved into Forty Row. But it's fair to say the climate came as bit of a shock.
"I come from South Africa where it's lovely and hot and sunny," she says. "My first winter up north we were snowed in for five days! I thought is this what my life's going to be like now?
"We're always a few degrees colder up here than in the village. And there's a howling wind that sweeps through."
But the the harsh winters and feeling of isolation they bring means that residents of Forty Row look out for each other. "It's like a micro society," says Debbie. "Even though we're so close to the village, you can't see, so it feels like we're miles away.
"As soon as I got here it felt like home. Everyone helps each other out. I've had a neighbour with a 4x4 pull me out of the snow and if you need a cup of sugar or milk it's not a problem."
Neighbour Claire Ramsden agrees. "Living up here is like Last of the Summer Wine meets Royston Vasey - beautiful to look at but with a row of 20 plus families all renting from the same landlord and in such an isolated spot, it's a real old fashioned tight community," she says.
"The children of all play out together and because of its safe position it is good for them to have a bit more freedom. They go walking in the woods together, build dens and set off on their bikes around the res.
"It's a proper childhood, and I'm really grateful that they have had the opportunity to experience it. We host street parties for royal weddings and jubilees and frequently sit out together in summer.
"We have tons of walkers passing, all look in your kitchen window, lots ask for directions to the res and some even ask to come in and look around, as the houses are a bit of a local novelty! Lots of people seem to know someone who used to live at number so and so, usually very elderly walkers, sometimes people knock on for a drink in really hot weather, which is quite lovely."
But living so close to one of Greater Manchester's most popular beauty spots also has its drawbacks - especially as the only road in and out is through the car park. "Whenever it's sunny, it's packed," says Louise. "It can take 30 to 40 minutes just to get to the main road some days because of the people trying to get to Dovestones.
"People think it's a one way road, so they're shouting and swearing at you as you try to get out. On Saturday I had to take my daughter to dancing and I must have had 10 people having a go at me.
"Dovestone has increased in popularity and the car park is always rammed, sometimes taking residents over half an hour to leave our houses," says Claire. "Our little residents' car park is frequently filled up by walkers, who apparently can’t read the signs, and we often are subjected to verbal abuse for driving home up the two way road to get home.
"Many cars park illegally along Bradbury Lane, making access for emergency vehicles to our houses impossible, a worry since we have families, children and elderly living up here, and because of the recent moorland fires which at one point were very close to the houses.
"You don't go to Tesco on a Friday," adds Debbie. "You stock up in the week then stay in all weekend. That's what most people do, because it takes 45 minutes to get to the main road.
"We get loads of walkers coming past gawking in the window. I'm getting quite rude in my old age, so I say to them 'It's five for a look, 10 for a stare'.
"But the parking and the access is the main thing. It's mental. They drive like d***heads, they park all along the lane. You couldn't get an ambulance up here if you needed one."
But those gripes are far outweighed by the positives. "It's such a lovely community," says Louise. "Everyone helps each other out."
"I get to see this every day," adds Debbie, pointing to the view out of her kitchen window to the hills outside. "That's the other side of it.
"I love it here. I couldn't live anywhere else."
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