A couple have finally been forced to move indoors after spending the last two decades living in a motor home.
John Kirk and Eunice Gregson spent the last six years parked up in a lay-by just off the Silk Road.
The pair, who the Express revealed were living on the Silk Road last summer, brought their road trip to an end after they suffered during the winter’s freezing temperatures.
"It was -14 degrees," said John, 83, a former auctioneer’s clerk, from the comfort of their new home on Ridge View, Macclesfield.
"We had no water and no heating. The gas was frozen. We wouldn’t have survived."
A kind-hearted friend, who wants to remain anonymous, thought so too and persuaded them to move their van up to his town centre business premises where they could access electricity.
They lived there until they eventually found a flat on Ridge View, Macclesfield, to rent earlier this year.
"We had survived bad weather in Macclesfield before but the winter was terrible," said John.
"We have come into another world. The old world for us was before microwaves."
Other luxuries they are enjoying include a fridge freezer and a shower. The couple, who have been together for more than 60 years, used to get their water from the staff kitchen at a local plumbing merchant’s and would sometimes shower at Macclesfield Leisure Centre. Eunice, 82, a retired secretary, said: "Now we are warm and we have got everything. People here couldn’t be kinder to us. We have got lovely neighbours. For Christmas, customers at the Red Lion in Bollington gave us a huge hamper of goodies."
But they do see disadvantages. "We miss going out every day. We could walk to Tesco, the hospital and the library. Everything was close by," said John. "We miss turning the ignition key and saying bye bye.
"We used to go to Provence every year from mid October to March." John has almost finished the second of two books he had been writing for nearly 20 years while on the road. He is now looking for a publisher and plans to officially launch both books in Macclesfield.
The first is an illustrated children’s book about a French mouse who finds himself lost in England. The second is a fictionalisation of true war-time events in 1944 when US soldiers were killed off the south coast in a German attack.
If anyone can offer help with publishing John’s books, email ben.turner@menmedia.co.uk .
