Happy 50th Birthday Arches

Happy 50th Birthday to Arches

2025 will see Arches Housing turn 50 and over the course of the next eight months we will be celebrating this milestone with numerous events and community days.

Since our creation back in 1975, we have prided ourselves on our connections with our communities and our customers alike. As part of our celebrations to mark our birthday, we will be interviewing a wide range of customers, staff members, Board members and partners to share their memories of working with and for Arches over the years.

You can read a new interview each week at the bottom of this page, as well as following our social media platforms where we will highlight our brand new interview for that week. We’re looking forward to sharing our stories and celebrating our 50^th anniversary together.

Burngreave Road before

Burngreave Road from the side

Burngreave Road now

An Arches at 50 interview:

“As a young parent it’s difficult to get on the housing ladder, especially back in 1988”

Sarah has been a resident of Arches Housing for close to 38 years and in that time, she has lived in three Arches properties across Sheffield but her latest apartment is by far her favourite. Originally moving into a property in Jenkin Road back in 1988 as a young parent, Sarah has nothing but praise for Arches and how they’ve helped her when she’s needed it most.

Sarah comments:

“As a young parent it’s difficult to get on the housing ladder, especially back in 1988. More doors back then seemed to close rather than open. When it was suggested to me that Arches may be able to help, I was sceptical as the Council hadn’t been able to offer me anything as I was deemed to be too young. Arches on the other hand were fantastic and helped me get a house for me and my young son.”

Being a teenage and growing up in the 80s, Sarah loves a good film, and the lounge of her new home is filled with DVDs of classic films such as the ‘Lost Boys’ and ‘The Karate Kid’ and it’s not long before it becomes apparent that her love of films and classic movies has also rubbed off on her son as well.

Sarah adds:

“It’s something that my son and I share a love of – classic 80s films. I work in a local charity shop and it’s a goldmine for DVDs coming in. Although there are so many classic films from that period of time, there are also so many really bad films as well but it’s not until you watch them back that you realise how bad they are! My son is forever asking me if I have this film or that film. His film collection is much larger than mine and we’re forever trading movies”

When talk moves away from her love of film, Sarah is quick to praise everyone at Arches and how they have helped her over the years. Having only just moved into her new home, she is awash with praise for the work Arches has done to get the apartment ready for her to move in.

She adds:

“Marcia our Housing Officer has been so supportive with the move and took care of everything so all I had to do was move in. The apartment was newly decorated, had new flooring and new curtains and blinds – I can’t fault Arches, and I just want to thank them for being so brilliant.”

Dates for your diary:

Read more Arches at 50 interviews

Arches Timeline: