After spending most of last year in hospital, a man returned home to find his once solitary house surrounded by a new estate.
Charlie Wright's home used to be the sole property on an open wasteland in Wirral where he has lived all his life.
The estate was gradually flattened over time with the majority of residents relocated.
But despite this, Charlie refused to move.
According to the Liverpool Echo, Charlie's four-bedroom home on Ilchester Road was a mid-terrace property placed between two worn down houses.
Now, after four years, the house has become a detached property surrounded by a new 178-home estate.
Charlie said he was shocked by the speed of the new development.
He said: "I'd spent most of the last year in hospital. When I left, they told me 'let's go and see your house.' I couldn't believe it, I said 'look at all these houses here.'"
Charlie's fierce attachment to the home where he grew up with his parents and brothers and sisters (he was the second youngest out of nine) hasn't diminished over the years.
He said: "I won't move from here. My family has had this house for 100 years. It was my parents' house and they raised their children here.
"Twenty-odd years ago they began pulling the estate down, and the council offered people £2,000 and a house to move to.
"I just said, 'look this house is not up for sale.' Margaret Thatcher gave the ordinary person the right to buy their council house. There's nothing to think about, this house will never be sold.
"The only way anyone will get their hands on this house will be when I'm six feet under."
Charlie was formerly the chairman and among the founding members of the River Streets Community Association Ltd - a registered charity that looked after the interests of the residents on the former council estate.
He said: "We bid successfully for government grants to do the streets and houses up, with new windows and doors. We had our own sports and social club, and did free meals on wheels for the pensioners. Everything was running perfect."
Charlie's life has never extended far beyond the estate - he worked as a boilerman at the nearby Mobil Oil site for most of his life and rarely took trips across the water to Liverpool.
He said: "I've never had a holiday in my life. It just never bothered me. Living round here, when it was the old estate, everybody knew everyone. It was brilliant, everybody mucked in.
"It didn't bother me after they knocked it down. I used to go out every day with my dog, have my mates round. I could sit on the step here and foxes would come up and I used to feed them."
His life took a turn for the worse last December when a thug broke into his house, held a knife to his throat and demanded money - he was then hit over the head three times with a hammer.
The incident resulted in life-changing injuries for Charlie, including a memory impairment while he spent most of the year in hospital and at a specialist brain injuries unit.
He said: "It doesn't change the way I feel about living here. I'm never moving out of my house. Before this happened, I'd never had so much as a break-in in the 70 years I've lived here.
"Most of the memories are really good ones. I'm quite happy with myself.
"I've gone from living in a terraced house to a detached house with a driveway, so it's paid off for me in the end.
"I've got neighbours now, after 20-odd years of being on my own. It makes me feel safer."
