The McCartneys and Jack Bruce had a farm and an island respectively, and the Wedgewood-Benns used to holiday nearby.

lives round the corner (oops - that's not from my childhood)

Pedant note: wasn't it Bert Foord, not Ford? - or was this another of the BBC's seemingly endless number of spelling mistakes?

my neighbours included John Williams (the guitarist), Bill Oddie, Nick Mason and David Coverdale.

to Mike Batt's mum.

... my neighbours included Wendy Craig and Tommy Cooper.

I can't think of anyone really notable from my neck of the woods when young.

There were hardly any houses to pass on the walk to school either, mainly other schools and a residential home. One of the few houses was occupied by a Dr. Hill who was rumoured to be the brother of Graham Hill, but recent investigation has proved this to be untrue.

Phil "The Power" Taylor lived in the next street and i walked past his house every day.

bought a house at the end of my road... but in the end didn't.
He was born a few miles away in Skegness, you see.

bought a house at the end of my road... but in the end didn't.
The 'Since You've Been Gone' hitmaker was born a few miles away in Skegness, you see.

I went to school with her little brother.

We used to see Martin Kemp around occasionally.

Several Eastenders actors came from my area, not quite neighbours but close enough. My little sister was at school with Patsy Palmer, back in the days when she was only known as Julie.

Mr Taylor who owned the big house on the corner also owned the lauderette up the road, plus a couple of others, one of which he bought from the parents of Nick Holmes who played for Southampton and was a member of the 1976 FA Cup-winning team.

A sad story in the end. The Taylors. They had a son, called Alan, about my age. Mrs Taylor had him in her mid 40's. An accident or a late gift of the fates no-one ever knew. He had a very middle-class upbringing, unlike the kids rest of the street; a nanny from an early age (called Ayah - the Raj term for a nanny) and private education. His parents looked like a throwback to the late 40's. Dad, always in a suit, slightly corpulent with brilliantined hair, toothbrush moustache and the air of business about him, mother with hair stacked high, tight, straight dresses and a forced expression of permanent distaste. Neither of them seen without a cigarette (Dunhill, always Dunhill) close to their lips at all times.

Alan was, in his younger years, one of the local kids. We grew up together and played together, but were not educated together. He ended up at a boarding school. Inevitably, we grew apart.

Eventually, I went away to university. Alan joined the RAF persuing the dream he had of being a fighter pilot.

Which ended when he and his Jet Provost made terminal contact with a Welsh mountain.

Around the same time that his mother died of lung cancer.

Mr Taylor continued to live in the house on the corner. The house had an extensive hedge of rose-bushes which he would prune just a little every day. He chatted to all who passed, telling the same stories day in and day out as, gradually, his beloved rose-bushes were clipped lower and lower a few millimetres at a time.

One day, the rose-bushes, unmolested, started to grow again.

The new owners of the house eventually dug them up.

Somewhere on a Welsh mountain, lichen slowly grows over a twenty-year old scar on a rock-face.

I delivered papers to John Alderton and Pauline Collins.
I went to school with Kazuo Ishiguro who wrote Remains Of The Day.
Pete Ham of Badfinger lived (and died) around the corner.

Alex Higgins lived up the road and once pushed in front of me in the queue at Brandlesholme video shop as I was queuing to rent Adventures in Babysitting (Elisabeth Shue - cor!).

as Mick Finkler of the Teardrop Explodes, who lived around the corner near Sefton Park in Liverpool.

if a big chunk of the Massive are a posh* bunch / had wealthy parents or celebrities make a lot less money than you might think.

* It's all relative. Where I grew up it was anybody with a detached house.

In Rosemary Hill Road, close to Blackberry Lane.

When Saints won the FA Cup in 1976, we all went round and decorated the outside of his house.

And my sister was a dental assistant. One of her patients was a crying child in a scene from Gregory's Girl.

No celebrity worth the name would actually choose to live in Cumbernauld.

Our very own sleb was Carol Decker of T'Pau.

Philip Lowrie was our milkman's assistant. I used to ride on the float around our council estate and help them deliver. I used to take the mickey out of him when he started in Coronation Street as Dennis Tanner. Posh enough for you?

Harry Gumm - winner of a mid 70s Opportunity Knocks with his "singing dog" Jack -lived in my street.

Does this count ?

Definately not posh ..

My mother knew her mum, I think both probably said hello to me on a few occasions.
Monica (ow Dame Monica)was a ballerina then, but is now Director of The Royal Ballet.

from a bloke who operated as an unlicensed tattoo artist and gave a sizeable portion of the local youth hepatitis, (not including me, I hasten to add). He was eventually prosecuted and it made page five of The Sunday People, circa 1983.

Does that count?

The captain of the Titanic used to live round the corner. Before my time, obviously.

was so non-descript and grey, people used to boast about living near to me because I posted on The Word website a few times.

Mark Wright (ex Liverpool/Southampton etc) lived down the road from us. His daughters were at nursery school with my two sons. Once the boys went to a birthday party round at Marks, and Matt (who was about two at the time) inadvertently did a poo in Mark's paddling pool. Well in son.

Jason McAteer also lived in the same village. The local kids would often knock on his door to see if he was 'playing out'. To his credit, Jason did often go and have a kick around with the youngsters.

To redress the Liverpool bias, Olivier Dacourt spent his one year at Everton renting the house next door to Mark.

Away from football, Gerry Marsden (of Pacemakers fame) lived opposite Mark and was often seen about the village. By contrast, local "comedian" Stan Boardman lived at the far end of the village and was never seen by anyone.

Oh, and coming bang up to date, one of Matt's flatmates at University lives next door to up and coming young superstar Jack Rodwell. They were playing footy in the garden recently and the ball got kicked over the fence. Inevitably they had to go round to Jack's to say "Can we have our ball back please mister". The nice young Mr Rodwell obliged, chucking back over the fence a brand-new Premier League 'casey' to replace the battered old ball they'd lost.

on the A59 that boasts a staircase adorned with photos of the myriad glitterati who have stayed there. The most recent one is a shot of Oliver Tobias, resplendent in a white suit with six inch lapels, probably dating from his late 70s pomp.

At boarding school (what -o) my headmaster's daughter was (is) Joanna Kirk the sexy goth helper on one of Tony Hart's shows.
When heady took classes and we did well we got a signed picture of the whole Take Hart team.

They lived on school grounds so it counts. Right.

Gary Glitter had a house in the neighbouring village when I was a lad.

Redeeming the area somewhat (if straying from the OP's request), regulars at *our* village hostelry over the years included:

Rory Bremner
The bloke that played Van Der Valk
Fulton Mckay
Sir Robert Bolt and Sarah Miles
Gerald Scarfe and Jane Asher

For a while, the landlord was the chap that signed the Pistols to A&M (and took them to Langan's).

Redeeming *him* somewhat: he also signed-up The Police and Supertramp, and vowed to resign if Chris De Burgh's Lady In Red ever got to Number One (which was how he came to end up buying a pub).

Barry Foster?

When I was a student back in the early 80's I had a p/t job behind the bar at a small wine bar at the back of Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre where he was appearing.

Before, during after each performance he could be found having a skinful at Corbieres.Grumpy bugger.

Dennis Waterman lived in the next road up and shared the same dentist. This was Sweeney era Waterman and he was quite the pin up. At least to Mummy Six Dog...

original bass player Eric Haydock lived opposite me in Victory Street,Portwood, Stockport..they used to practice in his house..he was called Eric Haddock then and Allan Clarke was called Harold Clarke,,great band though

Ah, the local heroes, just across the park from my childhood home. So proud. I'm just... so proud.

James Cameron used to visit friends nearby on my street for a regular afternoon cuppa and then further down lived Danny La Rue. These days, I seem to bump into a lot of badly dressed Arsenal footballers and Shirley Anne Field, not together though. The last time I saw Shirl, I wanted to put on a cod northern accent and say "I fell off the gasometer for a bet".

the early TVAM weatherman Commander Philpott? Lived in the next street and his son was one of my best friends at primary school.

I'm reaching, aren't I?

Roy North of Basil Brush fame used to cycle to work with my Dad when he was still a teacher with showbiz dreams.

out of off of 'Allo 'Allo lived just down the road from a girl I went to school with.

Needless to say, as moody teenagers in the mid-80s, we were resolutely underwhelmed by this. I'm sure he was a nice bloke, though.

My mother always swore that the future Mrs Gallagher was at my junior school in NW London until she started advertising frozen peas. don't remember myself as I was only about 8 at the time

for the short time I was a postie just after leaving school in the early '80's.

Only saw him once, when he had to sign for something. He stood in the doorway in his dressing gown looking like anyone would who is called upon to use a biro before 7am. Curly perm and 'tache were nonetheless resplendent

In the 70s Robert Stigwood owned a huge house in the next village - all the locals were impressed that Lulu stayed there - but my brother-in-law's mum was the cleaner in the house and used to hoover under Eric Clapton's feet while he played guitar. She said he was a nice boy who made her a cuppa every now and then.

Although I can't remember it (are you still with me)
Jim Carver from the The Bill used to babysit me.

Miles Copeland Jr lived in the next village along from me, and we often met them while out shopping. Mrs Copeland used to give me bags of greens for my rabbits, having got into conversation with me about them in the greengrocers once. I just thought they were "some nice old people" for a long time, then I discovered that they had a son in a pop group I'd vaguely heard of... (I was 8 and didn't really pay attention to any music that wasn't Adam and the Ants, sorry). A while after that I discovered that he'd been 'something important' in the CIA. My mum says I met Stewart and Miles Copeland III on more than one occasion but I have no memory of it.

Later on I lived next door to Supergrass for a while, and I had to tell them off for not putting their bins out properly.

My mum lived down the road from Carol Costa, who married Jet Harris and had a fling with Cliff. She used to get a bus to school with Ian Gillan, and later went to college with Freddie Mercury.

And I just had to share the excitement that, when I had a Saturday job in a greengrocer's, I served future Hampstead MP and Tchaikovsky's unlikely lover, Glenda Jackson.

Oh, and I think I may once have played badminton, aged about 9, in next-door's garden with Daniel Day-Lewis (who was about the same age). He did not use just his left foot.

That is all

It wasn't Phil Oakey-one of the other male members (ooer Missus) used to live on Dobcroft Road-the higher up posh bit back in the day.

I want to brag about ;-) but Noelle Gordon of Crossroads fame lived in a flat round the corner from my parents house when I was a teenager. She also had a house in the country I understand but this was handy for the studios.

To be honest, nobody took alot of notice but then Brummies are not really starstruck people!

When I was a lad, I used to deliver Frank Bough's newspapers.

My mate at work used to babysit Lilly Allen. She was a very nice kid apparently. That's a shit story isn't it? True anyway.

As a child in Stoke-on-Trent, I lived next door to Paul Squires's uncle and aunt. He was a comedian, the Michael McIntyre of 1981, but largely forgotten by 1984* (there's a reference to him in an episode of "The Young Ones" from that year.)

I'm told that I was quite confused when, as a small child, I first saw the man who visits the couple next door on the telly.

*I'm told he was a favourite of Lew Grade, which is why he was on ATV a lot. After ATV lost their franchise to Central in 1982, Squires wasn't seen on television so often.