The Origins of Aycliffe and Peterlee

Durham E-Theses An exercise in gracious living: the north east new towns 1947-1988 Boyes, David How to cite: Boyes, David (2007) An exercise in gracious living: the north east new towns 1947-1988, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/2335/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk An Exercise in Gracious Living: The North East New Towns 1947-1988 The copyright or thi• thc~ls rests whb the author 0< lh6 unlvtl1ity 10 wh.icb it was submillcd. No quor.ttioo from il, or infurtlllltioo derived from II may be publisbed without lhe prior wriiiCn oonscnl of the author or uoivc!Xily, and auy infonna1ion derived rrom il sbo<Jid be odcnowlcdged. David Boyes PhD Thesis Durham University 2007 2 1 DEC 2007 Abstract This thesis examines the history of the North East new towns and how local, regional and national policies and events have impacted upon their respective trajectories. The thesis is divided into two parts. The first is concerned with the social, economic and political developments of Aycliffe in South-West Durham, and Peterlee in East Durham, both of which were designated as new towns within a few months of each other in 1948. The second part of the thesis investigates the development of the new towns from 1963 to the dissolution of the towns' development corporation boards in 1988. This is because the economic and industrial priorities of the towns changed following the publication of the Hailsham Report in November 1963. More importantly for the North East region, however, was that in 1963 a further new town was designated at Washington in North-West Durham, which altered the whole dynamic of the region's new town programme. Contents Acknowledgements Illustrations II List of abbreviations Ill Introduction i) The historiographical context ii) Structure of the thesis 6 Part I: Aycliffe and Peterlee New Towns, 1947-63 The Origins of Aycliffe and Peterlee i) County Durham's pre-war distress 12 ii) The war and the creation of Durham's new towns 17 iii) The size of the towns and the nation's need for coal 30 iv) The new towns: initial differences and similarities 38 2 Industry in Aycliffe and Peterlee, 1947-63 i) National industrial deve.Jopments and the new towns 42 ii) Post-war industrjal promise 46 iii) Peterlee constrained: AycliiTe a 'star in the north ofE ngland' 50 iv) Problems: Aycliffe's size, opposition to industry in Peterlee 56 v) The 1960 local Employment Act: not the solution 71 vi) The towns cannot escape their pasts 76 J Housing in Aycliffe and Peterlee, 1947-63 i) National post-war housing developments 78 ii) Post-war housing difficulties 80 iii) 'Be never afraid of experimentation' 92 iv) Rents: a deciding factor who lived in the new towns 102 v) A lack of social balance 110 vi) Similarities and contrasts in housing 123 Part 2: Aycliffe, Peterlee and Washington New Towns, 1963-88 4 The Hailsham Report and the Origins of Washington New Town i) The Report promises a better future for the North East 125 ii) Aycliffe and Peterlee: pivotal roles in the North East growth zone 128 iii) The birth of Washington new town 133 iv) Hailsham: a mixed reception in the region 146 5 Politics in the New Towns i) Aycliffe' s and Peterlee' s boards united and ready for the challenge 148 ii) Changing priorities, but still the same old political problems 157 iii) Political stability at Aycliffe and Peterlee but problems at Washington 169 iv) The life of the corporations comes to an end 176 v) The same old political problems? 180 6 rndustrial Developments in the New Towns, 1963-88 i) The national and regional context and the new towns 183 ii) Post-Hailsham: a promising start for all three new towus 185 iii) Washington forges ahead: Ayeliffe and Peterlee left in its wake 196 iv) The 1970s: surprisingly productive for all three towns 209 v) The corporations' industrial roles come to an end 2 14 vi) The new towns' industrial performances: a mixed record 225 7 Housing Developments in the New Towns, 1963-88 i) A faster method of Building 227 ii) The perennial problem of rent increases in the towns 236 iii) The drive for more owner-occupation 242 iv) A different type of community 254 v) The corporations' roles as providers of housing comes to an end 269 vi) The corporations' housing challenges: similarities and contrasts 274 Conclusion i) The new towns' political dimension 277 ii) The new towns' industrial priorities. 284 iii) Housing and the types of communi'lies formed in the new towns 287 iv) The new towns: success or failure? 290 v) Can any lessons be learnt? 294 Bibliography 299 Acknowledgements The new towns have fo r a long time held a fascination for me. The researching for this thesis has therefore never been a sacrifice on my time or energy. However, it could not have been completed without the help and advice of many people, for whose time and commitment I am eternally grateful. First, I am greatly indebted to Andrzej Olechnowi.cz, who has supervised me during the researching of the thesis, and has shown nothing but patience and understanding; and to Philip Williamson, for his forthright advice and attention to detail. Many thanks also to the statT of Durham and Tyne and Wear Record Offices, and the staff at the National Archives in Kew. My thanks and gratitude also go to the many individuals who I have interviewed and those that have offered advice and help along the way: Bob Taylor, the longest serving member of any corporation board in the country, John Cummings MP, David Taylor-Gooby, Tony Foster, Peter Hayes, Simon Henig, Peter Rowell, Ivy Falkous, Margaret Hammond, John James, Trevor Carr. Last but not least, to Sandra and my mother, Pat, for their undying encouragement, and without whose support the thesis would not have been possible. Illustrations Fig. 1: Easington District 21 Fig. 2: South-West Durham 28 Fig. 3: Lubetkin's original design for Peterlee 36 Fig. 4 The number of moves to Development Areas, 1945-60 45 Fig. 5: Churchill following a visit to Aycliffe ROF in I 943 46 Fig. 6: Flats constructed in Aycliffe by the corporation's direct labour dept. 83 Fig. 7: Beveridge presenting a house key at Aycliffe in 1951 84 Fig. 8: Peterlee's first brick 87 Fig. 9: Early Peterlee houses built in pairs to reduce the risks from subsidence 88 Fig. 10: Housing completions in Aycliffe and Peterlee, 1947-63 91 Fig. II: Pasmore-designed Oat-roofed houses in the south-west area of Peterlee 100 Fig. 12: Pasmore's Pavilion I 0 1 Fig. 13: 1959 South Hetton protest 117 Fig. 14: Lord Hailsham 125 Fig. 15: Washington within Tyne and Wear 133 Fig. I 6: Housing at Albany in the late 1950s with pit heap in the background 137 Fig. 17: Peterlee town centre taken from the same position in 1959 and 1976 153 Fig. 18: A 'youthful' Dennis Stevenson at Aycliffe in 1971 173 Fig. I 9: Employment numbers in the new towns, 1963-88 185 Fig. 20: Advance factories being erected to the west of the A 19 in Peterlee 190 Fig. 21 : Peterlee advertising on London bus, 1977 212 Fig. 22: Industrialised-built housing in Aycliffe 231 Fig. 23: Youths at Donwell subway 265 Fig. 24: Aycliffe at the time of dissolution 268 II The North East New Towns Part 1 Introduction This thesis is an analysis of the forces which shaped the housing, industrial and political developments of the three North East new towns of Aycliffe, Peterlee and Washington between 1948 and 1988. It will relate these developments to regional and national policies and events. Unlike much of the prevailing research on new towns, however, which emphasises the importance of nationally-implemented policies on the paths which the towns took, the thesis will demonstrate that local factors contributed just as much to the new towns' developments. i) The historiographical context Whilst it has generally been considered that all three new towns have rejuvenated their respective district's social and economic fortunes, how far this has been achieved because decisions made throughout their histories have conformed to strategies formulated fo r them by government planners is open to debate. Gary f>hilipson, former general manager of Ayciiffe and Peterlee, and Stephen Holley, who occupied a similar position with Washington Development Corporation, both argued in books written during the 1980s that the new towns not only revived the region's industrial, social and environmental outlooks, but also that it was ultimately the shrewd decisions made by the development corporations under the aegis of an enlightened Ministry ofTown and Country Planning (and, after 1971, the Department of the Environment) that made such propitious outcomes possible.' The methodological problem with this approach, apart from bias in favour of the corporations' actions it inevitably engenders (Philipson, for example, dismissed collaborative contributions with their respective local authorities as ' well-intentioned but misguided recipes for delay'), is that it suffers from the absence of a comparative context.

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