Peterlee
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Peterlee is a new town in County Durham, England. Founded in 1948, the town is named after Peter Lee, a prominent local miner, and originally mostly housed coal miners.
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[edit] General information
Peterlee is unique among the new towns which came into being after the Second World War in that it was the only one requested by the people through their political representatives - though whether a majority of the people living in the surrounding colliery villages actually wanted the place to be built remains a moot point. It can certainly be argued that the building of Peterlee was at the expense of such nearby colliery villages as Thornley and Wheatley Hill where development was deliberately suppressed by the local council in favour of the new town. The colliery village of Horden has, however, suffered perhaps more; its proximity to Peterlee has seen it lose all of its major services, including police and fire stations to the new town.
A deputation, mostly if not all working miners from the Easington District Council, met with the Minister of Town and Country Planning after the Second World War to put the case for a new town in the district. The minister John Silkin responded by offering a half size new town of 30,000 residents. Subsequently, they came largely from the surrounding villages in the District of Easington.
The Peterlee Development Corporation was established in 1948 under the direction of A V Williams. The original ambitious masterplan for towering blocks of flats by Berthold Lubetkin was rejected as unsuitable for the geology of the area which had been weakened by mining works and he resigned in 1950. George Grenfell Baines replaced Lubetkin and began to build quickly resulting in buildings of poor quality construction. In a bold move Williams invited an artist Victor Pasmore to be head of the design team for the landscaping. The Apollo Pavilion was completed in 1970 at centre of the Sunny Blunts estate and was named after the Apollo Space Programme. As well as a visual focus the structure acted as a bridge across a small lake. Nikolaus Pevsner provides a glowing commentary on the interaction of the housing units and the Pavilion with the landscape. However the structure became a meeting point for unruly locals and was soon defaced with graffiti and a congregation area for drug users. In 1982 Pasmore agreed to the connecting stairs being removed.
In 1975, Artist Placement Group had contacted new towns to set up the terms for artists to propose projects . The Development Corporation of Peterlee New Town responded and in 1976, Stuart Brisley was appointed. The project contained three distinct parts:
- to develop an ongoing process of collecting and disseminating information under the title History Within Living Memory
- to establish a publicly available history of the Development Corporation made in association with the Sociology Dept of the University of Durham
- to introduce a community workshop which began in 1977
Some local residents and councillors have petitioned to have the Pavilion demolished, citing it as an eyesore. Some locals also refer to the Pavilion as 'the Monstrosity' and an application to have the structure listed was rejected. There have been various proposals to rehabilitate the structure including converting it into an exhibition space. In 2001 it was proposed to enlarge the lake so that a refurbished Pavilion could not be reached by vandals. Indeed during the summer months the lake attracts dragonflies to the area and it does hold potential to be improved to encourage more wildlife to area.
Peterlee holds a two day event called the Peterlee Show, which is held at the end of the summer holidays (usually the first weekend of September) on Helford Road Cricket Ground. The event contains a variety of attractions such as rides, loads of entertainment and also music acts on the stage (some of the acts have made tributes to Abba, Tina Turner, the Bee Gees even The Jam played in front of a large audience). Peterlee show also has a parachutes display (weather permitting), usually held on the first day of the event. The Peterlee Show also holds horticultural competitions, Arts & Crafts stands, dog shows, bird of prey flying, motorcycle stunts and a fireworks display can be seen on one or both nights. Peterlee also holds a fireworks display on Bonfire Night, which is also held at Helford Road Cricket Ground.
Peterlee has seen a number of changes in the last several years, this includes a Bus Station and also a partial covering up of the shopping centre, which was given the name Castle Dene Shopping Centre. A new ASDA store was built and opened in November 2001. The old ASDA store has been utilised by various retailers in 2002 including a Buckingham Bingo hall, a Global Video rental store, a JD Wetherspoon public house, A Wilkinson hardware store and a Poundworld store. The latest redevelopment has gained a number of new clothes shops including New Look, Select and The Officers' Club. A brand new Sports Direct superstore has opened in the old Safeway store plus a new flooring store containing Walter Wall and Storeys Carpets has also opened. Many other shops such as Argos have made their home in the town, plus and a new shoe shop has also opened recently. A new lift and staircase has been installed in the market square of the town centre. A new Gamestation opened in February 2007 due to popular demand, the only specialist video game store in the town since Games Arena closed in 1999.
As far as education goes, Peterlee offers potential for students via Peterlee College, which has future redevelopment plans. In addition there is also a drive and focus on Adult Community Education in the town through Learn East, which is situated in Peterlee Town Centre. Learn East offers a variety of educational services and courses within Peterlee and East Durham for people who want to learn new skills or build up their Literacy and Numeracy Skills. Learn East also offers computer courses, from learning the basics in IT, English, Numeracy and various language courses, to learning about Digital Photography and Adobe PhotoShop. Peterlee also has some excellent schools and a Sixth Form College, which is part of St Bede's Roman Catholic Comprehensive School.
There were talks of both Shotton Hall and Dene House Schools within the town being closed down and both replaced with a brand new school, however due to reactions from the local communities the two schools will now remain open and the money that was to be used for building the new school will instead be used to improve the buildings of the two current schools.
As with many towns, Peterlee has areas that need attention due to untidiness; it is certainly not a concrete town and has plenty of open spaces, fields and trees plus some of the views near the A19 looking down towards the North Sea are wonderful. Some of the problem areas include parts of the woodland areas inside Peterlee (these were part of the Dene at one time), where ponds have been left to go stagnant and contain rubbish plus gangs of people congregate in these areas and set fire to trees and leave the place in a right mess, it is rather shameful that these areas are treated like this as Peterlee can potentially be so much different. There are times when people fear walking through these woodland areas because of the gangs; there has also been a spate of vandalism of brand new bus stops and the bus station has been abused, which is rather shameful, especially for visitors to the town.
Peterlee is situated next to Castle Eden Dene. This area of natural beauty is where you can see Red Squirrels and other wildlife. It also has a golf course nearby.
East Durham & Houghall Community College recently showed an amateur production of Fiddler on the Roof back in October 2006, the show received great revues.
On the 29 January 2005, the celebrated north-east band Joe Byrne played a gig in aid of Tsunami relief at East Durham and Houghall Community College.
Since 1981, Peterlee has a town-twinning with the German town of Nordenham on the river Weser in Lower Saxony opposite to Bremerhaven.
Famous residents that lived in Peterlee during the 1970s include The Krankies[citation needed] and Roy Walker[2], the original presenter of Catchphrase.
[edit] Schools and Colleges
[edit] Primary
- Acre Rigg Infanton Acre Rigg Road
- Acre Rigg Junior also on Acre Rigg Road
- Dene House Primary
- Eden Community Primary
- Howletch Lane Primary on Pennine Drive.
Headteacher: Robert Hanney
- Our Lady of the Rosary RC Primary on Westway
- Shotton Hall on Waveny Road
- North Blunts Primary (Closed in 2003)in Tweed Close
[edit] Secondary
- Dene Community School
- Shotton Hall Comprehensive on Waveny Road
- St. Bedes RC School
[edit] 6th Form Facilities
[edit] College
- EDHCC (East Durham & Houghall Community College)
