C. W. Clarke
“I remember the primitive drainage systems of open channels running the full length of the sordid backstreet; the monstrous barrack like elevations; the collection of refuse which had to be dug out from the sodden, filthy and disease-infected middens to be loaded into empty carts, these usually in evidence at the same moment as the milk delivery cart; the delivery of fuel we were pleased to call coals, tipped in the street; of my childhood days and the only playground which was this very street with these very middens used as cricket wickets; of the beetles, the cockroaches and the coaldust which seemed to envelop everything in the house.
All these things and more do I remember of the housing conditions in the mining areas; the ‘something for nothing’ gift from the owner who considered it a roof over our heads – and that is all it was. I will never forget them, for I was born and spent my childhood days in the mining village of Wingate.”
C W Clarke was the Surveyor and Engineer for Easington Rural District Council and the author of Farewell Squalor, the document which presented the case for building a new town in Easington rural district, published in December 1946.
In the second edition of Farewell Squalor published in March 1947, C W Clark added an author’s note in which he proposes naming the new town in Easington district.
“At the moment, the naming of the new town has not been considered. Many names have come to my mind; some having their derivation from local history, some coined from the names of our present villages and others from the names of members of the Government.
I have reviewed each one of them from all angles and have come to the conclusion that this new town should bear the name of some local man who, during his lifetime, went fearlessly and courageously forward for the good and uplift of the people in this district. A man who was a power both in bodily physique and mental ability and whose statue would grace the town square, a man who had the courage of his own convictions – and there are few of these, a man whose very presence commanded respect and attention, a man who, had he lived today, would have supported this project whole heartedly, knowing full well that it will be a town for social and individual living, containing healthy and pleasant living conditions, facilities for education, recreation, pleasure and social intercourse, provided near to the homes so that they may be enjoyed to the full, as a normal happening of everyday life and without being regarded as a luxury to be sought for in other places.
Having all these virtues in one single frame seems well-nigh impossible. I am convinced, however that there was one person whose life was moulded on these virtues and whose memory could be appropriately perpetuated by the naming of the new town – PETERLEE.”
Clarke’s plan for centralizing future development evolved from the survey of housing needs carried out by all local authorities across the country towards the end of 1943, as central government began preparations for post-war reconstruction. This initial report identified a need to build 10,000 new houses within the district over the coming 30 years to replace slum dwellings and substandard housing in the colliery villages. Though the Council’s Housing Committee initially proposed that the new building programme should proportionally allocate new houses based on the population size of each individual village, Clarke argued that it was irrational to build new houses in villages where the colliery had already closed, or where coal reserves were nearing exhaustion, and the pit could be expected to close within the coming 30 years. Furthermore, he argued, centralized development provided the best available option for improving the social and cultural life of the miners and their families, this at a time when the industry faced growing difficulties with the recruitment and retention of workers. Running parallel to this argument was the stark imbalance between employment opportunities for men and women typical in coalfield areas, which was of social as well as economic concern moving forward. Farewell Squalor argued that only through centralized development could greater diversification of industry be achieved, reducing the almost total reliance of the district’s economy on a single industry, coal.
The minutes of the Easington Rural District Council’s Housing Committee meeting on 9th February 1944, record that: ‘The motion was carried by 14 votes to 5 and it was thereupon RECCOMENDED that the Council adopt the principle of the centralization of housing development upon one suitable site in the district to be decided upon at a later date.’ Several sites were considered, including land adjacent to Murton and to the east of Shotton Colliery, which was dismissed on the grounds that it lay in direct sightline of the slag heap that dominated the landscape. The case made for the eventual site chosen for the new town rested in large part on its location being sheltered from the sight of surrounding industry and its proximity to Castle Eden Dene, an ancient woodland and former 18th Century pleasure park, part of the Burden family estate.
In its layout and provision of services, Clarke’s plan for Peterlee Town Centre is modelled on Letchworth in Hertfordshire, the first of the English garden-cities started by Ebenezer Howard in 1903 following the publication of his seminal work To-morrow: A Peaceful Path to Social Reform published in 1898 and reissued in 1902 as Garden Cities of To-morrow. Around a central green square Clarke arranges municipal buildings and community facilities, in some ways similar in character to many rural market towns throughout England. A health centre and community centre prominently frame one side of the central square. Further out there is a public baths, a public house, shops, a cinema and car park, beyond which lies a park and formal gardens. On the other side of the central square there is a library, bank and offices, a hotel, police and fire station, municipal buildings, and a bus station.
The Public Notice announcing the designation of the new town appeared in Northern Daily Mail on 16 March 1948. It began: “NOTICE is hereby given that the Minister of Town and County Planning in pursuance of the powers vested in him by Section 1 of the New Towns Act, 1946, on the 10th day of March 1948, made an Order designating as the site of a proposed new town an area of land comprising approximately 2,350 acres situate in the Rural District of Easington in the County of Durham.”
By this stage, C W Clarke had retired due to ill-health.