An exercise in gracious living: the north east new towns 1947-1988

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 in1988. 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