Heritage project remembers 'The Man They Named a Town After'
Play and book celebrate the life of miners’ leader who gave his name to a town. Tony Henderson reports.
Quiz question: What is the North East town named after the miner who devoted much of his life to bettering the lot of pit communities and working people in general?
He is also the only individual in the country to have a town named after him.
The answer is Peterlee in County Durham, designated as a New Town in 1948. If you think that is common knowledge then local historian and author Margaret Hedley disagrees.
“Many people don’t know, including newcomers to the town and the younger generation, that Peterlee was called after this man, an unsung hero, and that’s a shame,” says Margaret, author of a trilogy of books on life in the Durham coalfield.
Margaret is chair of the Wheatley Hill History Club, the former pit village where Peter Lee is buried in the cemetery he helped create. Its chapel of rest is now home to the Wheatley Hill Heritage Society, of which Margaret is secretary, which houses a permanent exhibition on Peter Lee’s life.
“He was immensely important in trade union and mining history,” says Margaret.
Peter Lee’s biographer Jack Lawson, later Lord Lawson of Beamish, wrote: “His life was a mixture of romance and drama, rivalling the most imaginative literature.”
The history club was awarded a Heritage Lottery grant of £17,900 for its project, The Man They Named a Town After - a year-long venture which has included an exhibition, a new book and concludes with the performance this week of a play with the same title.
The production is being staged by the history club in partnership with Durham County Council Community Arts and Mad Alice Theatre Company.
Margaret says: “We were keen to reach out to a wide cross-section of people, particularly children and by extension their families. To achieve this we knew it would require a different approach, which is when we came up with the idea of dramatising the story.”
Starting in March, writer David Napthine and actress Shelley O’Brien visited primary schools across the Peterlee, Thornley and Wheatley Hill area to work with youngsters on developing the script and working on scenes for the play.
David said: “The level of enthusiasm shown by teachers and pupils was wonderful. Their interest in the subject, their hard work, their imagination and creativity show the importance of history and the arts in people’s lives.”
A total of 480 children and staff from seven different schools are booked to watch the play from Tuesday, November 5 to Thursday, November 7 at the Lubetkin Theatre, East Durham College, in Willerby Grove, Peterlee.
As well as the school matinee performances, there is a public performance on Thursday (Nov 7) at 6.30pm. Bookings via the website.
The project has also been backed by funding from County Durham Community Foundation, Sir James Knott Trust, No More Nowt, local councillors, Durham County Council and Wheatley Hill parish council.
The opening words of the project’s book are:
“This is the story of a man’s life and deeds, Peter Lee. It is also the story of the birth of a New Town, which bears his name. Both are extraordinary tales, which in microcosm reflect the wider historical events and changes taking place within British society during the early to mid-twentieth century.”
Peter Lee was born in 1864 in Duff Heap Row in Trimdon Grange in County Durham.
Duff is the fine dust that comes with he coal, and the basic houses were on the very edge of the pit waste heap.
Peter Lee’s grandfather, Tom, was killed at the age of 23 in a mining accident, weeks before his wife Mary gave birth to Peter’s father, also Tom, in 1825.
Peter Lee recorded In his diary how he had lived in 71 houses, and worked in 27 pits.
Her wrote: “Memories of my early days are moving from village to village from the top of a wagon load of furniture.”
He began work in the mine at Littletown, near Pittington, at the age of 10 alongside his father. Unable to read or write, he enrolled at the age of 20 for evening classes at Wingate Board School.
At 21 he left for the United States and worked in mines in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. A hand gun which he reputedly carried is on permanent display at the Wheatley Hill heritage centre.
On his return to the North East, he married wife Alice, and worked at Wingate Colliery where at the age of 23 his lodge voted for him as their delegate to the Miners’ Council of the Durham Miners Association.
After moving to Marsden Colliery in South Shields, Peter tried his luck in the gold fields of South Africa. On his return 18 months later he did so via his own version of the Grand Tour, taking in Naples, Rome, Genoa, Turin and Paris.
Back in the Durham coalfield and a devout Methodist , he became chairman of his local parish council, then Easington District Council, chairman of the local Co-operative Society and then in 1919 chairman of Durham County Council.
This was followed by the role of general secretary of the Durham Miners Association and president of the Miners Federation of Great Britain in 1933.
A constant goal was the improvement of conditions for working people and one of the benefits of the opening of pithead baths at Thornley Colliery, was its contribution to easing the workload of miners’ wives.
He declared in his speech at the event: “Any middle class wife would have died in 12 months if she had to meet the difficulties that the Durham pitman’s wife has to meet.”
Peter’s ambition was to see the mining industry nationalised and pitmen freed from the exploitation of the coal owners. This was achieved 12 years after his death in 1935.
Jack Lawson wrote: “He typified the courage, integrity, and humanity of the mining community which he served so well.
“Peter Lee gave all, asking for nothing in return, little dreaming that a great new town would bear his name.”
The Man They Named a Town After, by Tom Tunney, Margaret Hedley and Colin Robson, is available now, priced at £5.