Where The Streets Have The No Name

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If you look back at some of my previous posts, you'll see I like a good song title as the lead. Where The Streets Have No Name. It was an obvious choice for this blog. The streets of Newton Aycliffe really do have no name. In fact, there are no streets. There are Roads, Avenues, Ways, Closes and so on - but no Streets. The first interesting fact revealed about Newton Aycliffe.



I started the day on the 9:58. The 9:58 special. I feel like a Portsmouth fan, except they went in numbers on the 6:57. I am a bit later. I am also on my own. There are 2 conductors on the train this morning, as we pull off from the North East Premier Seaside Resort. It is overkill today. The Teesside invasion of York is off today, at least from stations before the Boro. Stockton has other plans. They are waiting in force at Thornaby. There is little activity at Darlington today. I notice a few West Ham fans wondering exactly how to get to Sunderland. It is only 2 more stops to my destination.



I like the idea of learning, whilst I travel. It took me 4 decades of rail travel - a significant portion of the early years transiting through Darlo - to find there was a 2nd station at North Road. I alight at Heighington on the edge of Aycliffe. I was brought up with tales of the Stockton & Darlington Railway and George Stephenson's Rocket. However, I never realised it was first put on the tracks here at Heighington. A small information board on the platform informs me of this fact. The second interesting fact revealed about Newton Aycliffe. The original railway building and signal box is still there. The building is occupied by a pub, Locomotion No 1. I couldn't honestly say whether it looked like it would actually open come noon. I wandered off down Heighington Lane.



An area of long grass and marshes. Poor agricultural land. Locality shrouded in low cloud and mist. This is the War Office assessment in 1941, not mine. Today was a bright, breezy April day. During World War 2, the land to the side of the brook by Aycliffe Village caught the eye of those looking to build a munitions factory. The low cloud appealed. It was sufficiently far enough inland and the constant poor weather would help keep any factory safe from marauding Luftwaffe bombers. ROF 59 - not to be confused with RAF 59 - was turned into a reality. ROF stands for Royal Ordnance Factory. The site expanded rapidly from alongside the road I now walked and eventually employed 17,000 over a site of 870 acres. They were mostly women, who were brought in by bus and train. The factories produced 700,000 shells and bullets between 1942 and 1945. The King & Queen visited to boost morale. Churchill did too! Lord Haw Haw - the traitor William Joyce who broadcast propaganda on Germany Calling radio programme - "Little Angels of Aycliffe , you'll never get away with it". They did. The shells rolled off the production line. The Luftwaffe in the main missed their target. The Aycliffe Angels were enshrined in history. The third interesting fact revealed about Newton Aycliffe. The majority of the old factories are of course long gone, but the odd remnant remains. The old Presswork buildings have now been renovated with permission to use the name ROF 59. The old canteen is called the Blitz.



Whilst the War waged, the Government at the time were planning for the future and for a better future for the masses, if victory was achieved. Lord Beveridge was commissioned to write a report to record how thst future would be. A world of National Insurance, in which the state would eradicate poor housing, poor health, poverty and unemployment. The new vision would be the "Welfare State", with the Government caring for its citizens from the cradle to the grave. After 1946, Beveridge started to turn his Report into a reality. The demobbed service personnel returning and the old munitions workers needed somewhere to live and he adopted the new town of Newton Aycliffe as the flagship of his "Welfare State". The fourth interesting fact revealed about Newton Aycliffe. The munitions factories would become an industrial estate to provide jobs and a classless town would be created where bosses and workers would live side by side in council owned houses. There would be parks and green spaces for children to play, nurseries, a sports stadium and a "district heating system" to reduce reliance on coal fires and promote clean air. It would be a "a paradise for housewives" on modern housing estates. There was much talk on Teesside in the 1990s that they had reinvented another paradise for housewives in various new housing estates, but car keys were involved this time!! The vision extended to state run pubs - this idea never got off the planning board, a theatre, a dance hall and a cinema.



I found myself now in the industrial estate section of town. Long straight boulevards with business premises either side. Ample parking. It was a Saturday, so you would expect it to be quieter than during the week, but this quiet? It was deserted. A few cars passed occasionally, but I had not seen another person on foot sine I got off the train. The area was cycle lane metropolis, but I can't recall seeing anybody on a bike all day apart from an irritating youth on a BMX bile loitering near the town centre. My eye was caught by a drive through coffee place, but there was nobody driving through. I recalled seeing a drive in latte joint in the middle of a logging forest in Washington State in the early 1990s before Starbucks and the gang invaded the UK. I thought fondly of Seattles Best Coffee, which I always rated above the others on our Seattle and Portland trip. I digress. In amongst the apparent sign of affluence, there was plenty of evidence that the economic bubble never recovered from the Grocer's Daughter Years. There were big companies still operating, but also lots of so called touchdown office space environments. Stellios had missed a trick here - someone was already operating Easy Space. In the absence of other pedestrian traffic, a car pulled up next to me. I found a new career in directing the lost towards Planet Leisure. Luckily for them, I had walked past it about 10 minutes before. I proceeded up Durham Way towards the town centre. A "Newton Aycliffe" signs and the course of the old Clarence railway marks the boundary of industrial and residential.



The first turf was dug in that "Paradise for Housewives" by a silver spade. The spade was subsequently stolen in 1995, but later recovered. The first house was opened by Lord Beveridge on 9 November 1948. It was occupied by ex-Army Captain, D G Perry. The initial progress towards utopia was slow. Beveridge asked for the early residents to adopt a pioneering spirit, as though they were entering the Wild West. The Wild West of County Durham perhaps? The first school didn't get completed until 1953. Sugar Hill. There is no mention of when the Sugar Hill Gang started. The library was in a prefab. I noted that it has mow been consolidated into the Leisure Centre. The 1000th house opened in 1953, but not at the expense of the wide open green spaces promised in the original plans. Beveridge came to live in the town and himself arranged weekly tree planting sessions. Flower beds and planters are still the order of the day. The original flat roofing on the houses has been changed to the more normal UK vista of tiles. The opportunity for that U2 gig - booming out Where The Streets Have No Name - has been missed. I located the town centre, which reminds me of Billingham. In fairness, I guess Billingham reminds me of Newton Aycliffe - it was here first. The Leisure Centre dominates the western end. The home of wildcats! Durham Wildcats basketball play their English League Division 1 games here. I pass the Phoenix Club in the shadow of the sport emporium. It didn't look busy, but I mused whether they would have Phoenix Nights? Max & Paddy in their caravan. .... on the road to nowhere! The Premier Seaside Resort had the "Top" Club and the "Bottom" Club. Newton Aycliffe Working Mens Club is branded the "Big " Club. It is enormous. The advert outside stated "Got Rythm. Got Soul" I suggest it would give the RSL Club in Coffs Harbour a run for its money. Check it out next time you are in northern New South Wales. I guess if the WMC is "Big ", the Phoenix Club was known locally as the "Little" Club. If I had been in search of alcohol on a Saturday lunchtime, I would have chosen either over the Roundhouse. The Roundhouse anchored one end of the Thames Shopping Centre. If the names was meant to conjure any glamour by association with the capital city, I didn't feel it. I had missed the big night - Friday - in the Roundhouse. 80s Night. 2 4 1 drinks promotions. Entry £4. There was no vinyl in the charity shops, but Julies Pets & Reptiles - Small Family Business. Big enough to Care - seemed busy. I stopped to photograph the Clock Tower with an Aycliffe logo. The other shoppers looked at me as though they were dealing with somebody who had just escaped from the asylum. The pedestrian area of shops looked like it had a recent makeover. There were some interesting stone benches with graphics to the town past and present. A logo for the old ROF 59 munitions factor, a wheel I surmised to be the Stephenson Rocket and the great hope for the future - a high speed express train. Hitachi have established a plant on the edge of town to build them. The benches were all unoccupied. The pedestrian area shops housed the likely candidates, although a few were empty. The central section was called Beveridge Way after the man whose vision launched the town. I gave Ladbrokes my weekly £1 donation, used their wi-fi and facilities and headed off to look for the Aycliffe Angels Memorial.



The Aycliffe Angels story has been largely forgotten until the few years. The rally for a commemorative tribute was backed by the local MP at the time - a certain Tony Blair. Yes, this was the heartland of "New" Labour. The constituency of the Prime Minister of the day. Whilst there is no recorded sighting in the "Big" Club, big hitters of the world politics stage such as George Bush and Jacques Chirac were visitors to the area. I found the Memorial beyond the multi storey car park on the edge of the town centre at St Clare's Church. Three upright pieces of inscribed granite, pointing towards the blue sky. A smaller casting of 2 women was off to one side by the benches and beautifully tended flower beds. I ate my lunch there. I sat there for 20 minutes or so. There were no other visitors.



There is no show without punch, as they say. I set off to locate a football ground. I am instinctively drawn to football grounds, flood lights and sports stadiums of any kind. These days, I also notice bus shelters. Newton Aycliffe seemed to have 3 capable of holding a small village within 20 yards of each other. They were all empty. The Ministry of Bus Stops never sleeps. The defined areas in the plan of the town - industrial, residential, town centre shopping etc - also made provision for sport. The football, rugby and cricket clubs are to be found on the A1 side of town St the Moore Lane Sports Complex. I passed more neatly laid out houses with green vistas, space for the kids to play, small parades of shops. The housewives paradise continued. At one house, it was still Christmas - decorations and all. The football club has had a fairly recent rise from the ranks of Sunday League stuff to the semi pro ranks of the EBAC Northern League. I ironically saw them win their first senior trophy last Easter, as they lifted the Durham Senior FA Cup. It was quite fitting for my last Northern League game of the season, that I was in EBAC land. They manufacture their dehumidifiers, air con units and now washing machines on the industrial estate. I had walked passed the factory this morning near Heighington station. I paid my £6 entry or at least I did, when I located a turnstile. Singular. A walk round the end of the social club, a quick dash across the cricket field and the Aux Audio Stadium reveals itself. Today, the visitors were the once mighty giant of the Non League Football world, Bishop Auckland. They won Amateur Cups at a sell out 100,000 old Wembley, but were meekly playing out their season in front of less than 200 at Newton Aycliffe. Albeit, this would be a good gate at Moore Lane. Bish is only 6 or 7 miles away and most gathered in the afternoon sun were their own fans. Bish dominated the game, but clearly found scoring a challenge. It ended 1 - 1. Both sides missed chances and hit the woodwork. The brisk wind was the real winner. The referee seemed to play a generous amount of injury time, as though he wanted a winner in the contest.



I walked swiftly away towards my final port of call before the train home. I wandered back through the residential utopia and wondered what Lord Beveridge would make of his New Town vision today. A world away from the terrace back to back houses in the old pit villages a few miles away, but somehow lacking a sense of identity nearly 70 years on. Whatever, it had been an interesting day out and I had learnt something from the experience. As a sticker I had seen on a caravan earlier put it, "Adventure Before Dementia".



I approached the industrial area. Tall gates. CCTV. A sign warned of private land. "Trespassers Will Be Prosecuted". I am not a rare visitor to licenced premises, but this was an unusual venue. A micro brewery in an old industrial unit. The Steam Machine Brewing Company opens its doors on Friday and Saturday only, offering an interesting selection of in their own words...."bold flavoured new wave craft beer, engineered in the heart of industrial North East England". A mix of old and new. New Age Brown Ale to one imaginatively titled, Afternoon Tea. The latter will possibly will not make the menu at Claridges. There was probably 25-30 folk in there, some like me who had come straight from the football. I was limited for time and with the car at the other end, restricted to a swift one for the train. If circumstances had dictated otherwise, I would have happily sat there all night. A group of drinkers were discussing their next move - to stay or go. A young blonde voted to stay. "I like it here. It is canny" A brew pub in an industrial unit can have no finer acoldade than that!



I made my train with 10 minutes to spare. The conductor was a TV star. I remembered him from his appearance on the Michael Portillo programme, Great British Railway Journeys. The conductor recites destinations with rhyme. "We are approaching North Road, but mind how you go. Take some extra care, because the platform here is low". In the interests of efficiency, many UK train companies want to move to driver only operation. On the evidence of the smile this guy brings to your day, I would suggest such moves are a serious mistake. Alas he changed shift at Darlo, so I didn't get to hear many. He departed with "We value your feedback, we really do. Tell us on Twitter, how the journey was for you". A great end to the travel blog for today.

Appendix 1

Northern League Division 1

Newton Aycliffe FC 1 Bishop Auckland FC 1

Date: Saturday 15th April 2017 @ 1500 Hours

Venue: Aux Audio Stadium, Moore Lane Sports Complex, Newton Aycliffe, County Durham


Attendance: 183 (+ 1 Non League Dog)

Goals: 1-0 B Wood (6 Min), 1-1 Jury

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Photos

ROF 59
Newton Aycliffe Industrial Estate

Comments

[Rainyb]

Love the flowers in the foreground.