Woodhouse wonderings

Several decades ago, on the back of the picture, a librarian with a flowery hand had written in black fountain pen ink: “A street in Shildon, June 1959.”

But it wasn’t.

“I don't think this is Shildon,” wrote Bob Barnes of Bishop Auckland in just one of dozens and dozens of emails and phone messages which expressed similar sentiments. “I think this is part of Proudfoot Drive on the Woodhouse Close Estate Bishop Auckland.

SAME VIEW: Proudfoot Drive, Bishop Auckland, shrouded in fog in 2016

“I lived on the estate for 20 years and even have vague memories of one of the vehicles in your picture, YUP 595, as it belonged to my friend’s dad, Mr Charlton, who lived in the house next to the first shop, which was Watson’s grocery shop.

“I may be wrong but as soon as I saw the picture, memories came flooding back.”

Bob was not wrong.

Here’s another randomly selected email for verification. It is from Carol Alonze, who said: “It is the part of Proudfoot Drive in Bishop Auckland’s Woodhouse Close, where the shops were: there was Hardy’s paper shop, a butcher’s, a wool shop, Watson’s top and bottom shop, and a fish shop. It brings back so many memories.”

And Peter Gibson said: “It looks like Proudfoot Drive with Hardy’s newsagents at the bottom of the picture with Annie's butcher's next door. The two shops in the middle were, I think, Watson's grocery shop and a shop that sold a variety of things with various owners. The top two shops were a fish and chip shop and a fruit and veg shop. Hardy’s was there for years and the fish shop still is. Opposite were fields, but they’ve been built on now.”

Although there were a couple of dissenting voices who reckoned the street could be Coronation Avenue in Shildon, we are convinced by the people who say Proudfoot. We despatched the Echo’s photographer, Sarah Caldecott, to get photographic proof. She left Darlington in beautiful sunshine and the closer she came to Bishop, the foggier it became, but it looks identical to us – although those attractive question-mark shaped 1950s streetlamps have unfortunately been replaced.

The post-war Woodhouse Close estate was built on a hamlet called Woodhouses, where there was a pub called the Bay Horse Inn and several farms. On the South Church side of it was the lost medieval village of Henknowle, and on the Tindale Crescent side of it was Woodhouse Close Colliery.

The colliery was sunk in 1835, and the main Durham coal seam was “found in great perfection at a depth of 74 fathoms”. A second shaft was sunk in 1850, and for a while it was known as Tindale Colliery – we reckon the pithead must have been roughly where the fields behind the college and St John’s school are today.

It was never a massive employer – at its peak after the First World War, there were 78 men working below with another 15 on the surface.

But it did reap 27 lives. For example, in 1841, just four years after coal was won, Bishop Edward Maltby, of Durham, gave £10 to the four children who had been orphaned by the death of their father William Rand, who had been killed by a fall of stone in Woodhouse Close Colliery.

Most of the deaths occurred in the mid-19th Century, and the youngest was George Ord. He was only 11 in 1860 when he was crushed by wagons on the surface.

Woodhouse Close Colliery closed in March 1934, and the area returned to agriculture until just after the Second World War when it was chosen as the site for a new council housing estate. The first tenants moved in on February 17, 1951 when the estate was formally opened by Alderman JRS Middlewood, the chairman of Bishop Auckland Urban Council.

OPENING DAY: From The Northern Echo of February 19, 1951, Alderman JRS Middlewood cuts the ribbon at Woodhouse Close Estate. The Echo said: "With him are other members of the council." Can anyone spot Cllr George Proudfoot, who was also there there that day?

He said: “By the end of the year we shall have about 200 houses completed. Eventually, the estate will comprise 1,250 houses, four primary schools, three nursery schools, a residential hotel, a very good cinema, a shopping centre and a recreation ground and sports arena.”

Phil Graham was another of those who identified Proudfoot Drive on our photograph, and he added this nugget of information: “In keeping with the urban district council’s policies, the street was named after a councillor – Cllr George Proudfoot – as were other surrounding streets like Walker Drive, Howard Close etc.”

And from the report of the opening, we learn it was Cllr Proudfoot, chairman of the Housing Committee, who handed over the keys to the first tenants – Mr and Mrs E Dunne and Mr and Mrs JB Dennis, whose new homes were Nos 5 and 3. Mr Dennis was a baker who had been waiting for a house for five years, living with his wife and his parents since he’d been demobbed.

Mr Dunne, who had been on the waiting list for nine years, was described as a “keelsetter”.

Later in 1951, demand for the houses grew further as Durham County Council launched its notorious Development Plan. The plan ranked the sustainability of the county’s 350 pit villages, which had grown up in an unco-ordinated fashion in the previous 100 years. The 120 villages given the lowest ranking – Category D – were to be demolished and their inhabitants rehoused in places like Newton Aycliffe and Woodhouse Close.

So while Woodhouse Close never got its hotel or cinema, it did continue to grow, as our 1959 picture shows, with street guides helping the new residents find their way around the councillor-themed streets.

But we know no more of Cllr Proudfoot, even though the long street still bears his name. Does he have any descendants still living?

Plus: what was a “keelsetter”? And do you have any information or memories of Woodhouse Close?

ACCORDING to the Penguin Dictionary of British Surnames, Proud is a County Durham surname which developed as a nickname for a proud or haughty man. A Proudfoot is some who walks with “a proud or haughty gait”.

THANKS also to Ian Johnson, Fred Pole, Peter Davidson, Maurice Hutchfield, Bill Salmon, Heather Siddle, Graeme Scarlett, Barbara Ainscough, Colin Chape, John Siddle, Christine Bake and others too numerous to mention.

MANY more people, including Jeff Gale of Tow Law and David Raine, also had a go at identifying the three cars parked in Proudfoot Drive. They agreed with John Biggs of Etherley Grange who said that, from left to right, they were a Morris Oxford series 3, which was built from 1956-59, a Hillman Husky 1st series, built 1955-57 (John Weighell of Neasham said it might be a Commer Cob van, but as we know from previous Memories, the Husky and the Cob were closely related), and a Ford Popular 103e, which was made 1954-59. And Peter Daniels in Bishop Auckland pointed out that the Popular had “the infamous ‘vacuum’ windscreen wipers”.