Wonders of Woodhouse Close estate

The estate, to the east of Bishop Auckland, was built on farmland and pitheaps in the 1950s to home the people being displaced by the clearance of the old mining communities in south Durham, as Memories told a couple of weeks ago. Geoff was one of many people who responded to that article.

He said: “There was a green in the middle of the close which looked like a building site. A few years later, they grassed it and put up a sign saying “no ball games” – the sign went on the bonfire, and ball games did abound.

“We played loads of games – tallyho, umdumdum, knocky nine doors, hide ‘n’ seek, cricket, football and marathons round the green. We used to put a Beano annual on a rollerskate, sit on it and belt down the banks. The scubbed knees and bums were all part of the fun.”

Geoff’s parents remain in the same house although he moved out to Cabin Gate 40 years ago when he married, but he concludes: “You can take the man from the estate, but you can’t take the estate from the man (such happy memories).”

THE very beginnings of the estate are told in a beautiful book called Woodhouse: Creating a Community, published in 2009 by Jane Crawford – herself a Woodhousian native – of Daisy Arts. By happy coincidence, free copies of the book have just been made available in the library on the estate and the one in Bishop Auckland Town Hall. It is well worth picking up.

It shows that the estate had been proposed during the 1930s, interrupted by the war, and begun in earnest in 1947 when 168 acres of land, including Woodhouse Close Farm, was bought from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, probably for £100,000, and £17,651 was spent levelling the pitheaps and filling in the three pitshafts.

Construction of the first houses was delayed in 1950 first by a shortage of cement, and then by a shortage of common bricks. Builder Mr Ridley told Bishop Auckland Urban District Council that he could use 40,000 bricks a week, but he could only get his hands on 9,000.

But come February 17, 1951, six “permanent traditional type houses” were complete, and the official opening was held at the Watling Road entrance, with council chairman, Alderman JRS Middlewood, cutting a ribbon. Then the ten members of the Housing and Reconstruction (Woodhouse Close) Sub-Committee each planted a silver birch tree and attached a commemorative silver tab to its trunk.

Seven of these trees, says the council minute book, were to be planted near Road No 2. Can anyone tell us if these trees survive – can anyone send us a photo of them, or, even better, of a commemorative silver tab?

SHORTLY after opening day, the numbered streets were given names: 17 of them were named after members or officials of the council, including Proudfoot Drive, which was named after Cllr George Proudfoot. It was Proudfoot Drive which got us started on this line of inquiry.

“George Proudfoot was a Methodist lay preacher, I think connected to Spennymoor Independent Methodists in Half Moon Lane,” writes Raymond Blenkiron, from Hamsterley. “I remember hearing him in the 1950s.

“A little research indicates that he was born in 1899, probably in Crook, married in Sedgefield in 1924 to Florence M Lee, of Low Spennymoor. She died in 1967, and he died in 1973.” It is believed they had a son and a daughter.

“He was smaller than average height and so is probably on the right of Ald Middlewood on your opening day picture.”

BILLY NEILSON, a man of many political roles in south Durham, also spots Cllr Proudfoot on our picture, and adds to our knowledge of the men behind the streets.

“Ford Way was named after the council surveyor, John Ford,” he says. “Waine Crescent was named after Cllr George Waine, who had a plumbing business and was a board member of Bishop Auckland Football Club along with Bob Middlewood. I think these properties were built for serving officers with Durham Constabulary.

“Gudmunsen Avenue, named after Cllr Bob Gudmunsen, the member for Coundon, was built for keyworkers on the St Helens Industrial Estate, especially for Westool, the engineering Company.”

Our picture of Proudfoot Drive caused a little confusion among readers, and that may be because, suggests Billy, that the Durham County Council architects used the same shop designs on all their estates of this era – Woodhouse, Jubilee Fields in Shildon and Low Mown Meadows in Crook.

PAUL DOBSON emails to correct our geography. The hamlet of Woodhouses, and its pub, the Bay Horse, still exists. We should have known, as just down the road is Wigdan, or Wigdon, Walls Farm – a name we tried to get to the bottom of without any success in 2011.

“It’s a great name,” agrees Paul, “and Sloshes Lane is only a few miles away between Etherley and Witton Castle.” Please let us know if you can explain.

Paul continues: “The original Woodhouse Close colliery was located not far south of Woodhouse Lane, about where Wood Square is now, and a "new" Woodhouse Close colliery, where Weardale Drive is now, was linked to it by a tramway. There was also Etherley Grange colliery, which was near Linburn Drive, and Woodhouses colliery was close to the original hamlet.”

And he adds: “St Helen's Colliery was west of Tindale Crescent, and now lies beneath the football ground and Sainsbury's.”

AND, finally, Tom Hutchinson sends us details of the collieries from his 2005 book, History of Bishop Auckland. Sir Thomas Clavering owned the first colliery from about 1800, and further shafts were sunk in 1837 and 1850. In the 1880s, the owners had to pay compensation to property owners in Bishop Auckland as the workings had caused subsidence. The colliery closed in 1934.

He says: “The site remained derelict until the late 1950s when the Woodhouse Close estate was built, when the two shafts were capped and put under what became Murphy Crescent.”

In the early 1980s, an old mineshaft opened up in the Fawcett Close/Lusby Crescent part of the estate. If you have any memories of that, or any other aspect of the estate, please let us know. Many thanks to everyone who has been in touch.