New Plans, Old Methods: A County Durham Ghost Story.

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A policy that began in 1951 still haunts County Durham. Attempts have been made to exorcise the spectre, but it still hides in plain sight, lingering in the woodlands, fields and the coastal margins of the county. It might be argued that the policy has been resurrected with properties either being demolished, or facing the threat of destruction, even today.

It began with the infamous 1951 County Durham Development Plan, which placed all villages in A to D categories, with those classified as Category D targeted for demolition or abandonment. When the policy was abandoned in 1979, only three had been completely demolished, but the impact on villages, from the Deerness Valley in the west to Marsden in the east, was profound.

Souter Lighthouse rises some 23 metres above the sea-scarred east coast of Tyneside, ostensibly a beacon for the Storm Petrels that are caught and ringed every year. In a satellite image of land adjacent just north of the lighthouse,  two rectangles. approximately 150m in length, mark the place where Charles Street and Hilton Street once stood. The village of Marsden, then within the county borders, consisted of nine streets a church, chapel, Co-op, Post Office, school, and a Miners' Institute. 

Rectangular ground marks showing the site of Charles Street and Hilton Street, Marsden. (Google Earth 2020)

In the 1950s, erosion had damaged the cliffs, and according to various sources, Marsden village was demolished in 1968 because of the danger. However, the 1951 plan had already earmarked the village as category D, so economic support had already been withdrawn. Rehousing and demolition was the cheapest solution. The land where the stood has not slipped into the sea might indicate that the danger was exaggerated.

In the west of the county, almost two-thirds of Waterhouses was demolished after the colliery closed in 1968. Trees were planted and they now form part of the pleasant, but unmanaged, woodland between the remains of the village and Esh Winning. There is still archaeological evidence of the village; the broken walls of the school have been inexplicably left in place and wide paths through the trees are lined with curb stones. These paths are the remnants of North, South, East West terraces, Arthur Street and Dale Srreet.

Curb stones in the woods between Esh Winning and Waterhouses

Just over a mile due north of Waterhouses, sheep graze on a plain, green field where Hamsteels colliery once stood. After the final 17 residents left in 1973, open-cast mining began, and the village was bulldozed from history. The few surviving black and white photographs do not capture the spirit of the once lively, intimate community. One person interviewed in the early 1960s said,

“When we came into this house, we didn’t know it was going to be demolished. We have spent over £400 on this house”.

In a 2025 interview with a former resident who lived in the village as a child, the interviewee recalled dancing around a November 5^th bonfire chanting,

“Gunpowder plot will never be forgot as long as Hamsteels stays on the spot”

The demolition of Hamsteels (John Rippon)

Three newspaper stories from 2008, 2021, 2025 and my own observations about the Oaks in Esh Winning, show that the D village policy may not have died, and the policy of destruction, not renovation, still lives in the minds of planners.

In 2008, the Northern Echo reported that £9.8m of local and national government money had been injected into the housing sector of the village of Thornley. This investment was focused on improvements to amenities, and notably, housing demolitions. By 2008,  around 504 social housing properties had been destroyed, and according to the Councillor Brian Wilson, these had been replaced by only 64 social housing homes, with the main focus on more expensive private homes. Councillor Wilson maintained that many of the demolished homes were ‘well built’ and suitable for renovation and is quoted as saying:

"Now, instead, we have a modern-day Category D sentence by stealth which has allowed our community's infrastructure to be dismantled and left our next generations robbed of homes and meaningful facilities".

In 2021, social housing properties in Brandon were demolished and echoing the unhappy resident of Hamsteels Colliery 50 years before, one tenant bemoaned that he had recently spent £1,000 on renovations. He emphasised that the area had a strong community spirit which would be broken if the properties were destroyed. As of September 2025, the ground where the properties stood is empty and fenced off.

The site of demolished homes in Brandon September 2025 (Peter Laurence)

In 2013, The Oaks, a social housing estate in Esh Winning was demolished as the estate had become ‘unsuitable’ with the promise of 78 two and three-bedroomed homes to be built on the site. Councillor Jean Chaplow was quoted in the Northern Echo as saying:

“Let us have our village back and made whole again, instead of a nasty open space,” she added.

The ‘nasty open space’ became a place for dog walkers, an unofficial play park and a site for a few incidents of fly tipping. It was not until 2022 that a proposed development by Placefirst for 89 new homes was approved. As of September 2025, the site is still under construction, although some homes have been occupied. In County Durham, the rent for a two-bedroom social housing bungalow is £90-£120 per week. A similar property in the new Oaks development is advertised at £795 per month, (£183 per week), while a 3-bedroom home costs £1,050 per month (£242 per week).

(Left) The original 'Oaks' being demolished in 2012 (The Northern Echo) & The Oaks October 2025 (Peter Laurence)

On 1^st September 2025, SAVE Britain’s Heritage launched a campaign to stop the demolition of 110 homes in the village of Horden. The BBC reported that resident Moira Bellingham believed that

“History would be obliterated, her home would be ‘smashed to pieces’ she would be ‘put us out to wherever”.

The Fair Deal for Horden group has been established in opposition to the plans and claims that the properties could be renovated and other "vacant homes in the village could be re-established as affordable social housing.

In many cases, the new housing offered by the council in the 1960s and 1970s would have been an improvement on the occupants’ property, but as stated in the 1969 This Week documentary ‘Condemned Villages: A Long Time Dying’, which focused on Witton Park, there was a long housing list, which meant residents were living amongst half-demolished houses as the village disintegrated around them.

It could be argued that the planned demolition of the houses in Horden indicates that the 1951 County Durham Development Plan did not really end in 1979 but still serves as a blueprint for planners today. This policy cares little for the communities it breaks apart, but an innovation that the post-war planners could not have foreseen was the rise of social media. Facebook Groups such as ‘Deerness Valley Memories’, ‘I came from Witton Park’ and ‘Allendale cottages, High Westwood , The Dene and Medomsley’ demonstrate that these communities are still alive, long after bricks and mortar have been cleared.

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