frestonia *LINK*

[Anonymous]

Found this interesting in light of the coversation about homes being condemmed by pathfinder.. Photographs of people who made use of (read squatted) in a condemmed street in 1977 and tried to make it their own country!.. shows you can live with alot worse that rising damp <IMG SRC="http://www.periodproperty.co.uk/discussing/smileys/wink.gif" BORDER=0 ALT="">


frestonia

 

[Anonymous]

Now that brings back some memories. What a great collection of photos.
Nick was a lovely man. I helped in his campaign to get rid of lead in petrol. In the mid seventies they told us it would be impossible. He won that battle and did so much else in his life.
(Nice window, eh?)


Nick Albery Memorial Board

 

[Anonymous]

Second try -( keep getting "file error" when I try to reply to anything)

Before I read the Web Page about Freestonia I thought of Passport to Pimlico which is a lovely gentle film (as they were when I was a kid.)
In the film they wanted to stop developers and wanted instead a pool and places for the kids to play and people to relax - a very modern concept for the 1950's.

 

[Anonymous]

I get file error too.

A double click on post message at times works.

 

[Anonymous]

CHOPWELL -`LITTLE MOSCOW'

On the north bank of the River Derwent, in view from the country walk, is the beautiful Chopwell Wood and nearby, the village of Chopwell, which was known in the 1920's as `Little Moscow' because of the extreme political views of its miners. During the General Strike of 1926, the residents of this former mining town went to the extremes of replacing the Union Jack at the local council offices with that of the `Hammer and Sickle'. They are also said to have removed a copy of the bible from the church and replaced it with the works of Karl Marx. Even the streets of Chopwell were once named after Lenin, Marx and Engels.

That's from the 'This is the North East' website.

Actually - the streets still are! As far as I am aware they have so far escaped being 'Pathfindered...' although very similar terraces to many now being bulldozed elsewhere...

It has a fascinating history of people banding together and fighting for social reform - in the pits, for schools, women's right to vote, etc.

During the 1926 strike the miners here held out for longer - and declared a soviet. Rumour had it they even issued 'passports'...

I can't find an easy link about this on the internet, but I know I have more info somewhere! I seem to recall the Lodge banner had Kier Hardy, Marx and possibly Lenin pictured on it.

So much now demolished which is sad though - chapel, school...

I used to work there.

 

[Anonymous]

Wonder if the Chopwell banner is really in the Kremlin?

At the rate which Moscow is being bulldozed it's possibly in a skip by now.


http://RoyLambeth'sDurhamMinersGalaBannerPhotographs.1983.

 

[Anonymous]

A browse around the banners via the link on the bottom shows Marx, Lenin - and someone who looks very like Kier Hardie to me!

 

[Anonymous]

Just think - if Frestonia still existed today, they'd probably be part of the European Union, and would have won the Eurovision Song Contest.

 

[Anonymous]

Many of the old mining villages in Co Durham were categorised as "Category D" in the 60's - that is they were at the bottom of the heap and no (ZERO) development would be allowed - so they were allowed to run down with no improvements to services, roads, lighting etc or grants for repairs. Where I grew up (Bishop Auckland - between Darlington and Durham) there were several such villages especially Witton Park (locally known as Jam Jar City).
These villages have survived and got through that threat. You can sell a house there now and can get a mortgage on one again.
People like living there.
Bomb damaged houses were often unrepairable but most properties nowadays can be brought back into good use.
I accept that in some areas eg Scotswood and the enormously long terraces leading to the Tyne were not easily restorable. They were Tyneside flats ie two homes within one small terrace house, no bathrooms, outside toilet, the kitchen was a passage to the back door - read Catherine Cookson for the picture. Those houses would have been difficult to convert into suitable homes although a lot of Tyneside flats around my street were. Bringing up a family of even two kids in such flats was - to our eyes - an impossibilty (see Jack Common "The Ampersand").
So some had to go, but they have gone and what is left needs improvement and repair not demolition and that, [apart from local government commitment!!] is all.

 

[Anonymous]

You Bisherporkland? Husband was born in Fencehouses!

Category D - and White Areas - we bought a house in one such area, our first home. It had narrowly escaped being demolished and the council gave us the largest mortgage they had ever given - £1,500. Double fronted attached to a terrace of three. It would have been a crime to have demolished it! Stone and slate and with cast iron fireplaces intact, although rather basic to say the least we loved it, it was an afforadble piece of heritage, we spent may happy years there, slowly improving it. Sad the b*ggers who bought it ripped out the lovingly repaired sashes and put placcy in.

I was born (literally) and brought up (along with a brother) in a Tyneside flat. We managed! As did so many thousands of others! Not impossible either to extend or knock two into one. Many smashing houses with large back yards (ours had a wash house with set pot) were demolished which shouldn't have been. The row they replaced it with when it was 'slum cleared' I see has now also been demolished ... such is Pathfinder. Such is the waste of taxpayer's cash.

St Agnes Place Lambeth - just been demolished by the council. Squatters (there for many years) forcibly evicted before Christmas so the street could be bulldozed.

See Sapling news below.

What is it with terraces that peop,e want to raze them?



http://www.sapling.org.uk/update/200512.shtml