Peterlee

Coordinates: 54°46′N 1°20′W / 54.76°N 1.33°W / 54.76; -1.33

Peterlee is a small town built under the New Towns Act of 1946, in County Durham, England. Founded in 1948, Peterlee town originally mostly housed coal miners and their families.

Peterlee has economic and community ties with Sunderland, Hartlepool and Durham.

History

The case for Peterlee was put forth in Farewell Squalor by Easington Rural District Council Surveyor C.W. Clarke, who also proposed that the town was named after the celebrated Durham miners' leader Peter Lee. Peterlee is unique among the new towns which came into being after the Second World War in that it was the only one requested by the people through their MP. A deputation, mostly if not all working miners, met with the Minister of Town and Country Planning after the Second World War to put the case for a new town in the district. The minister John Silkin responded by offering a half size new town of 30,000 residents. Subsequently, they came largely from the surrounding villages in the District of Easington.