About
This website was begun early in 2004 to document the turmoils and charms of this former mining village on the east coast of County Durham, in the north of England.
Almost four years later a lot has changed.
The old Working Men’s Club has gone, replaced by a quadrangle of shiny new houses. A vast series of boxy white blocks, glittering in the night under the arcs of floodlights that can be seen as far away as Seaton Carew, jumble higgledy-piggledy, like an assembly of lego bricks, on the site of Dawdon Colliery. Where the village pub once stood, burned down, some might say under peculiar circumstances some 20 years back, is a smart looking residential care home. Even the newsagent on the corner of Embleton Street has re-opened with brand new windows and door.
The big news in 2007 was the opening of Byron Place shopping centre, with an ugly new Asda which must have the best views of any Walmart shop in the world. And in the closing days of the year, the last service was held by the dwindled congregation in the old Pitman’s Cathedral, St Hild and St Helen’s at the top of Mount Stewart Street.
To come, there’s talk of a huge film studios complex on farmlands to the south of the old colliery site, and more and more small houses are going up on parcels of land that have lain vacant for decades. Everything changes, but somehow, here in Dawdon, there’s always that warm and comforting feeling of time standing still.
If you live in the village now, or were born or brought up here, or you’ve been visiting friends, it would be a pleasure to hear from you. Just click on any comment tag. There are some new projects planned starting in the spring and summer of 2008: the rebuilding of the framework of this website is just the start of things to come. Let’s see what another four years will bring.
