D is for...... Durham and Destruction

In 1951 Durham County Council published its Development Plan in which it "addressed" the problems of 350 scattered villages that had grown up around small mines. The mines were no longer economic and the villages were haemorrhaging population. The Plan classified a third of the villages as "Category D" because the council felt there was no way of sustaining them in the future. These villages were to be left to die without economic assistance. Some of them are no more....the picture above shows the demolition of Addison Village in 1958. Read something about it's history here

Listen to a BBC Radio4 programme about the Category D villages....