Peterlee is a new town in County Durham, England. Founded in 1948, the town is named after Peter Lee , a prominent local miner, and originally mostly housed coal miners. A notable building in the town is the Pasmore Pavilion, which has in recent times fallen into disrepair. Some local residents are now petitioning the council to have it demolished, citing it as an eyesore.

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 political representatives. A deputation, mostly if not all working miners from the Easington District Council 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, itself a pit village .

In 1975, Artist Placement Group had contacted new towns to set up the terms for artists to propose projects . The Development Corporation of Peterlee New Town responded and in 1976, Stuart Brisley was apponted. The project contained three distinct parts:

• to develop an ongoing process of collecting and diseminating information under the title History Within Living Memory
• to establish a publicly available history of the Development Corporation made in association with the Sociology Dept of the University of Durham
• to introduce a community workshop which began in 1977

More information on The Peterlee Project can be found on its web site.

On the 29th January 2005, celebrated north-east band Joe Byrne will play a gig in aid of Tsunami relief at Peterlee College.

Since 1981 Peterlee has a town-twinning with the German town of Nordenham on the river Weser in Lower Saxony opposite to Bremerhaven.

External link

• The Peterlee Project web site
• Peterlee Town Council