Issue 29 | Page 115

COMMENT

Business Buzz

with Harry Pearson

Homes that were built to last – or were they ?

Middlesbrough mayor Andy Preston , pictured
( right ) on the town ’ s Centre Square , is leading a construction charge – but Harry
Pearson ’ s grandad was involved with a garden city revolution .
Middlesbrough ’ s building boom prompts columnist Harry Pearson to reflect on his grandad ’ s construction skills

Middlesbrough is currently experiencing a great construction boom with offices , schools , leisure facilities and houses flying up all over the place . This is exciting for me , because my grandad was a minor player in another of Teesside ’ s building booms – the construction of the garden colonies .

The first of Middlesbrough ’ s garden colonies was built on the site of some old allotments on the corner of Acklam Road and West Lane . It was started in 1919 and , according to the Evening Gazette , promised “ homes not hovels ” for working class families .
There were 106 houses built on the site and , by the standards of the time , they were very modern and comfortable - featuring kitchens , sculleries , pantries and what the Gazette called “ all the usual sanitary arrangements ” ( because back in those days , even journalists blushed at the word “ lavatory ”).
Even more astounding , the houses had their own plot of land and a bathroom . “ The working man likes his bath and his garden ,” the Gazette proclaimed , which I imagine would have come as news to many of the working women of Teesside .
Working on the Acklam Garden Colony building site was grandfather ’ s first job . Well , at least it was , if you ignore the short spell as a laundry boy that ended when he sprayed a steam hose over the backside of a dray horse (“ You should have seen it take off , there were barrels flying everywhere . But it was all good fun . We weren ’ t a lot of bloody hooligans like the modern youth ”) and , frankly , my family tend to draw a veil over that one for obvious reasons .
Despite his antics at the laundry , the builders of the Acklam Garden Colony employed my grandad as an office boy . To hear him tell it later , the main part of his duties was
relaying secret messages between the site manager (“ A right fancy Dan . Wore plus fours and cashmere socks and drove a motorbike with a torpedo sidecar ”) and various actresses appearing at the Opera House , while avoiding being caught in the act by the site manager ’ s wife .
Later , he graduated from this vital task to installing the front doors of the houses . Given that my grandad ’ s DIY efforts usually involved cobbling things together using a combination of string , sealing wax , insulating tape and bad language , this does make me wonder about the quality of the craftsmanship .
Many people these days believe that in the past , things were built to last . Not if they were built by my grandad , they weren ’ t . Other garden colonies were planned around Longlands Farm , but Grandad didn ’ t work on them , which likely meant the front doors didn ’ t fall in the first time the postman tried forcing a parcel through the letterbox .
Another exciting aspect about the new Teesside construction surge is the arrival in Captain Cook Square of an indoor karting circuit ( alongside mini-golf and a bowling alley ). This is decent motorsport compensation for the 1996 demolition of Cleveland Park Stadium , where I spent many happy Thursday evenings as a lad watching the Teesside Tigers speedway team ( featuring my heroes , the Swales brothers , from Yarm ) as they raced against opponents from unlikely places such as King ’ s Lynn , Poole and Berwick .
The destruction of Cleveland Park was a source of great sadness to me . To this day , every time I pass the old site I say to whoever is in the car with me : “ Look at that ! They knocked down a perfectly good speedway stadium and built a bloody technology college there instead . Putting our children ’ s education ahead of motorbike racing ! What kind of crazy priorities do these people have ?”
Now , at long last , the balance is finally being redressed .
Harry Pearson ’ s latest book The Farther Corner – A Sentimental Return to North-East Football is out now . The voice of business in the Tees region | 115