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Local Information for Peterlee

Peterlee is one of a number of “New Towns” which came into being after the Second World War. The Peterlee concept came into being in 1948 and the town council was formed in 1977, though few know it is also the site of a deserted medieval village called Yoden. The modern town was created to re-house growing populations from nearby mining villages. It is named after Peter Lee, an important miner's leader who became the chairman of England's first all Labour council at Durham in 1909. Lee was born in 1864 at Trimdon Grange, a colliery village in eastern Durham and at the age of ten he started work as a pony driver at Littletown Colliery, just outside Durham City. By the age of sixteen he had achieved the status of a coal hewer. In 1886 Lee emigrated to the United States, where he worked in the mines of Ohio, Kentucky and Pennsylvania, before returning to County Durham in 1887. He died in 1935 at the age of seventy.

Peterlee has attracted many multination companies to its indust...More