"Lessingthorn. Population six hundred odd. Annual cost of Transitional payments and Public assistance nearly £10,000, ninety-eight percent of those on the live register having ceased to be eligible for Unemployment Insurance pay."
"Butterknowle. Thirty-two percent of the many unemployed have been out of work for more than five years." These three villages were not special, they were typical of what was happening throughout the whole of County Durham's industrial area during that time, and in remembering this story of appalling misfortune it is cause for wonder that ever the County Durham man was capable of honest work, or able to forget his bitterness.
Despite the spread of industrialization, two-thirds of County Durham was given over to farming, most of it to permanent pasture. slag heaps from the mines, pithead machinery and even factories dot a landscape that is otherwise agricultural. (from The English Administrative County of England)
Consider the Bishop Auckland area of southwest Durham. It had 33 coal pits employing 28,000 miners. By 1935 17 pits were abandoned, three more closed and unlikely to reopen, and the remaining 13, where work dragged on with small and irregular shifts, employed 6500 men, though often not on full time. Despite the fact that many families, and particularly the younger men had moved away, unemployment was very high: 80 percent or more of the workers in Tow Law were unemployed, almost 100 per cent of those in Sheldon; at West Auckland only one hundred men out of a thousand had had work in the last seven years. In a street of sixty cottages in one of the mining villages you would hardly find one where the man was at work.
C.L.Mowat, Britain between the wars, Methuen 1955
Despite World War 2 raging from 1939-45 as far as the Minutes of the Durham & District Bowling League for that period were concerned the word ‘war’ was never used. The nearest occasion was one entry from a Meeting on 26th March 1940 when it was agreed ‘Teas to be dispensed with during the present crisis’.
The inauguration of the Hospital Cup two wood triples knockout competition began at a Meeting held on 4th October 1945. (This was probably instigated because of high demands on the Hospital as a consequence of the war. The NHS was not yet created.) The Minutes stated that the Secretary write to the Durham County Hospital to provide a trophy and that the League administer a competition. All proceeds would go to the Hospital. At a Meeting on 7th March 1946 the Secretary reported that the Durham County Hospital had agreed to provide a trophy for the competition. The costs of insurance for the Trophy were to be deducted from the proceeds before paying over the monies to the Hospital.
At the 1949 AGM a notice of motion from Langley Park BC “that the club winning the League have the honour and privilege of nominating a President for the ensuing season” was carried. Thus a Mr Carpenter of Langley Park BC became the first League President.
Many Meetings in the years 1932-51 but especially during the 40s were taken up with concerns about a lack of entries for League competitions making some unviable. There were also many
unfulfilled fixtures which resulted in the Club officials often being called to attend before the League Management Committee where they were, admonished and fined according to the circumstances.
Festival of Britain 1951. The organisers envisaged the Festival as a country-wide celebration of Britain’s history, achievements and culture – a popular event that would help Britons forget the trauma of war and contribute to the post-war ‘re-construction’ of morale. Gerald Barry, the Festival Director, summed up the hopes of the organisers by referring to it as a ‘tonic to the nation’.
The Festival of Britain provided a more extensive opportunity to showcase the collective and individual ‘achievements’ of Britons. Events dealt with history, industry, science, the arts and explored various aspects of cultural and everyday life at mid-century.
These 20 years ended with a Meeting held after the 1951 AGM when “It
was found that we were in a position whereby it was impossible to carry on. Very reluctantly and with deep regret we were faced with no alternative but to wind up the League”. This meant that after 30 years it was the end of the road and there would not be a League in 1953. The future of inter-club competitive bowling in the central area of County Durham looked bleak.
