This text is provided by Durham County Record Office
One Hundred Years of Service
The County Council in its first 100 years of life has seen many varied personalities both among its elected representatives and its officers. A number are mentioned in the booklet, including the first chairman, J.L. Wharton; Samuel Storey, who enunciated in its first decade the County Council’s philosophy; Dr. Eustace Hill, its first Medical Officer of Health; and Mr Geenty, its first Planning Officer. Many have inevitably been missed but the most famous of those associated with Durham County Council must inevitably be Peter Lee. Peter Lee’s importance is reflected in the fact that his name has been given to a new town in the east of the County. Peter Lee, apart from his enduring fame as the man who gave his name to a new town, also will remain forever prominent in the history of County Durham as the first Labour chairman of the County Council. The contemporary report in the Durham County Advertiser, on the 21 March 1919, underlined the significance of what was happening. ‘Mr. Gilliland (Birtley) moved the elction [as chairman] of Mr. Peter Lee, of Wheatley Hill, and declared that a revolution had taken place in the personnel of that Council, and the rank and file of the county considered that they should have one of their men in the post of Chairman’. Peter Lee, on accepting the office of Chairman, also emphasised the momentousness of the occasion. ‘He remarked that out of the war there must come great changes. They of the Labour party believed those changes would benefit the working people and they were sent there by a majority of the votes of the county to try to administer the law in such a way that benefit would accrue to the workers… they desired for the people better health, better education, better homes…'
Not only was Peter Lee a doughty fighter for the improvement of the living conditions of the people of the county, but he also led an interesting and varied life. He was born in Trimdon Grange in July 1864 of parents who originated in Lancashire. His father and mother were of a roving disposition and by the time Peter Lee was ten years of age, he had lived in Lancashire on five separate occasions. At the age of ten he began work in a cotton mill in Oldham and by the time he was eleven was working as a pony driver in Littletown Colliery. He worked at many collieries, including Boyne, Littleburn, Pittington, Haswell, Trimdon Grange, Stanley, Whitburn, Thrislington and collieries in Cumberland. He inherited his parents’ wanderlust, because, in 1885, he went to the United States of America where he worked in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Kentucky. He returned to England and in 1892 was elected checkweighman at Wingate Colliery. Three and a half years later, he went to South Africa where, being unable to obtain work in the Rand gold mines, he was employed in the coal mines at Middleburg. He was an immensely strong and, by his own admission, a rough young man, but at the age of 21 he decided to begin a course of self-education. As a coal-hewer, whose shift began at 9.30 a.m., he was in the habit of rising at 6 a.m. to study before going to work. He was a delegate of the Wingate miners to the Council of the D.M.A. in 1887 and entered local government by becoming a member of Easington District Council in 1906. In 1909 he became member for Thornley of the Durham County Council. He was chairman of the County and of the County Finance Committee for six years after 1919.
Not only was Peter Lee a doughty fighter for the improvement of the living conditions of the people of the county, but he also led an interesting and varied life. He was born in Trimdon Grange in July 1864 of parents who originated in Lancashire. His father and mother were of a roving disposition and by the time Peter Lee was ten years of age, he had lived in Lancashire on five separate occasions. At the age of ten he began work in a cotton mill in Oldham and by the time he was eleven was working as a pony driver in Littletown Colliery. He worked at many collieries, including Boyne, Littleburn, Pittington, Haswell, Trimdon Grange, Stanley, Whitburn, Thrislington and collieries in Cumberland. He inherited his parents’ wanderlust, because, in 1885, he went to the United States of America where he worked in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Kentucky. He returned to England and in 1892 was elected checkweighman at Wingate Colliery. Three and a half years later, he went to South Africa where, being unable to obtain work in the Rand gold mines, he was employed in the coal mines at Middleburg. He was an immensely strong and, by his own admission, a rough young man, but at the age of 21 he decided to begin a course of self-education. As a coal-hewer, whose shift began at 9.30 a.m., he was in the habit of rising at 6 a.m. to study before going to work. He was a delegate of the Wingate miners to the Council of the D.M.A. in 1887 and entered local government by becoming a member of Easington District Council in 1906. In 1909 he became member for Thornley of the Durham County Council. He was chairman of the County and of the County Finance Committee for six years after 1919.
He was also largely responsible for the formation of the Durham County Water Board; he was its first Chairman and was keenly interested in the construction of the Burnhope reservoir. His achievement was summed up just after his death by Mr. W. Jackson at a meeting of the Durham County Mining Federation: ‘The greatest mark of his life is, perhaps, to be found in the realm of local government. In almost every village in the county is to be found a monument to the work of Peter Lee. Perhaps the greatest monument is the work he did to provide the county with a pure water supply. We sincerely regret that he did not live to see the completion of the Burnhope Reservoir, but his work will remain and it will be said of him, as it has been said of others, “He being dead yet speaketh”’.
