From the album 'Our Streets Are Numbered'
When Horden pit closed in 1987, the houses were passed on to a Housing Association who, despite many promises over the years, have not seen fit to invest in keeping the properties in a good state of repair. Most of the houses are now empty, many of them vandalised - plumbing and electrics stolen. The few owner/occupiers are surrounded by empty houses and many social problems, issues of alcoholism, drugs and anti-social behaviour. People talk of how friendly and clean the streets used to be. The Housing Association are now selling off the properties at auction, with no interest in who it is that buys them, resulting in further feelings of insecurity about the future. In this ex-mining area it is easy to see the results of lack of investment coupled with the government housing policies over the years. They are called The Numbered Streets because they have no names, they are just numbered from 1 - 13, 14th Street is the cemetery. ‘Our Streets Are Numbered’ is the result of our Leverhulme Artist In Residence post in Horden through Durham University Geography Dept. in 2016.
SONS OF HORDEN
Our project was ‘Disposal - in the Numbered Streets’. It wasn’t just the disposal of the colliery housing, it was getting rid of the people who lived there. The strong community of mining families were thrown to the four winds. The waste of much-needed houses and the waste of generations of people is shocking to say the least. The sons of Horden have been driven down by political prejudice and pure neglect - the ruined colliery houses in Horden’s Numbered Streets tell the tale - ‘wasted like the Sons of Horden’.
Song written by Brenda Heslop (c) 2016
Films by Carl Joyce (c) 2016
CD album and download available from - www.ribbonroadmusic.com
www.carljoyce.co.uk
Негізгі бет Музыка Ribbon Road - Sons of Horden
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