Turners started life as a chemist shop, selling cameras from 1931 onwards down Pink Lane, Newcastle. The business grew into one of the North East’s leading photographic and cine retail firms, with 4 stores in Newcastle as well as branches in Whitley Bay, South Shields and Darlington. A new colour film processing laboratory was opened in the 1970s on Tyne Tunnel Trading Estate at North Shields to meet the increasing demand of holiday snaps, and by 1976 Turners was developing more than five...

Turners started life as a chemist shop, selling cameras from 1931 onwards down Pink Lane, Newcastle. The business grew into one of the North East’s leading photographic and cine retail firms, with 4 stores in Newcastle as well as branches in Whitley Bay, South Shields and Darlington. A new colour film processing laboratory was opened in the 1970s on Tyne Tunnel Trading Estate at North Shields to meet the increasing demand of holiday snaps, and by 1976 Turners was developing more than five million pictures a year. Following World War Two, Turners excelled at industrial and corporate films, working for all the major regional industries over the years. One of the earliest films, a beautiful industrial film and workers’ portrait, records The Building and Launch of the Mocamedes.

Following post-war austerity measures and rationing, Britain in the 1950s and 60s was ‘one of the most conservative, stable and contented societies in the world,’ a period characterised by affluence and prosperity, famously described by then Conservative Prime Minister of Britain Harold Macmillan, who in 1957 told the nation: ‘most of our people have never had it so good (Hill, Sandbrook). The period between 1950 and 1973 is commonly referred to as the ‘Golden Age’ of economic growth in Western Europe and Japan. Neither before nor since has world production and international trade expanded so rapidly and for such a sustained period without experiencing a major crash. Increasing exports prompted investment at home which then raised output and productivity (Vonyo).

The 1950-1969 period saw an average unemployment rate of 1.6% within the British labour force. Full employment, higher earnings, the growing NHS and increased social housing ensured the people of 1960s Britain enjoyed better health and longevity and an overall better way of life than they had before. This affluence however depended largely on the success of regional industry, meaning smaller, non-industrial towns suffered poverty just as they always had done. But, for the most part, major cities and industrial districts enjoyed this prosperity (Hill, Sandbrook).

County Durham has historically relied on various industries, notably coal, steel and heavy engineering. The post-war decline of these industries led to the major restructuring of industrial landscapes, where many expansive new industrial estates were developed around larger settlements, close to the strategic highway networks. In 1951, Durham County Council published a Development Plan, addressing mines that were no longer economic, and the period between 1960 and 1966 saw the closure of 6 shipyards across the North East. Traditional heavy industries in the area continued during the 60s, however they faced major change with the rise of superior technology and increasing foreign competition.

This film, commissioned by the South West Durham Development Joint Committee, introduces this new economic landscape and takes us behind the scenes of some of the region’s newest industries and industrial estates, what it describes as the ‘diversification of industry.’

British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline opened its first manufacturing and packaging suite in Harmine Road, Barnard Castle in the 1940s. In 1965, the pharma giant had not yet merged with SmithKline so was simply known as Glaxo, as seen on the antibiotic bottles visible on the production line. GlaxoSmithKline still operates on this original site and continues to be a major employer in County Durham.

We are shown the Royal Ordnance Factory of Thorn Electrical Industries on Merrington Lane, Spennymoor. Though originally built for Smart and Brown Engineering in 1945, Thorn took over the site in 1951, while also acquiring fridge and cooker manufacturer Tricity. Tricity cookers and fridges are in their final assembly stage in this promotional film, staffed by a predominantly female work force.  

With domestic appliance manufacturing now well established at Thorn, central government and local council attracted other manufacturing industries to Spennymoor in the 1960s and 70s, including Black & Decker, Electrolux and Rothmans. This occurred concurrently to the county-wide Reclamation Programme created by the dereliction of coal and iron making. This reclamation was so successful that nothing now remains of the town’s railway, collieries and ironworks (“History of Spennymoor”). In 2009, Thorn invested in a new factory, laboratory and training and exhibition complex in Spennymoor.   

The promotion of Durham’s new lighter industries is interspersed with the celebration of its more traditional, but at the time under-employed industries, notably Wilson’s Forge in Bishop Auckland (closed 1997) and Shildon railway works. Wilson’s Forge produced steel castings of cart wheels for the mining industry and is also featured in a 1945 film in the NEFA collections  Local Studies: Near Home commissioned by the Ministry of Information.

The railway works at Shildon opened in 1833 originally to serve the Stockton and Darlington Railway. In 1962 the works underwent extensive modernisation following the creation of the British Rail Workshops Division, allowing for the repair of up to 800 wagons per week. The closure of the works was announced by British Rail in 1982 and a trade union march was organised for 29 April. More than 5000 people turned out, forming a protest line a mile long, as reported by the Northern Echo. A secondary march was held in May outside British Rail headquarters in London, attended by 600 people, however the fight proved ultimately unsuccessful and the works officially closed in June 1984.

Also an industry new to South West Durham is the manufacturing of nylon textiles, which we see in production at a factory on Shildon Industrial Estate. Nylon is a thermoplastic, silk-like material invented by American conglomerate DuPont between 1927 and 1938. Nylon was first used commercially in a nylon-bristled toothbrush in 1938, and then from 1940 in women's stockings or "nylons." During World War II, virtually all nylon production was claimed for the war effort, particularly in the manufacture of parachutes. American soldiers famously wooed the women of Britain during the war with gifts of nylon stockings, which were more readily available in the US. While nylon has many uses, it found commercial success in the form of fabrics and fibres (Deutch, Farrell).

Consumption of nylon textiles grew by 7.5% per year between the 1960s and 1980s, reaching its peak in 1965 at the time of making this film, where nylon made up 63% of the world’s textile production (Wilson). Nylon was favoured as a garment fibre due to its hard-wearing and easy-care characteristics. We see the nylon manufacturers also screen printing onto the new textiles. Screen printing involves the gradual build up of colour over several layers with the use of stencils. As one colour is printed at a time, several screens can be used to produce a multicoloured pattern or design. Nylon is particularly suited to screen printing as it is easy to dye and has excellent colourfastness.    

Astraka Furs is one of the more well-known companies of the North East’s clothing industry. Originally called Alfred Morris Furs, Astraka Furs was formed in London in 1898 and relocated in 1944 to a hall in Eldon, where it employed just three people. In 1949 they moved onto the new Shildon Industrial Estate and by the 1960s was employing 400 people – mainly women – selling to top stores such as Harrods and Selfridges, with additional exports all over the world. Due to its silky and moth-proof characteristics, nylon was the ideal fibre in the production of fake fur and as such was in high demand in 1965.

During the Cold War, 'the Russians were especially keen to have Shildon fur coats on their back.' In the 'Shildon History and Stories social blog, Astraka Furs gets a mention: 'The company called them ‘fun furs’ and for years they were working full pelt, the workforce laughing all the way to the bank. Lionel Blair came to dance round in Shildon fur coats, world ice dance champion Courtney Jones designed Shildon gear for the 1980 British Winter Olympic team at Lake Placid and British actress Jacqueline Bisset worked as the model on an early Astraka shoot. In February 1988, however, the company went into receivership and soon afterwards debts of £73,000 were announced, mainly in rates to Sedgefield council. That summer the company’s final assets were sold off.'

References:

Deutch, Yvonne. A Glimpse of Stocking: A Short History of Stockings. London: Michael O’Mara Books, 2002. 

Farrell, Jeremy. Socks & Stockings. London: B.T. Batsford, 1992.

Hill, John. Sex, Class and Realism: British Cinema 1956-1963. London: British Film Institute, 1997.

“History of Spennymoor.” Durham In Time. http://www.durhamintime.org.uk/tudhoe/history.htm

Sandbrook, Dominic. Never Had It So Good: A History of Britain from Suez to The Beatles. London: Little Brown, 2005.

“The Fifties and Sixties 1950 to 1969” https://englandsnortheast.co.uk/1950to1969.html

Vonyo, Tamas. “Post-war reconstruction and the Golden Age of economic growth.” European Review of Economic History, 12:2 (2008), pp. 221-241.

Wilson et al. Petrocultures: Oil, Politics, Culture. Montreal, Quebec: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2017. p.246

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