The most modern town in Britain
Here's The Washington Way, a beautiful 1970s promo film for Washington New Town.
'Gone are the days of poverty' is one of the bold claims of this glorious little film, made for Washington New Town Development Corporation in 1975. Ten years have passed since work first began, and here we see the new villages, high-tech light industry with a European bent, the modern town and village centres and the footpath network.
There are interviews with Bill Taylor, an ex-coalminer, made redundant in 1968, who had moved to one of the new town villages; Franz van Schaik, the Dutch technical director of weighing machine company Molen; and Paul Butler, a teacher at Usworth Comprehensive school. Equally notable are the folk they don't interview: women. What does Mrs van Schaik think, asks the narrator at one point. Cut to her husband mansplaining.
It's well worth a watch, for a vision of lost optimism from the postwar period, some gorgeous modern design, and as a snapshot of a futuristic society as imagined by sixties planners and architects.
Thanks to @lil_madam on Twitter for bringing this to my attention, and Tyne and Wear Archives.
'Gone are the days of poverty' is one of the bold claims of this glorious little film, made for Washington New Town Development Corporation in 1975. Ten years have passed since work first began, and here we see the new villages, high-tech light industry with a European bent, the modern town and village centres and the footpath network.
There are interviews with Bill Taylor, an ex-coalminer, made redundant in 1968, who had moved to one of the new town villages; Franz van Schaik, the Dutch technical director of weighing machine company Molen; and Paul Butler, a teacher at Usworth Comprehensive school. Equally notable are the folk they don't interview: women. What does Mrs van Schaik think, asks the narrator at one point. Cut to her husband mansplaining.
Franz van Schaik, Technical Director for Molen
Franz van Schaik, Technical Director for Molen
Franz van Schaik, Technical Director for Molen
It's well worth a watch, for a vision of lost optimism from the postwar period, some gorgeous modern design, and as a snapshot of a futuristic society as imagined by sixties planners and architects.
Thanks to @lil_madam on Twitter for bringing this to my attention, and Tyne and Wear Archives.
They should go back to Washington now and make a follow up, 40 years on. How did Washington cope with the years of Thatcherism and economic rationalism?
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