Back on track

The dual carriageway taking you west to the village of Lemington from Newcastle city centre gives little indication of the area’s past. In the early 1900s it was trains and factories rather than today’s cars and shops which dominated the route.

Back then, just beyond where the main road now stands, the banks of the river Tyne played host to a 1.6 mile line of armaments workshops employing hundreds of men. Alongside this ran North-Eastern Railway’s east-west mainline, serving the factories and providing further employment.

Lemington is just one of the places within 30 local authority areas in the north east of England and Herefordshire where you’ll find Railway Housing Association homes. Founded in 1919, the association celebrated its 90th anniversary last year; but it began life providing housing and support to NER employees returning from World War I.

Industrial solution

It’s now around 30 years since the association dropped the requirement for prospective tenants to have a connection to the railway in order to live in its accommodation. The demise of the railways due to the nationalisation of the network by British Rail in 1948 was mirrored in the fall of the north’s other traditional industries. Over the next few decades the region’s coal, ship building and fishing industries all suffered heavily, unable to fight off foreign competition and new working practices.

Railway’s chief executive Anne Rowlands says nowadays the association’s younger residents work in a range of sectors including IT and financial services. But some of its older tenants still retain a railway connection.

Irene Armstrong, 76, and her husband, Ken, will have rented their bungalow in Lemington from Railway for 20 years in May. Behind their house, which was built in 1936, there used to be a station but this closed to passengers in 1958 and to goods a few years later. The Tyne is visible from their kitchen window.

Mr Armstrong, who is now 81, worked as a track engineer in and around Newcastle for 25 years from 1960 onwards before having to leave due to ill health. ‘He got his gold watch,’ jokes his wife. ‘It was hard work but he really enjoyed his time on the railway.’

Ms Armstrong grew up 10 minutes away from where she now lives off Scotswood Road, a stretch of road one time infamous locally for its pubs. She says the area has changed dramatically since she was a child with the once nearby workshops now gone.

‘They stretched right to where we are now all the way along the Tyne. We [Ms Armstrong and her family] literally lived on top of them. When the men came out to come home it was like a football match,’ she says.

Dennis Gibson, 83, is another association resident with links to the railways. A train driver for almost 50 years until retiring in 1990, he now lives in a Railway flat with his wife in Hull, again near the railway line. Mr Gibson used to be based in a nearby rail depot employing 300 drivers and firemen and 100 engine cleaners but this has long since closed down. ‘Those were the days. That’s all I wanted to do. When you finish you miss it a lot,’ he says.

Despite Railway’s expansion over its 90 years it remains relatively small compared to many other housing associations. Although staffing levels have increased from two as recently as 1978 they still only stand at 37, allowing clients and staff to build relationships - for example it’s Ms Rowlands herself who attends resident meetings more often than not.

Railway’s heritage is part of northern England’s rich history of providing affordable housing for its industrial workers - think Mr Rowntree and his confectioners in York, or the area’s many miners.

The landlord’s first homes consisted of three pairs of semi-detached houses in South Gosforth, York and Darlington, built in each of the company’s three geographical divisions. Over the years the landlord bought pockets of railway company-owned land on which to build homes. As a result some of the older stock is located next to railway stations or lines - and all of it is in what were once railway towns.

Today the association has come a long way from its humble beginnings, kick-started by a £10,000 gift from the sister of NER’s medical advisor and sustained by contributions from workers and fundraising efforts. Now it offers 1,332 units of rented accommodation and 73 leasehold units for older people.

Ms Rowlands explains that, due to its heritage, the association has a varied portfolio of properties and it wasn’t until relatively recently that it began to grow. ‘It started off very small. All of the early properties were two-bed or one-bed bungalows and little cottage style housing. Up until about 1980 there were about 450 units, it was registration with the Housing Corporation [around this time] that led to the ability to develop.’

Since then, the association has built around 1,000 new units including 12 sheltered housing schemes. The latter development is a response to the area’s changing demographic - Ms Rowlands says that a third of Railway’s properties are for general use but that older people are now Railway’s main client group.

Meeting the requirements of an ageing population is a key challenge for the north, where the proportion of people at retirement age is expected to rise from 17 per cent to 20 per cent during the next five years.

The recession has made that difficult for some social landlords, but despite the tough times Railway recently opened a £4 million, 44-bed sheltered housing unit in Shildon, County Durham, built next to a railway museum.

Ms Rowlands says due to its financial history the association has not had difficulty securing development loans and last year secured a £5 million loan facility from Barclays bank. ‘Because we have not developed at all in 1999-2008 we don’t have loans other than [some residual loans] from the old Housing Corporation and we were able to attract offers of money from a number of lenders,’ she says.

Adaptation

Alongside building new homes, Railway has also had to refurbish some of its existing schemes to meet higher expectations from elderly residents.

Ms Rowlands explains that changes have included knocking two rooms into one to provide people with more space and creating outdoor areas.

Pauline Mitchell, assistant director of adult social care and housing at the local council says Railway has maintained its status in the local community, despite the area’s dramatic industrial change, and that its properties are popular.

‘They have got a really good standing in the town and the chief executive works closely with me to work out what’s needed.’

Ambitious in its aims, the association is looking to expand further - unlike the railways themselves the evidence so far indicates that it will retain its personal touch. And, so long as it retains its current name, its links to the region’s industrial past will be plain to see.

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