Killingworth - History

History

Construction of Killingworth, a new town, began in 1963. Intended for 20,000 people, it was a former mining community, and was formed on 760 acres (3.1 km2) of derelict colliery land near Killingworth Village, which had existed since the 18th century and earlier. The building of Killingworth Township was undertaken by Northumberland County Council, and was not sponsored by the Government. It was assigned "New Town" status in the 1960s in a similar fashion to the nearby town of Cramlington.

Unlike that town, Killingworth's planners adopted a radical approach to town centre design, resulting in a development of relatively high-rise buildings in an avant-garde and brutalist style, and won awards for architecture, dynamic industry and attractive environment.

This new town centre consisted of pre-cast concrete houses, with millions of small shells unusually embedded into their external walls, 5 to 10 storey flats, offices, industrial units and service buildings, which often consisted of artistic non-functional characteristics, shops and residential multi-storey car parks, interconnected by ramps and walkways. These made up a deck system of access to shopping and other facilities, constructed on the Swedish Skarne method of construction .

Originally named Killingworth Township, the latter part of the name was quickly dropped through lack of colloquial use. Killingworth is often referred to as 'Killy' by a large portion of residents of the town and residents of the surrounding areas.

Around 1964, during the reclamation of the derelict pit sites, a 15-acre (61,000 m2) lake south of the town centre was created; spoil heaps were levelled, seeded and planted with semi-mature trees. Today, swans, ducks and local wildlife live around the two lakes which span the main road into Killingworth. The lake is kept well stocked with fish and an angling club and model boating club use the lakes regularly.