In 1925, Patrick Abercrombie produced a preliminary survey report titled ‘East Kent Regional Planning Scheme, which was prepared for the Joint Town Planning Committee of Local Authorities. Patrick Abercrombie had originally trained as an architect and at the time of the report was a Professor with the Department of Civic Design University of Liverpool. He later became Professor of Town Planning at University College London but is best known for his town planning after the Second World War.
A conference was held in the Guildhall at Canterbury on May 14, 1923, with the involvement of local authorities and convened by the Ministry of Health about Industrial Developments in the East Kent Coalfield. It was resolved that it was necessary that a regional town planning scheme should be prepared for the whole area of East Kent and the surrounding districts, which it was felt might be affected by the developments of the Kent Coalfield and the collieries within it. The survey highlighted how things were seen at that present time, along with a plan of the probable future growth.
The first section of the survey reported on the natural features of the region of East Kent, which were easily seen above ground as the landscapes, followed by results of surveys from the surface and underground geology, and on the economic geology and surface values, agriculture and vegetation, local archaeology. The second section included the administrative side included details of the then present populations, health and housing. Further sections included the communications links with roads and transport facilities with buses and railways, along with the open spaces and natural reservations, with parks, woodland and the coastline. The existing towns and villages were divided into those that were either on or away from the coast.
The second part of the main survey reported on the future by zoning outlines for topography, industry, and recreational needs. One of the most interesting aspects of the future reports appears to be the estimated population forecast, which depends on the developments of increasing coal production at the collieries and the possibility of steel production. According to the industrial forecast it was stated “each colliery may have taken on 2,500 workmen to exploit its fullest capacity. If one workman is taken to represent a unit of four persons, there emerges the round figure of 10,000 people per pit (colliery), directly connected with coal-getting”. The average four people would include other family members of the workmen, including wife’s and children. With the arrival of a steel industry a very tentative figure was given “from 5,000 to 7,000 workers has been put forward by the Channel Steel Company. This gives on the same ratio of workmen to family, 28,000 as the ultimate population dependent on steel-working and iron-ore mining.”
In 1901, the population of Deal was recorded as 10,581, in 1911 as 11,295, and by 1921 was 12,998. The distribution of a future population due to the expansion of the Kent Coalfield was put on a basis of the population reaching almost 180,000 over eight new sites in East Kent. These new sites would be attached to Littlebourne, New Wingham, Woodnesborough, Ham, Martin Mill, Nonnington, and Shepherdswell. It was believed that the number of houses required for a Total industrial population of 278,000 people, at five persons per household, would be 55,000 properties, which could be built over a period of thirty years. Having already assumed that 10,000 people per colliery, at five per household, would require 2,000 properties, or 10,000 houses for five collieries, the first 4,000 houses would be built in the first five years. Each house would require 20,000 bricks, which over five years would equate to 3000 million bricks.
Regarding the open spaces in these new mining villages, five acres per thousand people should be set aside as open space. The five acres would be apportioned into play space for games, general par space, play areas and playgrounds for children under 14 years old, and wider spaced playing fields for young people between the ages of 14-25 years of age. Thought was also be put into allowing pedestrians using the parks and open spaces easily with new footpaths and possibly having cycle tracks in common with footpaths. These would also allow for short cuts to and from the collieries and other industrial areas between the new towns. The need for educational establishments such as Primary and Secondary schools, and possibly even universities would be built in the new towns. The need for increasing and extending the water, drainage and electricity systems were all considered.
A recommendation was made by the survey for the provision of Pithead Baths to be built at each of the collieries, which would allow the miners to wash in showers, rather than the “baths”. This would save the men from having to travel home in their “pit dirt” and coal dust before getting washed in their own homes.
It was considered that whether a special Act was to be passed or not, every local authority in the region should be advised to prepare a Town Planning Scheme under the Act, which should embody the features of the regional scheme. A final report was written in 1928, which believed that more rapid progress in the preparation of the Town Planning Schemes in the region was required and that it was necessary to continue work by the Joint Committee by the preparation of a Regional Plan.
Written by Colin Varrall
