Jarrow Lives Again After Lean Years.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 147, 22 June 1940, Page 7 (Supplement)

Jarrow Lives Again After Lean Years.

TARROW-ON-TYNE, the " town J that was murdered," wasn't dead after all—or if it was dead it wouldn't lie down;, for it has miraculously come to life again. Jarrow used to be called ' : most depressed town • in all •.•■Britain." From all over the world * experts on social problems went"=. to see the town that stood for all that-was miserable. Jarrow contained within its narrow boundaries all the tragic story of the slump. Jarrow no longer needs the sympathy of the world. Jarrow is standing firm on its o\yn two feet again, ready to look any town in the face. Its now-, pros-, perity" is much more than the story of one town's light to save itself. It' is tied up with a similar light in hundreds of other once hard-hit towns 1n industrial Britain.

When I visited Jarrow four years-ago In write ' tlie story ;of liritain's' Most JXvyrcsscd Town I found, a place where men had little else to do 'beyond,' standing at. street corners " in . *ad,. - listless groups. . ■' • ; Strangely enough, tlicy were not hitter. Angry'/ Yes, very angry, and a little bewildered that all their skill was thus going to waste.'For Jarrow is a town "of craftsmen—of ship builders, of boilermakers, of carpenters, of ..steelworkers. In the (lavs of the town's greatness Palmer's had built 100 warships for the Royal Navy; it had built hundreds more ships for the ■ merchant fleet,. But Palmer's had gone—and Jarrow was dead. ■■ ■■.' -M : The Jarrow I have just revisited is a vastlv different place from that grey town" of four years ago. There are new factories in the town. ■ There is work for hundreds more men, and will soon be -work for thousands more. ■■

By E.T.H.

There is a new lulie works. l> There is a new metal-working factory, 'lhcre is a new furniture factory. But here is the greatest of all the good news from the "town that was murdered": The steelworks is soon to reopen on the site on which so many thousands of line craftsmen have worked in days gnne by. The New Jarrow Steel Company, Ltd., has taken over the site, and for many months now has been installing the most modern plant there. The new< steelworks will give employment to hundreds of skilled workers. No longer must the steelyard men seek work as road labourers, or as bartenders, or as cinema attendants. They will once more-work at their own craft, knowing that .they arc still valued parts of Britain's industrial system. The men behind the New Jarrow Steel Company have high faith in its future. And they are men who should know. They not only believe that it will bring work to the' town. They believe that it will prosper. This is no semi-chari-table effort to find work for idle hands. It is a sound business concern,, backed by all the. technical knowledge of the famous Consett Iron Company. Four years ago you could not walk down the smallest street in Jarrow without rubbing shoulders with a man who was without work. To-day you will find it hard to avoid meeting in the same little streets as many men who are on overtime as you would previously have met worklcss men.

If you wanted to employ a skilled craftsman in Jarrow just now you would probably liave to wait for one—or take one of the "old brigade" who thought their working days were over. For every young skilled "man. in the town is at a premium. Jarrow's unemployment figure has been cut from 7500 to less than 2000. There have been some fine fighters behind this come-back, that Jarrow has staged, for instance, Mr. C. S. Perkins, tile quiet-voiced, bespectacled, lawyerlike town clerk. Quiet in voice, yes. But a great figliter when he had to raise lii* voice for Jarrow. He came to Tyncsidc from Dorset. Now he is as much a Goordie as any of them, ready to work night and day for the town of his adoption. I remember how four years ago he told me in that quiet