Introduction

This chapter focuses on a larger community study of Coalport conducted by the author between 1968 and 1970 at Durham University, with the support of the Joseph Rowntree Memorial Trust. Coalport: an interpretation of community in a mining town discusses the problems of 'community' research, the development and growth of the town under private ownership, nationalisation and its social effects, and patterns of local voluntary association activity. Coalport is a mining town located between the sea and the countryside on the Durham coast. In national politics Coalport secured a place in history because of its members, of parliament, who were leading figures in the Labour Party, holding senior office in the minority governments. In order to reveal these social processes, it is useful to focus upon a key dimension of social, economic and political life, namely the struggle for the provision of adequate housing in a situation of deprivation and conflict.