Amber Online

Built in 1936 and lit the following year

Hebburn's coke ovens burned bright for Britain through the Second World War. Living with pollution was the price to be paid for a 'free world'. When Monkton Lane estate was built after the war, there was already the promise of a new and cleaner tomorrow. Residents knew that a coke oven's life is short. They expected the works to close soon after their estate was completed in 1954. It didn't. The then National Coal Board extended the cokeworks by building another 33 ovens to replace the original 33 - now at the end of their life. The second set of ovens were exhausted by the 1970s. But by then the NCB had again got planning permission to renew its coking operation. And in a deft planning ploy in 1976 it managed to retain the existing 33 ovens and build another 33 - doubling the works' size. The production of domestic, industrial and foundry coke rose from 200,000 tonnes to 600,000 tonnes a year. The number of people living close by also rose dramatically when Lukes Lane estate was built in the early 1960s - against strong advice from the government's own clean air inspectors. What started as a limited-life cokeworks is now a deep-rooted polluter which won't go away. "Monkton has never been healthier...I'm sure the performance will continue," the Works Manager Mike Candlish said as the coking complex celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1987. In the battle between healthy people and healthy production, it seems that production is paramount.