Meadow Well An English Estate

Meadow Well is like no other estate I have known. Built originally in the 1930's to house people from the slum clearances of North Shields it was further expanded in the 1950's and 60's. By the 1980's, against Thatcher's claim of 'No such thing as society' and the local authority's unwritten plan to turn it into a sink estate, a core of residents, predominantly women, on the Meadow Well had other ideas. With dogged determination, they had managed to set up; a Credit Union, enabling residents to make small savings and get short term loans, a Food Co-op, providing basic essentials at cost price and formed the Meadow Well Action Group to both provide advice to residents and to lobby for better conditions for all on a local and national level. Thatcher might have seen herself as the Iron Lady, these women were made of much stronger stuff.

Commissioned over 2 years by Side, Newcastle, the work was exhibited at the gallery in 1991 under the title of Meadow Well, An English Estate.