Four prefabricated Airey houses relocated from Gateshead will form part of Beamish Museum of Buildings latest project. Built in 1951, the Airey houses from Coltspool in Kibblesworth, had been due for demolition until Gateshead Housing Company offered them to Beamish for the 1950s Town, an integral part of the £17m Remaking Beamish project.
 
In 1947, Leeds industrialist Sir Edwin Airey (1878-1955) designed and built these permanent pre-fabricated house to help solve the housing crisis which followed the Second World War. The houses from Coltspool were a block of four with an alley in the middle, rather than the more common semi-detached Aireys, which makes it possible nationally unique.
 
Airey houses are concrete framed and clad with pre-cast concrete panels, a technology developed by Airey in the early 1920s.
 
Beamish has received initial support from the Heritage Lottery Fund for a £10.75m grant for the Remaking Beamish project, which includes the 1950s town and an upland farm, as well as a Georgian coaching inn where visitors will be able to stay overnight, and craftsmen's cottages.
 
Plans for the 1950s town include houses, shops, the former Grand Cinema at Ryhope, a café and a recreation area. Aged miners' homes will provide a dedicated centre for older people and those living with dementia and their families and carers. The Grand Cinema in St Paul's Terrace was built in 1912 and owned by Ryhope Grand Palace Theatre Company and entertained Ryhope residents until well into the 1960s.