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Team Valley Time Line - Part 2 1979 to Present Day

The continued Time Line of Team Valley, researched by Robert Ayre, UK Land Estates

1979

August: E.B.R. Polythene, founded by Barry Beadles and Elizabeth Seward, begins operations at Team Valley. The company will go on to generate a turnover of £2m pounds and employ 40 staff by late 1986.lix

1980

The Industry Act 1980 passed by Parliament.

March: In his budget speech, The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Geoffrey Howe, announces the establishment of ‘Enterprise Zones in various parts of the country’. At this point in history it is generally regarded that industrial estates had failed to maintain employment levels during depressed times, thus the impetus behind the new initiative. x

July: The Prime Minister, Mrs. Margaret Thatcher, announces the location of the proposed Enterprise Zones within Tyneside. Gateshead M.B.C. has been successful in its application on behalf of Team Valley Trading Estate. x

September: 16,601 people employed at Team Valley. x

1981

The English Industrial Estates Corporation Act 1981 passed by Parliament. This, along with the ordinances of the Industry Act 1980, gives The English Industrial Estates Corporation statutory powers which effectively allowed it, rather than the Department of Industry, the freedom over ‘what and where to build’. x

January: Around 15,000 employees at Team Valley. (Source: Robinson, A. Team Valley Trading Estate, 1998)

September: the Tyneside Enterprise Zone becomes operative.  x

1982

Mowlem Industrial wins a contract worth £805,000 to build a series of 2,000 – 3,000 sqft advance factory units for English Industrial Estates at Team Valley.[i]

1983

Construction begins on Enterprise House, Team Valley. [ii]

Cameron Hall Developments become the first private investors in the new Enterprise Zone, at 11^th Avenue, Team Valley. xlv

June: It is believed that ‘The Big Eimco’, which leaves the works of EIMCO (Great Britain) Limited, is ‘the largest single machine ever built on the Team Valley Estate’. The machine, said to be the ‘largest hard-rock D-profile tunnelling machine in Europe’, leaves Team Valley for the Middleton Mine in Wirksworth, Derbshire, where it will undergo preliminary trials.[iii]

1984

The title of The English Industrial Estates Corporation is shortened to English Estates with the slogan “less words – more action”. [iv]

Attracted by the Team Valley Enterprise Zone, Swaddlers move to the estate with the intention of producing 80m disposable nappies per year from ‘ultra-modern integrated machines’.[v] (This may have been Foster Court – see photos in Valley News lix)

January:  The closure of the Osram light bulb factory at Team Valley, with the loss of 310 jobs, is announced.[vi]

April:  Mowlem Industrial wins an £866,000 contract to construct 41 factory units, totalling 46,000 sqft, at Team Valley, for English Estates.[vii]

1985

March: The Marquis Business Park, a courtyard of 41 small units, is formally opened on Team Valley by the Leader of Gateshead Council, David Clelland. xlvii

June: Huwood Limited, of Team Valley, receives its largest ever single export order, for belt conveyors for the Turkish national coal mining organisation. The contract is worth £2.5m pounds.[viii]

August: English Estates announces that work is to begin on a 40,000 sqft redevelopment, once part of the Dunlop works, to provide 38 managed workshops ‘for new business and training needs on the Team Valley’. The scheme is to be developed in conjunction with Gateshead M.B.C. who will lease and manage the site. [ix]

October: The closure of Rose Forgrove’s plant at Team Valley is announced after 35 years of operation, with the loss of 160 jobs.[x]

1986

Mr. Peter Morrison, Minister of State for Industry, congratulates the success of the concept ‘pioneered at Team Valley’ and which has ‘subsequently benefitted almost every part of the country’ [xi]

English Estates announces a face-lift as to shake off the ‘thirties’ image of the estate and inject some ‘eighties business park atmosphere’ as part of the anniversary celebrations. [xii]

A new factory for Helena Laboratories (UK) Limited, at Team Valley, becomes what is believed to be the first development managed by English Estates North, but funded entirely by the private sector.lix

The 5^th Avenue Business Park is launched at Team Valley. Occupiers will include Digital Equipment, Quality Software Products, British Telecom and Nat West Bank [xiii]

British Telecom begins construction of a new storage and engineering centre on a 7 acre site at Princesway. The site, due for completion in September 1987, is project managed by Design Group for Industry and will extend to 90,000 sqft.lix

February: English Estates North establishes a subsidiary company to ‘take responsibility for its activities in the North East and Cumbria.[xiv] [xv]

May, 18^th: The 50^th Anniversary of the Team Valley Estate.

August: Work begins on a landscape upgrade project for Team Valley, following a Landscaping Masterplan which Brian Clouston and Partners were commissioned to draw up.[xvi]

June, 10^th: Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother revisits Team Valley to mark the Golden Jubilee Anniversary.

November: Following the success of Enterprise House, English Estates North announces the imminent construction of Kingsway House, a second courtyard scheme of small office suites. lix

1987

May 27^th: Rush and Tompkins announce the winning of a £575,000 contract to refurbish the British Gas Depot at Team Valley.[xvii]

November 13^th: Lord Young, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, visits Team Valley and meets the English Estates board, as well as visiting the premises of Helena Laboratories.[xviii]

1988

English Estates announces ‘A record breaking level of private sector investment’ achieved at Team Valley, with £32m of private sector funds invested within the previous 12 months. American Express, Digital Equipment and Quality Software Products are amongst the new tenants. The Managing Director of English Estates North, Bill Locke, announces that land prices at 5^th Avenue Business Park are approaching £200,000 per acre. [xix]

Stadium Properties begin the £20m pounds Retail World development at Team Valley.[xx]

Chameleon Mirrors (later Chameleon Design Limited) occupy the former Osram factory on Dukesway.lxxix

February 2^nd: The Financial Times announces that Mowlem Industrial have won the £2.1m pounds contract to construct a 100,000 sqft office and factory for English Estates North, on behalf of Bonas Machine Co.[xxi]

1989

March 13^th: It is announced that Mowlem Industrial has won a £2.5m pounds contract for a 12,000 sqft office and factory scheme, for Enterprize Zone Developments.[xxii]

November 17^th: Sir Christopher Wates retires as from English Estates after 6 years as Non-executive Chairman, and is succeeded by Mr. Idris Pearce, Senior Partner of Richard Ellis.[xxiii]

December: Statistics report that, reflective of unemployment trends of the time, there are now 16,715 workers employed on the Team Valley Trading Estate.

1990

Gateshead National Garden Festival opens adjacent to Team Valley. Landscape improvement undertaken to Kingsway and other key development sites.

June 18^th: It is announced that Mowlem Northern have been awarded a £1.8m pounds contract for the construction of an office development at Team Valley, for Enterprise Zone Developments.[xxiv]

August: The former Coal Board Regional Headquarters, Coal House, is demolished.xl

1991

Around 17,000 workers are employed at Team Valley, by over 700 businesses. In total there is over 6.5m sqft of mixed-use space. [xxv]

February 6^th: It is announced that Akeler has sold a 37,000 sqft office building at Team Valley to National Westminster Bank.[xxvi]

February 25^th: It is announced that RM Douglas have won various contracts within the North East; of particular interest is the construction of a 25,000 sqft warehouse and office development at Team Valley, for GR Morris.[xxvii]

October: ITEC North-East establishes a new training facility at Team Valley.[xxviii]

1992

Express Engineering tops out its new £1.2m Headquarters at Team Valley, housing all four of its specialist subsidiaries.[xxix]

The annual English Estates 10k Road Race attracts more than 1,000 runners to the Team Valley Estate, despite the wet weather.[xxx]

October 16^th: Tim Eggar, ‘the first Government Minister to visit a coal mining area since the pit closures were announced’, was ambushed by militant protesters at Team Valley as he made his way to announce a £3m pounds coalfields assistance package. The Minister was pelted with eggs and his Rover motor car was vandalised.[xxxi]

November 25^th: The Duke of Kent, Vice chairman of the British Overseas Board, travels to Team Valley to visit the premises of the Bonas Machine Company Limited.[xxxii]

1993

February 11^th: The Duchess of Kent arrives at Team Valley to visit Olas House, 5^th Avenue Business Park, the premises of Quality Software products.[xxxiii]

December 14^th: The Duke of Kent, Vice chairman of the British Overseas Board, travels to Team Valley to visit the premises of Crabtree of Gateshead Limited.[xxxiv]

1994

The English Industrial Estates Corporation is dissolved. As part of the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Development Act 1993, its assets, rights and liabilities are transferred to the Urban Regeneration Agency (English Partnerships) as of 1^st April that year.[xxxv]

Chameleon Design Limited opens a showroom at its Dukesway premises. Layout changes on site will see the showroom increase in size x20 times by 1999.[xxxvi]

1995

Haslam Homes opens its regional base at Team Valley.[xxxvii]

1996

March 5^th: It is announced that the Team Valley Estate is to have its own full-time policeman patrolling by ‘traditional’ bicycle, and assisting in the monitoring of a proposed high technology closed circuit television system.[xxxviii]

March 25^th: The Journal reports that ‘All seven properties in a new development on Team Valley’, in reference to Bamburgh Court, have been let around three months since construction completed.[xxxix]

May: The Earlsway Cash & Carry on Team Valley is gutted after a large blaze which began as the result of an arson attack. 50 fire fighters attend the scene and flames could be seen from several miles away.[xl]

November 14^th: Land Securities announce that Team Valley’s Retail World is amongst the premises they have acquired as part of an £80m pounds property investment.[xli]

1997

May: ‘Valley Watch’ is born - the first CCTV monitoring cameras are installed on Team Valley.[xlii] [xliii]

July: Thanks to the installation of a CCTV camera network, there were only eight crimes reported for the month at Team Valley, as opposed to 196 for the same period in 1996.[xliv]

November: Team Rewinds doubles the size of its space at Princesway, Team Valley by way of the acquisition and refurbishment of adjacent premises.[xlv]

December 18^th: The premises of EBR Plc are ‘burned to the ground’ in a fire which saw 60 fire fighters attend the blaze.[xlvi]

1998

January: Figures reveal that since the installation of the CCTV monitoring cameras at Team Valley, crime has fallen by 63 percent.lxxxv

March: Supt. Brian Graham of Whickham Police praises the Team Valley CCTV system, and the Valley Watch co-ordinators, saying that: “It’s been extremely successful, so much so that now it is unusual to have crime reported. We used to get something every day.”lxxxvi

April: ADT’s new premises at Team Valley are officially opened. It is said to be ‘the North East’s only specialised security training centre’.[xlvii]

June: Henry Colbeck becomes the first company to link its private CCTV system to the Team Valley Control Centre, operated by Valley Watch.[xlviii]

July 20^th: Over 100 night shift workers were evacuated from a blaze at the premises of Allied Bakery on Team Valley, thought to have been caused by an electrical fault.

1999

April, 1^st : The Urban Regeneration Agency (English Partnerships) is effectively merged, for operational purposes at least, with the Commission for New Towns. They operate under the English Partnerships title as a national regeneration body, but continue to carry status as separate legal entities.

As a result of the wider changes, One NorthEast, the North East Regional Development Agency (RDA), is formed. The RDA absorbs the regional property functions of the Urban Regeneration Agency and the Rural Development Commission, its mission being to: ‘drive and co-ordinate regional economic development and regeneration’.

October: Joyce-Loebl, based at two sites on Team Valley, wins a £5m pounds supply & support contract to supply electronic displays for the Virgin CrossCountry fleet of trains.[xlix]

2000

August 23^rd: Domnick Hunter, employer of 800 staff at Team Valley, unveil record sales for the first half of the year.[l]

September: Stephen Byers MP opens the first phase of UK Land Estates’ development at Princes Park.[li]

2001

February 17^th: The North Eastern Counties Athletic Association Signals Road Relay Championship is held at Team Valley.[lii]

2002

April: Del Monte Fresh Produce (UK) moves into a new 33,000 sqft production and distribution facility on Team Valley.[liii]

August: A fantasy adventure area for children, The Giant’s Den, opens in a 15,000 sqft former warehouse on Team Valley.[liv]

October: One of the world’s most dangerous spiders, a Black Widow, is discovered in a shipment of machine parts delivered to Team Valley. The venomous female was handed to a local insect collector.[lv]

November 21^st: The Duke of Kent visits Domnick Hunter Limited, at Team Valley.[lvi]

2003

February 12^th: The Princess Royal launches the Gateshead Carers Development Plan at Princes Park, Team Valley.[lvii]

2004

Ownership of the Team valley Estate transfers o the North East Property Partnership, a joint venture between One NorthEast and UK Land Estates, trading as Buildings for Business.

March 9^th: The Duke of York visits the Traidcraft factory on Team Valley.[lviii]

April: 38,000sqft new factory depot completed at Queens Park.

August 12^th: It is announced that the underwear manufacturer Jockey is closing its Team Valley warehouse after 37 years on the estate.[lix]

September: Joyce-Loebl of Team Valley wins a £6m pounds contract to supply engine and gearbox controls for Vicker’s Challenger 2 ‘tanks and support vehicles’.[lx]

October: A prankster illegally erects a 40mph speed limit sign on a 30mph road, Dukesway, at Team Valley. This causes Northumbria Police to refund thousands of pounds worth of speeding tickets.[lxi]

October: Queens Court, a development of  105,000 sqft, is completed on the former Dunlop factory site.

2005

UK Land Estates complete the 152,000sqft Maingate mixed use development.

21,000 people employed on Team Valley.

Gateshead College move to Team Valley, opening a 46,000sqft Automotive Centre of Excellence on the site of the former OK bus depot.

July: Queens Park, a  140,000sqft refurbishment and redevelopment, is completed at the former Ingersoll Rand headquarters.

October: Sainsbury opens at the existing supermarket site on Team Valley.

2006

March: 42,000sqft speculative high bay factory built at Queens Park.

December: The Former Jockey site on Eastern Avenue is demolished.cv

2007

July: Work commences on second building for Gateshead College, a 55,000sqft Skills Academy at the former Rolls Royce factory.

August: Work commenced on the former Jockey Factory site to construct 45,000sqft of factory and light industrial units.

2008

October: The former Huwood factory on Kingsway is demolished.[lxii]

2009

Around 21,000 people are employed on Team Valley Estate, at over 740 businesses. [lxiii]

10^th Avenue Trade Park is developed at Retail World comprising of 7 trade counter units.

October: The former Saia-Burgess and Scholle factories are demolished.cv

2011

February: Work commenced on the second phase of development at Gateshead Colleges Skills Academy, adding a further 40,000sqft on the former Rolls Royce site.

May, 18^th: The 75^th Anniversary of the Team Valley Estate.