Bede Rest, Neville's Cross, Durham

Bede Rest on Beech Crest (road) is a house in the Neville's Cross area of Durham. The house was built in 1922 on behalf of the Durham Miners Association for Peter Lee, who was a leader of the miners.

The miners had built their representative a house in Durham City on a site chosen by him. Peter called this house Bede Rest and it had views, which looked, over the Cathedral. He thought the house perfect, but it led him to be criticised by many. To their mind he was a miner and the leader of Labour forces and the house offended his critics. They made it a major theme for their platform speeches - it grew out of all proportion in the speeches from an ordinary house, built on a hill to a palace. Leaflets were written about it and scattered abroad by the thousand. The press made news out of the situation and it became the subject of many a leading article. Peter Lee's house played a part in winning the election for Peter's opponents and at the same time losing them Durham.

Peter remained the least disturbed man in the county even though he was at the centre of the battle. He was not a man to be rattled. Nearly every day there was a letter, interview or speech reported in the press and when there wasn't there was an attack upon him. His response was to throw himself even more heartily into his work with the Council and the Miners.

Extract from: The Life Of Peter Lee, Margaret Hedley, 1997 c/o Wheatley Hill History