The rise of the mass-consumer culture, the decentralization of industrial production, and other factors which also contributed to the demise of the company town during the 1930s, deserves fuller consideration.
I do not believe in the company town structure in which the employer owns everything— the place of employment, trading facilities and houses.
It was the original company town, where the coal owners built and owned everything—including, for a time, the miners themselves.
My area has bitter experience of a company town—it is a town dominated by one employer, with the community having to dance to his tune.
Earlier, the rather horrific label of a "company town" was bandied about, but it is absolutely meaningless.
We argued the case of the company town.
It is not difficult, therefore, to envisage the impact of the changes on that small, tightly-knit community, which is virtually a company town.
There is a special problem when owner-occupiers live in a company town and the company, in this case a coal mine, ceases to need their services.
