Once a thriving steel town, Consett is now a typical example of a failed regeneration area. I had the misfortune to visit friends living there, on a bank holiday weekend. With an overabundance of pubs and nightclubs crammed together in a small area, the favourite Consett pastime is to start a fight at closing time, or more usually, en route to the nightclubs or take aways. For those unfortunates who risk waiting for the bus at this time, hordes of charvas are waiting to start a fight (in between puking up dodgy curries, pissing on the seats, or groping their slappers). The bus ride home from the town centre is also eventful, as it frequently stops for the driver to try to prevent the usual fighting or vandallism.
Lacking any kind of shopping arcade, the chavs usually congregate in Middle Street, the local park having been “developed” for housing by the council. The local industrial estates,however, provide excellent testing grounds for their crap and illegal cars, with plenty of fields for quick get aways.
Saturday afternoons in the town centre are infested with chavs too young (or inexperienced) to drive a car, who roam around drinking white lightning and smoking rollies. The small arcade at the end of the street is a mecca for cheap jewellery and much loved by chavettes, as is the new Matalan and Argos, provided by an understanding council.
Councillors will tell you that there is no drug problem in Consett, and this is true…Most Chavs seem to have no problem getting hold of them at any rate, judging by their speech, which has a bare resemblance to English. Watching chavs and chavettes stoned out of thier brains in a mating ritual is possibly the most gut churning experience you will have, especially as the ubiquitous bottle of lambrini and rollie are not left out and often accompanied by a chips and curry take away.
There is actually employment in the town, but so far most chavs have manged to avoid this inconvenience, preferring instead, “nightshift” work.
A large Job centre, thoughtfully placed between 2 pubs and in easy access of the “lard van”, take aways and discount shops, provides them with a fortnightly lesson in literacy (signing their names on spurious giro claims).
New housing developments springing up like a rash supposedly are bringing new prosperity to the town, although nobody in their right mind drinks in the town centre at weekends.
The town has an excellent by-pass, visitors are strongly advised to use it and avoid the town at all costs
I have lived in Consett my whole life, and although not everything he says is completely true, you would have to be blind not to see that the place is dying. I know that the place has always been a pub/takeaway culture but the amount of charity/second hand shops that have sprung up lately is a sure sign of the way its heading. They says that they are trying to regenerate the area in all the local rags, I really hope they do as to look at the place, unless your’e polish, you would think it was a ghost town.
Mate if you said that to someone from Consett they would kick th living shit out of ya so stop saying loads of shit and fuk off somewhere else if ya dont like it
haha half wit. dont come back its nothing like youve described consett has its problems like any other town but its nothing like you have described…..loser
shut the f**k up u ginger scouser bastard! who the f**k do u think u r critisizing MY GAFF??!! people in consett DO NOT smoke f**king “roll ups” we smoke lambert and butler or maybes even richmond superkings but NEE f**king rollies, pet!! AND Argos is not new!! And actually if u could open ur lil poxy mind u would realise that not many towns as small as Consett hav an idustry and economy like it!!! and as 4 the drug abuse its quite hard to get a 20 bag these days n wen u do find 1 u have t wait 4 ages to get it and u nearly always have to hav transport! And i dont no wot ages u live in but who the f**k uses giro’s anymore?? erm… no1! tell u wot come back t consett n bring people from ur place of residence and CONSETT LIKE KICK THE LIVING f**king SHIT OUT OF THE LOT OF YAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i am 17 and have lived in consett my whole life and i love it there is absoloutly nothing wrong with it, i am guessing that you are some snob up london or sumant.
I think your judgement of Consett is very harsh and massively inaccurate. Its true that Consett has its Chavs but I think you will find the number has greatly decreased recently and perhaps you shouldn’t judge people on how they dress if you took the time to speak to most of these people you would find they are decent and hard working people who are usually very friendly.
The loss of the steelworks did cause a problem in Consett and a lack of jobs but I think you’ll find its bouncing back and the optimistic spirit of everyone who lives there is admirable. Most people in Consett are working class people and are not ashamed of who they are and what they do which is something I think alot of people could learn for.
When it comes to nights out in Consett its true there are fights but I think you’ll find that you have to provoke people to end up in a fight so as long as you don’t start arguements with people you would have a great night out, everyone is friendly and knows how to have a good time. As for your bus ride I have no idea what you are talking about I have never seen any problems on the buses there.
To judge people for shopping in Argos and Matalan is very snobbish I think you will find those are thriving stores across the whole of the UK and if you think you are too good to shop in a place like that perhaps it is you that has the problem. It sounds like you have been very closed minded about Consett and have made a snap judgement of the town, if you judge everywhere on the same criteria I thik it would be easier for you to just move abroad.
all i can say is i bet your friends were glad to see the back of ya when u left. and where are you from anyway
rightt. you have no reason to say anything bad about consett. its a loverly place, EVERY PLACE ISNT PERFECT. like stupid idiots whos posting redicilous things about other places. but i bet they would say that their place IS perfect. you cant go spreading stuff. i live in consett and it that goo am never going to move out of it no matter what happens, or whats been said, if you’s have such a perfect town, so spread the new right cos consett is a nice place, its nice to live there, NOT EVERYONE IN CONSETT IS A CHAV OKAY. for a fact theres a couple but theres not many out of how much people live there. AND for who ever wrote this, its bullshit. your a cheeky person who needs to get a life cos if thats all you want to do is post thing thats unreal, then do that cos all your doing is making things worse, and your just pethetic doing this i only made my account up just to post this because its not nice what your saying okay. get a life or atleast sort it out!!!!!!!
I’ve lived in Consett the entire 19 years I’ve been alive, and I don’t think it’s that bad.
Fair point, there are a lot of people on the dole, there are a lot of pubs, and there are fights, but everywhere has drunken fights outside bars at closing time.
The charvs in Consett seem to consider me a ‘goth’ or a ‘hippie’, but aside from them shouting that at me, I really have never had any trouble from them. Occasionally they ask how I do my make up or my hair, but that is it. I’m not singing their praises, I have seen them sit and abuse an older woman, throwing mentoes at her and shouting things, but the police became involved and they were stopped. But you cannot sit here and tell me every place doesn’t have people like this.
I totally agree with you, about the fact that the only things in Consett seem to be pubs and clubs, and takeaway shops. That is all there is, but Consett’s a relatively cheap night out, and most people are friendly. As for the comments on the buses, I don’t know when this was written, but I’ve been regularly catching the last bus home for the past two or three years, which leaves Consett at 11:18, and never once have any of the drivers had to stop the bus because of violence.
I personally think this ‘review’ of Consett is ridiculous – yes, we have charvs, yes, we have people on the dole, yes, we have a lot of pubs, yes, we drink a lot, and yes, we have people who start fights…just like every other town.
How cheeky are you!! how dare you. For the rest of the people in consett it is a nice friendly place to live. You must be a chav or chavette as you seem to no exactly what they do. You fit in well. ‘posh snob’ that you think you are . . . not. How rude can one person be!! Get a life and get your head out of you backside because thats were u seem to be at the moment.
“Tickets this way for the Consett Express
Come and watch pikeys making a mess
Of the lives they were given by him upstairs
And kids they’re convinced aren’t actually theirs
What sound on earth could ever replace
Kids needing money and wives in your face
Cos this, people reckon, and me included,
Is why pubs and drugs were kindly invented
To calm us all down, stop us going mental
These are Consett’s basic essentials
We are worth every penny, we’re grinding your axes
You sit on our head, but you pay the taxes
Imagine a Britain without Consett buccaneers
We’ll come on your face for the price of a beer
Make poverty history, cheaper drugs now
Make poverty history, cheaper drugs now!”
Consett is a run down place that should be avoided at all costs, the main thing that has rundown Consett is the people that are known to the rest of the North East of England as Hilly Billy’s. The people form Consett are a funny bread, not many over the age of 45 can understand basic task’s and the amount of people in this age group that can’t add basic single figures is over 40% so at least 4 in 10 cant add 3+9.
Consett the place where everyone wants to be the village ideot.
I find both the review and your comment completely ridiculous. The accusation that not many people over 45 can understand basic tasks is utterly untrue, I myself am 18 years old and currently studying Psychology in University, and know many people who are making the most of their abilities – whether that’s educational or in the workforce. I also find it slightly funny that you accuse us Consett people of having a less than average IQ, when you cannot spell “breed”, “idiot” or realise that “tasks” does not need an apostrophe. Consett is a lovely place, which has a few problems – as everywhere else does.
Also, the bus thing is completely unfounded. I’ve been using their buses all my life and NEVER has that sort of thing happened.
Well.. ive re-read your post…
tell me mate where the f**k do you live? cafe cloud 9?
I think you wanna pull your head out your arse… tell me where you live and ima do an SFX review of it
i totally disagree with your comments on consett. fair enough there is many no hopers in the town, but there is in every town and it is unfair to generalise every person in consett with the same label. i have lived here all my life and although i agree with the fact that it has some downfalls there is a lot going for the town which is constantly being improved. project genesis is improving the town and bringing job opportunities. the closing of the steelworks had a large impact on the community and obviously the town will never be the same again but every person who lives here has ambition and dreams which they try there best to fullfill. i am not walking around unhappy and find most people in consett friendly and treat people with respect if they are treated that way in return. i am bettering myself by going to university and working part time. i may get a job out of town but will still live here as it is a close knit community. i enjoy nights out at the weekend and rarely see any fights just silly drunken arguments which are often resolved and happen everywhere in the counrty not just consett. what makes where you live any different and what gives you the right to label us as idle and lazy? is everyone perect where you live? i think you live in a dreamworld.
I am from Consett and i think your article on Consett is full of shit! You are making people from Consett out to be scroungers and wasters and that is just not the case. Yes there is always some people in an area who can be labelled as these but you cannot tar all the people in the area with the same brush.
Your article seems totally fictional and u obviously have a fantastic imagination but clearly no brains to match.
Howay man! U make it out like consetts a shit hole. come on! Its alright as long as you avoid the Trades! and for the boy racers i say if u cant beat them join them!
And its home to Antony Hutton, another mega CHAV
consett is one hell of a dump, closely followed by stanley. i grew up in the derwenside area and i am happy to move to safe sunny middlesbrough! now thats saying a lot.
consett is just unsafe. in most places chavs just hang about and do nothing, but in consett it is just way to easy to get yourself into a fight with an uneducated dumbass with no ability to understand reason and to think it worthwhile to attack you for a slice of pizza (true story).
i would not move back there for any reason. of course i agree that there can be nice people in consett, but i have to say the commoradarae is limited to the thugs and their people. the night life is to be avioded at all costs
I have just read your comment about Consett and may I say that your friends must have been so pleased for you to have visited their home!!
I live in a village outside of Leeds as my husband is from here and the wages tend to be better here than in Consett. I was however, born and bred in Consett and proud of it. All of my family still live there and I visit as often as possible.
I understand there are a lot of “Chavs” about, as there are in most places at the minute, but I think that, largely because of Project Genesis and the regeneration of Consett, things will soon change for the better. There has in fact been a noticable change in the past 5 years.
Consett is also very near to other places of interest such as the Metro Centre, The Angel of the North and Beamish Open Air Museum. In fact the only down side to Consett is the low wages, there being no train station anymore and the lack of entertain and amenities for teenagers (you can say the latter about every village in the Country!).
Consett was a thriving industrial town. Someone from everyone’s family worked in the Steel Works and because of its closure in the early 80s, there was a lot of unemployment. I remember this being a particularly sad and depressing time, but, Consett folk being Consett folk, we stuck together, pulled through, and still remained a friendly, helpful lot.
My husband has always commented on how friendly everyone is, always willing to help and make any visitor feel welcome. He loves to visit Consett, to go fishing or go out for a drink. The thing about Consett pubs is there’s something for everyone, pubs with a “local pub” atmosphere, or the livelier “wine bar” pub means you can enjoy a different kind of evening every weekend for months, and it means that adults of all ages can enjoy a night out.
I think you must have missed the commradary on your visit, and suggest that, after you become more open minded and maybe research the background and places of interest, you revisit the loveable, interesting Consett and its warm-hearted residents.
hi,
I would just like to reply to your comment about consett (which is where im from) although it may not be a thriving example of the past not many places are in the world today. You told how most avoid the night clubs at weekends which is wrong consett has a great night life and a friendly atmosphere which many people from all over the north east would agree. There may be charvas but not as many as you make out mate. I have lived in consett for 15 years and been on quite a few buses and i must say i never expirienced one quite like you described so i think there was alot of imagination put into that as you say your a visitor you know nothing about consett you came once and thoguth you did!