In Chronicles of Failure Sharp said of this essay that it was 'a bitter little book' that 'had little sale and no effect' (p.190). It was 25th in a series called 'Day to Day Pamphlets' with preceding titles on a broadly political theme, including, for example, C.L.R. James on West Indian self-government, A.L. Rowse on the House of Lords, C.E.M. Joad on the countryside and Mussolini on 'The Political and Social Doctrine of Fascism' (presumably this latter not being written specially for the Hogarth press!).
The purpose of this short text seems to have been to bring the then plight of the south-west Durham coalfield to a wider world, perhaps familiar with the effects of the Depression on Jarrow in the north-east, but not of the region more generally. Sharp was born in this area and was back living in Witton-le-Wear when he wrote this text. There was an Introduction by Hugh Dalton, then of the University of London, generally praising Sharp's analysis, though showing a political awareness to distance himself from some of Sharp's most trenchant observations on Durham people.
In the text Sharp distinguished between distressed and derelict, the latter implying the effective abandonment of a place. Indeed he drew comparison between the south-west Durham coalfield and Jarrow, whilst pointing out that the former has 4 1/2 times the population of the latter. He discussed the gradual abandonment of mining in the area, the impact of bad colliery management and an inability to cooperate on technical problems such as flooding and the generally dire state of the built environment. From these general descriptions he went on to describe individual settlements in the sub-region. He was generally scathing, but particular vitriol was reserved for Witton Park, near to his own home in Witton-le-Wear; described as 'perhaps the foulest place situated in rural surroundings in the whole country', with the 'appearance of one large rural slum' (p.37). The irony was that Witton Park received in-migration due to low rents.
As with many of Sharp's texts, the final section was addressed to the future. He started by castigating southerners' patronising attitudes to miners. However, it was perhaps his essentially positive caricature of Durham miners, but which also referred to them as 'rather drab and colourless' (p.42), that Dalton distanced himself from. The essential point, was the economic remedies that were needed for the area. Sharp dealt with these surprisingly briefly. In essence it came down to industrial relocation; though he had no time for much of the built environment of the area he recognised the loyalty to place of people in the area (plus the economic stake some had acquired in purchasing their houses) and saw it as desirable to move jobs to people, whilst accepting some out-migration. He dismissed romantic talk of back-tothe- land and argued for new industrial jobs; Improvements to infrastructure were insufficient. He pointed out the inequities of the local rating systems which made rates lower in the south-east than in the north and the barrier to industrial investment that this presented. Above all, what was needed was 'a firm basis of scientific planning' (p.47).