The Journal of the Friends of the Stockton & Darlington Railway Issue 7 December 2018
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The Globe The Journal of the Friends of the Stockton & Darlington Railway Issue 7 December 2018 The Globe is named after Timothy Hackworth’s locomotive which was commissioned by the S&DR specifically to haul passengers between Darlington and Middlesbrough in 1829. The Globe was also the name of a newspaper founded in 1803 by Christopher Blackett. Blackett was a coal mining entrepreneur from Wylam with a distinguished record in the evolution of steam engines. All text and photographs are copyright Friends of the Stockton & Darlington Railway and authors except where clearly marked as that of others. Opinions expressed in the journal may be those of individual authors and not of the Friends of the S&DR Please send contributions to future editions to [email protected]. The deadline for the next issue of The Globe is 22nd March 2019. CONTENTS Chair’s welcome 1 Who we are and what we do 2 The Birth of the Modern Railway 2 S&DR House Plaques: Etherley 6 S&DR 193rd Birthday Celebrations 10 S&DR 50th Birthday Celebrations in 1875 11 1825, The Quaker Line Opens. But Where Were the Quakers? 13 News 23 Welcome to the HAZ Officer 24 Brusselton Incline Accommodation Bridge 25 Bridge House, Stockton – 1925 Railway Plaque 26 A Humble Apology to the NRM 30 The Opening of the S&DR in 1825 32 Stephenson’s Gaunless: A Bridge in Hiding 34 Membership 36 As beautiful a line as could have been chosen 36 Events 40 Getting in touch…. Chair Trish Pemberton [email protected] Vice Chair Niall Hammond [email protected] President Lord Foster of Bishop Auckland [email protected] Vice President Chris Lloyd [email protected] Secretary Alan Macnab [email protected] Asst. Secretary Alan Townsend [email protected] Treasurer Ian Ross [email protected] Membership Secretary Peter Bainbridge [email protected] Planning Officer Ross Chisholm [email protected] Safeguarding Officer Trish Pemberton [email protected] Fund Raising Officer Trish Pemberton [email protected] Newsletter editor Caroline Hardie [email protected] Events Co-Ordinator Mike Renton [email protected] Webmaster Jonathan Ratcliffe [email protected] Committee Member Barry Thompson [email protected] Friends meetings are held on the first Thursday of every month in the meeting room in Darlington Cricket Club, South Terrace, Darlington DL1 5JD at 7.10pm. All Friends are welcome to attend, but please contact one of the above Trustees first to make sure that the venue has not changed. Cover photo: Edward Pease - the main promoter of the Stockton & Darlington Railway; its main financial backer and also of Robert Stephenson & Co. He is often referred to as the Father of the Railways. He features in articles by Brendan Boyle and Chris Lloyd. Welcome to The Globe! The regular journal for the Friends of the Stockton & Darlington Railway. Dear Friends and supporters Welcome to this new edition of the Globe which I have been looking forward to reading as the days draw in and winter beckons. We have had a very busy few months, in no small part due to the 193rd anniversary of the opening of the S&DR on 27th September, which was preceded by the annual Heritage Open Days. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who made these events possible by giving freely of that most precious of commodities – their time. The Friends held their AGM during September in the Welcome Building at Locomotion, NRM Shildon, and we are very grateful to the museum for allowing this to happen. The evening proved to be very successful, as our speaker on this occasion was Thomas Walker who gave us a fascinating talk on: ‘Three Greeners of Etherley and a model steam engine’. Thomas then demonstrated the model which is described as ‘a typical north-east style winding engine, with the vertical cylinder driving the crankshaft via a rather interesting parallel motion (which was characteristic of the area)’ (from Ben Russell, Curator of Mechanical Engineering, Science Museum, London.) We were fascinated to be told by Anthony Coulls, Senior Curator of Rail Vehicles at the NRM, that this is likely to be the oldest working engine model of its kind in the world, probably dating back as it does to 1836. Thomas very kindly donated half the profits on sales of his new book to the Friends. Over the last few months there have been some significant successes in the campaign to secure the long-term, sustainable future of the Stockton & Darlington Railway. Trustee Barry Thompson initiated and led the project to secure the funding and refurbishment of the plaque adorning the S&DR building at St John’s Crossing in Stockton-on-Tees, which marks the opening day of the S&DR. This had been vandalised and has now been recast and replaced, in the presence of her worshipful the mayor of Stockton. Durham County Council has commissioned a company to look into the condition and future of Locomotion 1 at Heighington Station, which contains the oldest railway platform in the world and was one of the first three railway taverns to be commissioned by the S&DR. A HAZ (Heritage Action Zone) officer has been appointed and is now active in his post; he will be attending future Friends’ meetings as often as possible and will be having regular update meetings with the chair and vice-chair. A company has also been commissioned to develop, amongst other things, an interpretation plan for the Stockton & Darlington Railway. For the annual ‘birthday party’ we secured the valuable support of Darlington Borough Council for a business dinner which was held in the Central Hall of Darlington’s Dolphin Centre. It was attended by descendants of key players in the early story of the Stockton & Darlington Railway, who had never before been together in the same room. They included Lord Gainford (head of the Pease family descended from Edward Pease), his son Matthew and grandson Felix; Jane Hackworth-Young (descendant of Timothy Hackworth) and Bill Chaytor (descendant of William Chaytor of Croft the S&DR Committee Chairman). The evening heard talks by our Vice-Chair, Niall Hammond and Globe editor, Caroline Hardie, which together with a third talk by John Anderson on behalf of the three councils, brought those present up to date on progress with the S&DR project. The chair welcomed everyone and the final ‘thank you’ was given by the Darlington mayor, Veronica Copeland. She said: ‘I have learnt so much tonight and I am delighted that everyone across the whole area is coming together to promote our unique heritage.’ Once again we received valuable publicity from Chris Lloyd who reported the event in the Northern Echo. The dinner is part of our concerted effort to continue to raise the profile of the Stockton & Darlington Railway in the minds of the public as we journey along the line to 2025. This includes a number of talks being delivered mainly by Niall Hammond, Caroline Hardie and myself to different Friends of the Stockton & Darlington Railway Page | 1 WWW.SDR1825.co.uk groups along the line and on the radio. Over the last few months these have included one delivered to Etherley Parish Council. The Head of Steam museum at North Road was instrumental in helping us organise the dinner, which received sponsorship from Darlington Borough Council, Close Thornton Solicitors, PPT Alchemy, Pemberton Education Services and Hitachi. On Sunday 30th the celebrations continued with a birthday event at the museum which was attended by more than 1000 people. Our thanks go to Darlington Borough Council, including councillors Wallis and McEwan, the Dolphin Centre and the events team at the Head of Steam led by Leona White-Hannant. As part of the Heritage Open day weekends, two walks were led by Caroline Hardie, Jane Hackworth- Young and John Raw, with support from Trevor Horner of the Brusselton Incline Group. One started near Phoenix Row and the other at Locomotion, NRM Shildon, taking in the two main inclines along the route. On the first occasion we were welcomed into the home of Mary Smith, receiving generous hospitality and an opportunity to visit her garden. Profits from the sales of refreshments were donated to the Friends. This kind of financial support is vital as we rely on membership fees and donations such as this to help make our work possible. I would like to take this opportunity to thank two trustees who have decided, due to pressure of time, to step down from the role. They are Jane Hackworth-Young and Susan Macnab. Their contributions have been, and will continue to be, invaluable. We have a new trustee in place, Mike Renton, who has also taken on the role of Events Co-ordinator. Finally, a programme of talks is being put together for the start of each of our Friends’ meetings, which will be returning to the cricket club in Darlington in December. We will be having a small Christmas celebration, and then on this occasion the talk will be given by Eric Branse-Instone of Historic England about opportunities to become involved in the HAZ programme to revisit designations of the heritage assets along the line. We hope to see you there. Merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Trish Pemberton, Chair The Friends of the S&DR. Who we are and what we do We are a registered charity and we: act as an umbrella organisation for all those interested in our railway heritage lobby and work with local authorities and government push forward on survey, research and conservation of the line raise the profile and awareness of our industrial heritage, locally, nationally and internationally protect and care for the S&DR remains explore the case for World Heritage Site status support coordinated development of footpaths and interpretation to safely access the line work with others on events for 2025, Bicentenary Year.