Bid made to save world’s oldest station for £500k
A £500,000 SOS appeal to save the world’s oldest railway station has been launched by the Friends of the Stockton & Darlington Railway.
The group is seeking to buy the derelict Heighington station building, which stands five miles north-west of Darlington, on the Tees Valley Line between Bishop Auckland and Saltburn, and carry out urgent work to stabilise it in time for the S&D’s 200th anniversary celebrations next year.
As reported in issue 312, new research by the Friends and Historic England found that the building was completed in 1827 as Aycliffe Lane, now the mid-1830s as previously thought, leading to experts now believing that it is the oldest station in the world. Given Grade II listing in 1980, the recent research has now seen its status elevated to Grade II* by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is therefore now in the top 8% of English Historic buildings and recently added to the Heritage At Risk Register.
The Friends hope that £400,000 can be raised through grant applications, with the remaining 20% of the necessary finance from donations from the general public and business.
Friends chairman Niall Hammond said the station is “one place that encapsulates why the S&DR is internationally important”, adding: “It is where Locomotion No. 1 was first placed on the tracks, where three boys became its first passengers, and the world’s first railway station – the cobbles outside it may well be the world’s first railway platform!” He also said that current condition of the station is a blot on the plans for the bicentenary celebrations, which are set to attract a worldwide audience.
Varied history
The buildings remained in their original use as accommodation for passengers and housing for railway workers until the station was downgraded in the 1970s to an unstaffed halt.
The buildings began to fall into disrepair. The station building was purchased and renovated back into an inn in 1984, when it operated as an inn called Locomotion No. 1 until it closed in 2017. A previous effort to reopen was aborted after vandalism and incidents of criminal damage. Since, the building has remained empty despite several attempts by local authorities to save it and is at risk of once again falling into ruin.
Once purchased, the Friends will seek to restore the buildings to reflect their origins as an early station and Georgian-themed inn offering food and drink to visitors and residents, as well as a space for businesses and communities to meet.
The building is accessible by rail on the world’s oldest operating main line, at the edge of the Aycliffe Business Park and a short distance from Heighington and Aycliffe villages, and roughly halfway between Darlington and Shildon with their railway museums and connected by the new long-distance SDR walking route opening in 2025.
Chance to help
“The world’s oldest railway station is of international heritage importance, and we want people from around the world help us save and make it accessible to all,” said a Friends statement. “Help us to make it once again a place to welcome and serve travellers on the railway and tell the story of the SDR where modern railways began 200 years ago.”
➜ For details of the appeal and to donate, visit sdr1825.org.uk. Private or business sponsors seeking more information can email chair@sdr1825. org.uk