Sprucing up world’s oldest train station to cost £500k
THE world’s oldest train station needs £500,000 to be restored before the 200th anniversary of the railway, campaigners have said.
Heighington station, beside the Stockton and Darlington Railway line in Durham, is where Locomotion No 1, designed by George Stephenson, was placed on the track before its first journey in 1825. The original station building beside the line was commissioned in 1826 and remained in use until the 1970s. The Grade Ii-listed building was later restored and opened as an inn in 1984, but has been closed since 2017.
The Friends of the Stockton and Darlington Railway estimate that £500,000 is needed to buy and restore the building, £400,000 can be raised through grant applications.
Niall Hammond, the chairman of the Friends, said: “It is where Locomotion No 1 was first placed on the tracks, it is where three boys became its first passengers, and it is the world’s first railway station – the cobbles outside it may well be the world’s first railway platform. All these things make it incredibly historically important, which is why it is ... among the top 8 per cent of most important buildings in the country.
“In terms of the bicentenary celebrations for which so much is being planned in Durham, Darlington and Stockton, its current condition is a blot on our collective endeavours and Historic England have recently added it to their Heritage at Risk Register. It would be such an embarrassment if, in 2025, this building of international importance still stands there rotting away.”
The campaign’s first phase is to acquire the station and stabilise it. The second phase is to bring it back into economic and community use.
“It is in a shocking state,” said Paul Howell, the Sedgefield MP.
“It is proper history and it really should be in a condition to take part in the bicentenary celebrations.”