Plans revealed for Darlington rail heritage quarter to mark S&D 200 anniversary
MULTI-MILLION pound plans have been unveiled to create a rail heritage quarter in Darlington to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Stockton & Darlington Railway in 2025.
Darlington Borough Council is working with the A1 Trust, the North Eastern Locomotive Preservation Group, the Darlington Railway Preservation Society, the Friends of the Stockton & Darlington Railway, and the North East Railway Association to formulate the plans for the development, which it says will result in a “game-changing” tourist attraction in time for the planned S&D 200 celebrations.
The 1833-built S&DR goods shed at North Road, currently home to the DRPS and believed to be the oldest railway building in the world still in railway use, will be renovated as the entrance building for the quarter, which will also include the Head of Steam museum in the original S&DR North Road station and the nearby Skerne Bridge, the world’s oldest railway bridge still in use.
It is proposed that the attraction will use the latest virtual reality technology to create holograms of moving trains, busts of S&DR director Edward Pease and engineer George Stephenson talking to each other, and mirrors where visitors will see themselves projected onto a Victorian station.
New workshop
The heritage quarter plans also include a new base for the DRPS in the 1861-built four-road locomotive shed at Whessoe Road, on the opposite side of the Bishop Auckland line from North Road and the current Hopetown Works, with the latter to become a new archive, meeting and display space.
The A1 Trust will have a bespoke new two-road workshop on Bonomi Way, close to the Head of Steam Museum, with visitors able to access it via a footbridge leading directly onto a viewing gallery.
This scheme, dubbed Darlington Locomotive Works 2, would house the A1 Trust’s Peppercorn A1 Pacific
No. 60163 Tornado, P2 2-8-2 No. 2007 Prince of Wales (due for completion in 2023) and V4 2-6-2 No. 3403, which will be under construction by 2025.
Some elements of the plan, including a turntable, are still subject to funding. It is anticipated that work will commence on the site in the first quarter of next year, aiming for completion by summer 2024.
More than £20 million is already committed to the project, funded by a grant from the Tees Valley Combined Authority. A further Townscape Grant of more than £5 million will help regenerate the surrounding North Gate area, which contains other important relics of the early railway age, including the 1825 S&DR depot, coal drops, the 1826 Railway Tavern and Edward Pease’s house.
The council has submitted a bid to the National Lottery Heritage Fund for another £2.5 million, with a decision anticipated in December.
More plans
Niall Hammond, chairman of the Friends of the Stockton & Darlington Railway, said: “The FSDR has had close input into all of this, including conservation and interpretation, although it is fair to say that not all of our aspirations have been included and that there are some issues, such as how significant historic buildings like the 1833 goods shed will be adapted for the new scheme, which we, Historic England and the council’s own conservation officer are not happy with and still remain to be resolved.
“If the lottery bid is successful, then this will also see the 1840 lime cells restored and used as offices for the FSDR and from which three new full-time jobs will be created to work along the 26 miles of the 1825 line to help communities conserve, care for and celebrate their rail heritage for 2025 and beyond.”
The lime cells are similar to coal drops, being filled with lime from above by bottom-discharging railway wagons, but have a roof because lime reacts to moisture. Built between 1840 and 1847, they are also situated in the North Gate conservation area.