Celebrating 200 years of Sunderland’s world first
A PROGRAMME of events to mark the 200th anniversary of the world’s first railway designed to run without horse traction has been announced.
The Hetton Colliery Railway opened in 1822 and was also the first entirely new line to be developed by George Stephenson.
The line, which used steam locomotives and gravity power, transported coal from Elemore and Hetton pits to the River Wear in Sunderland.
Sunderland Culture’s £30,000 The Cultural Spring project is working with Sunderland City Council and Hetton Colliery Railway 200 to mark the bicentenary, the centrepiece of which will be the 11-mile Stephenson Trail, tracing the route of the railway from Elemore Park, the former Elemore
Golf Course. A programme of environmental improvements to the trail is also under development and markers will be used at key points along it.
Touring display
The programme includes a Stephenson Community Exhibition which will tour venues along the trail between September and November.
The project will be featured at Hetton Carnival on June 18, and engagement sessions will also be held at Barnes Park in Sunderland in June and July.
Funding for the celebration of the Stephenson Trail has come through neighbourhood funds from the city council’s East, West and Coalfields areas.
The city council’s assistant director of community resilience, Sandra Mitchell, said: “It’s fantastic to see the wonderful events and projects that The Cultural Spring has lined up.
“This railway is historically significant, not only for Sunderland but worldwide, and this programme of events will allow people of all ages to learn more about its important history.”