travel – Page 2 – STEPHEN TOMLIN

John Dubbin’s painting is the basis for this animated panorama at Hopetown

Fifty years ago I was living and working on Teesside as an actor and drama workshops organiser for the Billingham Forum’s Young People’s Theatre Co. We enjoyed free outdoor events marking the 150^th anniversary of the opening of the world’s first public passenger steam railway train between Stockton and Darlington. A souvenir from that time is this little China mug, now sadly minus its handle, but otherwise intact and very pretty.

The long train of 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd class passengers, preceded by a rider on horseback for safety reasons, set off from Shildon in Co. Durham on the 27^th September 1825 travelling the 21.5 miles to Stockton, via Darlington, at an average speed of 9mph, cheered on by crowds of excited onlookers.

Skerne Bridge, seen in the painting above, is still there today, part of the Hopetown site. The oldest railway bridge in the world still carrying a working rail route.

George Stephenson and his son Robert were the Tyneside engineers who gave us ‘Locomotion’, the engine that pulled those carriages on that triumphant day. Edward Pease, a leading Darlington Quaker (member of the Religious Society of Friends), was a retired wool merchant who had the time and capital to head the consortium of local businessmen were behind the scheme. The original plan was for a horse drawn tramway to transport coal from the mines in the Durham hills to the estuary port of Stockton-on-Tees where it could be shipped to the rest of the country. Stephenson Snr. persuaded the money men to opt for his newly invented coal fired steam engine instead. Adding passengers to commercial goods and loads of coal was something of an afterthought, but would have the greatest of consequences.

‘Locomotion’ replica on display at Hopetown

All this and much more my friend Rob and I learnt when we visited Hopetown in Darlington last week, in the year that sees the 200^th anniversary of the Stockton & Darlington. Formerly known as ‘The Head of Steam’ museum at North Road railway station, the 7.5 acre heritage site has been transformed with a multi-million pound investment programme to make it a major regional tourist attraction and educational resource. Entry is free (donations welcomed) and the amount of digitalised interactive displays shows the ethos is about engaging with families and school parties to tell a spirited, many layered story. Exterior soft play areas and an adventure playground are other family attractions that help justify the public investment and draw the crowds.

We didn’t quite know what to expect but quickly became engrossed with what was on offer. The interactive stuff – being addressed by station master and engine driver holograms for instance and having our photos taken with them – sparked fun and laughter. Think the planners have got the mix of serious study material and simpler, bold displays about right, opening vistas for the curious and engaging visitors in the interplay of man and machinery.

The Hopetown site, roughly triangular in size, consists of the original engine shed (1833) now the shop and café (above); station hall and offices (1842) now an exhibition area with locos and carriages, the Carriage Works (1853) with its huge open archive and large exhibition hall with awesome replicas of early engines, part of the ‘Railway Pioneers’ exhibition currently showing.

Completing the building line up is the new, purpose built Darlington Locomotive Works where 21^st century steam locos are being made by a charitable trust and volunteers, the workshops overseen from a tower housing public viewing gallery.

Highlights? I think anyone who visits a heritage site is invariably fascinated by the unchanging necessities of everyday living and how each generation deals with them. That’s why the original station toilets were fascinating. Cast iron urinals, tiled walls and cubicles. Throw in the reputed ghost of a porter who committed suicide here in the 1840s that is believed to still haunt the place and you’ve got it made.

The simple elegant design of the original early Victorian station (above) entrance and its extension reflect the world view of those local Quaker company directors. The exuberant emerging Gothic style was not for them.

Britain being Britain the three original carriages on display remind us of rigid social and economic classification. First class enjoys padded seating and privacy while third class (above) is an array of hard benches and a hole in the roof to let out smoke and/or let in light. Second class a mix of both.

My favourite museum story happily fits the ‘Country Diary’ title for these occasional notes. We learned that it took three concerted attempts over many years to get the Stockton and Darlington railway up and running. At its heart was the struggle between the inherited wealth and influence of the landed gentry and the new money of the non-conformist urban business elite.

Henry Vane, Earl of Darlington, resided at nearby Raby Castle, the centre of his great estate. A fanatical fox hunter who maintained two packs of hounds, he was determined to stop ‘bankers, merchants and others wishing to employ money in the speculation’ from ruining his sport by running their rail road through his fox coverts. He and other country landowners successfully led the opposition in parliament to defeat the initial proposals. A contemporary petition, drawn up by a top London law firm for anonymous clients, makes fascinating reading. It objects to the railway proposal as being ‘harsh and injurious to the interests of the county through which it is intended to pass’ and will ‘spoil lucrative arable land’ splitting profitable holdings in two and be ‘detrimental to the profits of the turnpike road’ running parallel with it.

In March 1819 Quaker banker and line supporter, Jonathan Backhouse, got wind of a plot by the earl to bankrupt his business and so de-rail the financiers. Back then a bank’s promise to pay the bearer on demand the value of a note in gold inspired the disgruntled aristocrat to get his tenants and associates to turn up on a set day at the bank to demand just that. The resourceful Backhouse immediately took flight to London and had a whip round with other Friends in finance, loading the loaned bullion into his carriage and returning at fast as they could back up north on the new turnpike roads to Darlington.

He made it as far as the river crossing at Croft, three miles short of home, when the axle on the hard driven coach broke under the strain. The quick witted banker and his servants redistributed the heavy load and slowly hedged their way back into town, with time to spare, before the Earl’s steward came to call at the bank. Backhouse had raised £32,000 worth of precious metal, more than enough to meet the withdrawal threat. He reportedly saw off the Steward with the words ‘Now, tell thy master that if he will sell Raby, I will pay for it in the same metal’….A great story, which no doubt has improved with re-telling down the years.

The Backhouse family bank prospered greatly thanks to the transformational economic prosperity the railway revolution engendered. Eventually, in the 1890’s, the business would merge with other Quaker founded financial institutions to form Barclays Bank. The bank branch (above) is still there, on its original site in the town centre and about to undergo a refurbishment. Ironically, given the simple design of the original North Road station, this building is a fine example of imposing gothic architecture by Sir Alfred Waterhouse (1864).

Arriving and leaving Darlington via Bank Top – the mainline east coast station (1887) – we’re delighted to see that it too is getting a long deserved restoration. Looking up we take in the heraldic decoration and rhythmic flow of ironwork gracing the roof of this secular cathedral, fitting tribute to a wonderful railway history and the town’s proud role in it.

Linnell, John; Richard Trevithick (1771-1833); Science Museum, London ; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/richard-trevithick-17711833-179865

Footnotes: The current ‘Railway Pioneers’ exhibition at Hopetown features superb life size replicas of key early locomotives. One is the unnamed engine (below) invented by Cornish mining engineer Richard Trevithick to transport iron from the Penderryn works in South Wales in 1804. In 2001 I had the pleasure of playing the obsessive charismatic inventor, in the BBC Radio 4 drama, ‘A Magnificent Prospect of the Works’ by Peter Roberts. The action was set in Coalbrookdale, the heartland of the industrial revolution on the river Severn, where Trevithick developed the prototype engine that would became the world’s first steam railway locomotive.

The Friends of the S & D Railway have produced an excellent illustrated introduction which you can download here: https://www.sdr1825.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/stockton-and-darlington-railway-key-facts-booklet.pdf

We were in Toronto recently, where Kim’s niece Clare was getting married to her partner Adam in a 1930’s art deco former cinema, now an events venue. The hospitality and good companionship of immediate family – who had flown in from all over the country for the big event as well as that of the new in-laws – was incredibly generous and inclusive making this visit extra special and truly memorable.

The city and its extensive suburbs is by far the biggest metropolitan area in Canada at 243 sq. miles/ 630 sq. km. and with a population of nearly six million people, is one of the most multicultural cosmopolitan cities in the world with hundreds of languages being spoken other than English. Arriving and departing from the city’s busy airport certainly reinforced that fact. Commanding the northern shores of Lake Ontario Toronto is the centre of Canada’s principal financial, media, commercial and logistical worlds, and its grid system of thoroughfares is bisected by rivers, ravines and urban forest.

We were staying in an Air B&B in the inner suburb of Eglington. Strolling the residential area I clocked black squirrels, flocks of little finches and American Robins. Our clapboard house with its trees, porch & garden looked over – or rather, were overlooked by – new built blocks of apartments and condos.

There were the familiar street furniture of a north American cityscape, from fire hydrants to overhead traffic lights, yellow school buses and wide concrete sidewalks. More surprisingly were the first of a number of licensed outlets we’d see across Ontario legally selling marijuana products.

A stroll down the sun kissed boulevard took us by Mabel’s Fables, the city’s much loved children’s bookshop. The lady behind the desk got Kim to add her message & signature to the writers and illustrators wall in the room upstairs. She found a space between Neil Gaiman and David Almond to add her contribution of appreciation for this literary metropolitan oasis for the young.

My eye was caught by what I thought was a stuffed cat stretched leisurely over a pile of books on a display table. It turned out to be the shop’s real life mascot. Later I saw the laid back moggie skilfully catching flies in the shop window. Every bookshop should have one.

We enjoyed two special viewings of remarkable art collections during our four days in Toronto which allowed for a real insight and appreciation of Canadian culture. We were invited to a luxury apartment block downtown, to the penthouse home of one of the country’s foremost private arts patrons and philanthropists. Our genial host, a retired financier in his 80^th year, had acquired and framed one of Kim’s drawings – Flea’s Hands (1979) – to add to his impressive collection of works by Canadian women artists. Our two hour personal guided tour of so many beautifully curated artworks, artifacts and rare manuscripts was an extraordinary privileged experience that will never be forgotten. That said, I’m glad I don’t reside in the sky as acrophobia would rob me of any enjoyment of immediate surroundings, however culturally awesome and life affirming.

The second artistic foray on the following day was a repeat visit to AGO – The Art Gallery of Ontario – a couple of blocks away. The Frank Gehry designed wing in particular made the perfect backdrop to this comprehensive collection of Canadian art over the centuries.

The vivid dynamic scenes of pioneer life from Montreal based Cornelius Krieghoff (1815-1872) contrast with contemporary paintings by leading First Nations artists like Kent Monkman. ‘The Deluge’ depicts the displacement of indigenous peoples by European settlers. Here the artist’s alter-ego rescues falling children and hands them back to their parents.

I was particularly drawn to the detailed paintings of country folk at work and play by an artist of Ukrainian heritage, William Kurelek (1927 – 1977). Loved the narrative qualities this self taught, spiritually motivated figure created in his fond depictions of rural life on the great plains.

The Group of Seven is probably the most widely known school of Canadian art. These individuals explored and captured the rugged and remote landscapes of this vast country, putting them at the centre of their work, bringing their vision to international attention. Here’s one example, a view of Georgian Bay from 1913 by group co-founder JEH Macdonald (1873-1932) Born the son of a joiner in Durham, his family emigrated to Canada when he was fourteen. MacDonald founded a successful design firm and eventually became principal of the Ontario College of Art.

It was to the rural highlands in the east of Ontario we were heading, after the lovely wedding celebrations and art treats in Toronto, and further diaries will live up to their country titles.

Tag: travel

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