Heritage - Museum all steamed up for success

Sep 14 2006 By Marie Turbill, North East Vision

It's full steam ahead for plans to revamp Darlington Railway Centre and Museum. Marie Turbill reports.

Thomas the Tank Engine is a good friend to Bob Clark and his colleagues at Darlington Railway Centre and Museum. "Forty years on from Darlington stopping being a railway town a new generation is getting the feel for old railways through a kids' programme that is both exciting and enthuses them from the age of two onwards," he says.

Bob is manager of the North Road museum. Tongue in cheek, he says they often view three-year-olds as their target audience, after all, he says: "If you win the children round the parents will come too."

But it is not just families who enjoy the treasures of the former Stockton and Darlington Railway headquarters. The museum is a centre point for the people of Darlington and its surrounding areas to learn about their proud heritage.

It is also a haven for railway enthusiasts from all over the world and many tourists.

Now, thanks to grants totalling more than £1m from several supporting bodies , the site will soon have even more to offer its visitors as it undergoes a massive makeover.

The Darlington Railway Centre and Museum is made up of five buildings: the North Road station building along with its trainshed, a goods station, Hopetown Carriage Works and a set of Lime Cells.

Each building stands in its original place on the first mainline passenger railway between Stockton and Darlington. According to Bob this makes the site "the most important surviving group of early railway buildings in the world".

The vast makeover, which is hoped to begin early next year, has been funded by a £498,500 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, £400,000 from the Northern Rock Foundation, £191,000 from English Heritage and £150,000 from the Railway Heritage Trust. The museum also hopes to secure a further £385,000 European funding.

"The whole process we are looking to begin is about celebrating the gift that Darlington gave the world, which was modern railways," says Bob.

The redevelopment will begin with repairs to the former North Road passenger station building, which dates from 1841 to 1876.

The former Stockton and Darlington Railway goods agent's office, which dates from 1840, will also be refurbished for future use as the museum's administrative headquarters.

Visitors will step back in time as they enter the museum as parts of the station interior date from the 19th Century, including the gentlemen's lavatories.

The rest of the building will be sensitively re-planned to accommodate a 21st Century museum.

New exhibitions will give visitors a taste of the history and evolution of Darlington before the coming of the railway and computer-generated imagery will be used to show how the historic North Road site evolved and why it is so significant.

Visitors will also be able to learn how the Stockton and Darlington Railway came into being and why it occupies such an important place in history. It will also look at the original Locomotion No 1 - with the locomotive on site for visitors to see for themselves.

The history of Darlington as a railway manufacturing town until the 1960s will be explored, looking at the people, the community, as well as design and manufacture.

The impact of the railways on Darlington and the surrounding area will be included in the displays, with a further focus on how the railways have impacted on popular culture and consciousness.

A new Children's Activity Centre will be included for visiting schools and nurseries to use on a pre-booked basis.

"There is a lot of misinformation about Darlington's part in the railway's history," says Bob. "Our displays will explain why it is important and what the legacy of that importance was."

On securing the funding Bob adds: "It is a great pleasure to see outside bodies confirming how important the site is."