96-629: Harrowgate Hill is a suburb of Darlington , in the Borough of Darlington , County Durham , England. The area includes the villages of Beaumont Hill , the Harrowgate Village as well as Ashbrook and Harrowgate Hill with the latter the largest part of the area. The area is covered by the Harrowgate Hill Ward, the villages are in the Whessoe civil parish (the name is notable for its use as a name for
192-417: A safety lamp that would burn in a gaseous atmosphere without causing an explosion. At the same time, the eminent scientist and Cornishman Humphry Davy was also looking at the problem. Despite his lack of scientific knowledge, Stephenson, by trial and error, devised a lamp in which the air entered via tiny holes, through which the flames of the lamp could not pass. A month before Davy presented his design to
288-519: A branch of Barclays bank. During the period, George Gordon Hoskins was responsible for much of the town's architecture, designing buildings such as The King's Head Hotel. Darlington Free Library, a Grade II listed building in Crown Street, was built for £10,000 by Edward Pease . His daughter, Lady Lymington, opened the building on 23 October 1885 and presented it to the town council who agreed to operate it in perpetuity. As of 2022 , it contains
384-642: A library and "centre for local studies". In 1870, The Northern Echo newspaper launched. Its most famous editor, William Thomas Stead , died on the Titanic . Facing the present Northern Echo building on Priestgate is the William Stead public house named for him. In 1939, Darlington had the most cinema seats per capita in the United Kingdom. On the night of 13 January 1945, a Lancaster bomber piloted by Pilot Officer William Stuart McMullen of Canada
480-510: A line primarily proposed to take coal from the western coal fields of the county to Leicester. The promoters of the line Mr William Stenson and Mr John Ellis , had difficulties in raising the necessary capital as the majority of local wealth had been invested in canals. Realising the potential and need for the rail link Stephenson himself invested £2,500 and raised the remaining capital through his network of connections in Liverpool. His son Robert
576-620: A penny a sheet, and at one point there was a suggestion to move George's body to Westminster Abbey . The centenary of George's birth was celebrated in 1881 at Crystal Palace by 15,000 people, and it was George who was featured on the reverse of the Series E five pound note issued by the Bank of England between 1990 and 2003. The Stephenson Railway Museum in North Shields is named after George and Robert Stephenson. George Stephenson's Birthplace
672-510: A permanent main line with branches. On 27 September 1825, George Stephenson 's engine, Locomotion No. 1 , travelled between Shildon and Stockton-on-Tees via Darlington, an event that was seen as ushering in the modern railway age. Later in the 19th century, the town became an important centre for railway manufacturing. An early railway works was the Hopetown Carriage Works (est. 1853), which supplied carriages and locomotives to
768-555: A permanent rift between them. The gauge Stephenson chose for the line was 4 feet 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 inches (1,435 mm) which subsequently was adopted as the standard gauge for railways, not only in Britain, but throughout the world. Stephenson had ascertained by experiments at Killingworth that half the power of the locomotive was consumed by a gradient as little as 1 in 260. He concluded that railways should be kept as level as possible. He used this knowledge while working on
864-475: A relatively high proportion of ethnic minority residents (39.2% of the population in that area, compared to a town average of 6.3%). Constituted as a charity under UK law in 1982, the mosque offers worship facilities, as well as Islamic education, and has its own telecommunications mast for calls to prayer. Teesside International Airport is located 5 mi (8 km) east of Darlington town centre; it serves County Durham and North Yorkshire . The airport
960-582: A spiral effect in the arch masonry, provides extra strength in the arch to compensate for the angled abutments. The bridge is still in use at Rainhill station , and carries traffic on the A57 (Warrington Road). The bridge is a listed structure . George Stephenson moved to the parish of Alton Grange (now part of Ravenstone) in Leicestershire in 1830, originally to consult on the Leicester and Swannington Railway ,
1056-515: A steam locomotive, the " Puffing Devil ", in 1801. Later, he visited Tyneside and built an engine there for a mine-owner. Several local men were inspired by this, and designed their own engines. Stephenson designed his first locomotive in 1814, a travelling engine designed for hauling coal on the Killingworth wagonway named Blücher after the Prussian general Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher (It
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#17328523336481152-522: A towering spire and a grade I listed status. Other churches include Methodist , Baptist , Roman Catholic and Jehovah Witness places of worship, as well as Holy Trinity Church and the grade II listed St John the Evangelist Church which closed for worship in 2023. The Jamia Mosque and Islamic Society of Darlington is located in the North Lodge Terrace area of the town, an area with
1248-677: A warehouse facility, which opened in early 2020, employing 1,300 full-time staff, one of the town's biggest employers. EE is the largest private sector employer in the town, with 2,500 staff. The company took over its operations from one of its predecessors, Orange Mobile. The Morton Park area of Darlington is currently undergoing a partial redevelopment, with areas of unused waste land being redeveloped into modern industrial and office space. Other commercial spaces in Darlington include North Road Industrial Estate, Cleveland Trading Estate and Faverdale Industrial Estate. The council depot on Central Park
1344-518: Is Grade I listed. The oldest church in Darlington is St Andrew's Church , built around 1100 in Haughton-le-Skerne . When the author Daniel Defoe visited the town during the 18th century, he noted that it was eminent for "good bleaching of linen, so that I have known cloth brought from Scotland to be bleached here". However, he also disparaged the town, writing that it had "nothing remarkable but dirt"; roads would have typically been unpaved in
1440-506: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Darlington Darlington is a market and industrial town in County Durham , England. It is the main administrative centre of the unitary authority Borough of Darlington . The borough is a constituent member of the devolved Tees Valley area. The River Skerne , a tributary of the River Tees , flows through the town. It
1536-670: Is a principal stop on the East Coast Main Line ; it is served by four train operating companies : George Stephenson George Stephenson (9 June 1781 – 12 August 1848) was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer during the Industrial Revolution . Renowned as the "Father of Railways", Stephenson was considered by the Victorians as a great example of diligent application and thirst for improvement. His chosen rail gauge , sometimes called "Stephenson gauge",
1632-453: Is also to be redeveloped into commercial space. Darlington has a rich engineering heritage and several notable engineering firms established locally. Bridge building was particularly important in the town. Bridges built in Darlington span the River Nile and Amazon . Local engineering firms include: As an historic market town, a weekly outdoor market was held on the market square, which
1728-521: Is an 18th-century historic house museum in the village of Wylam , and is operated by the National Trust . Dial Cottage at West Moor , his home from 1804, remains but the museum that once operated there has closed. Chesterfield Museum in Chesterfield , Derbyshire, has a gallery of Stephenson memorabilia, including straight thick glass tubes he invented for growing straight cucumbers . The museum
1824-526: Is an international fine artist who gained credit for his early work dedicated to the NHS during the COVID-19 pandemic. [1] The Forum Music Centre, opened in 2004, hosts regular live music events, from Ska and Punk to Indie and Classic Rock. It also runs a comedy club. As well as live music, the facility houses a state of the art recording studio and several rehearsal rooms. The Carmel Rhythm Club, at Carmel College in
1920-430: Is based at Darlington Town Hall on Feethams in the centre of Darlington. Darlington was an ancient parish . It was historically divided into four townships : Archdeacon Newton , Blackwell , Cockerton , and a Darlington township covering the town itself and adjoining areas. Such townships also became civil parishes in 1866. A body of improvement commissioners was established in 1823 to provide infrastructure to
2016-600: Is in the Stephenson Memorial Hall not far from both Stephenson's final home at Tapton House and Holy Trinity Church within which is his vault. In Liverpool, where he lived at 34 Upper Parliament Street, a City of Liverpool Heritage Plaque is situated next to the front door. Stephenson College , founded in 2001 on the Durham University 's Queen's Campus in Stockton-on-Tees (relocated to Durham in 2018),
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#17328523336482112-802: Is named after him. Also named after him and his son is George Stephenson High School in Killingworth, Stephenson Memorial Primary School in Howdon , the Stephenson Railway Museum in North Shields , the Stephenson Locomotive Society , the Stephenson Centre, an SEBD Unit of Beaumont Hill School in Darlington, and the Stephenson Building, home of the school of engineering at Newcastle University . His last home in Tapton, Chesterfield
2208-468: Is not to be confused with the lighthouse-building engineering family of Robert Stevenson , which was active in the same era. Note the spelling difference. Britain led the world in the development of railways which acted as a stimulus for the Industrial Revolution by facilitating the transport of raw materials and manufactured goods. George Stephenson, with his work on the Stockton and Darlington Railway and
2304-494: Is now part of Chesterfield College and is called Tapton House Campus. As a tribute to his life and works, a bronze statue of Stephenson was unveiled at Chesterfield railway station (in the town where Stephenson spent the last ten years of his life) on 28 October 2005, marking the completion of improvements to the station. At the event a full-size working replica of the Rocket was on show, which then spent two days on public display at
2400-425: Is on Hollyhurst Road, in the corridor between Woodland Road and The Denes. The private Woodlands Hospital is at Morton Park. The former Civic Theatre, now The Hippodrome , is a popular arts venue in the town, hosting a mix of musicals, dramas, plays and pantomimes. In 2016, Darlington Civic Theatre closed to mark the start of a £12.3 million renovation project that included a £4.5 million lottery grant from
2496-467: Is one of the biggest in the country. An indoor market is located underneath the town clock on Prebend Row. Retailers in the area include: In November 2012, a deal was signed between Darlington Borough Council and developer Terrace Hill for a £30 million re-development of the site of the former Feethams bus depot. The proposal had an expected completion date of late 2014, though this did overrun with completion early 2016. Darlington Memorial Hospital
2592-647: Is sited near to the Yorkshire Dales National Park , being 11 miles (18 km) from the park boundary near the town of Richmond . Darlington had a population of 107,800 in the 2021 Census , which classes it as a "large town". In the 19th century, establishment of the Stockton and Darlington Railway (the world's first permanent steam locomotive -powered passenger railway) led to the town having an industrial and manufacturing economy. Darlington started as an Anglo-Saxon settlement. The name derives from
2688-602: The Bolton and Leigh Railway , and the Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR), executing a series of difficult cuttings, embankments and stone viaducts to level their routes. Defective surveying of the original route of the L&;MR caused by hostility from some affected landowners meant Stephenson encountered difficulty during Parliamentary scrutiny of the original bill, especially under cross-examination by Edward Hall Alderson . The bill
2784-663: The Manchester and Leeds , the Birmingham and Derby , the Sheffield and Rotherham among many others. Stephenson became a reassuring name rather than a cutting-edge technical adviser. He was the first president of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers on its formation in 1847. By this time he had settled into semi-retirement, supervising his mining interests in Derbyshire – tunnelling for
2880-538: The North Midland Railway revealed coal seams, and Stephenson put money into their exploitation. George first courted Elizabeth (Betty) Hindmarsh, a farmer's daughter from Black Callerton, whom he met secretly in her orchard. Her father refused marriage because of Stephenson's lowly status as a miner. George next paid attention to Anne Henderson where he lodged with her family, but she rejected him and he transferred his attentions to her sister Frances (Fanny), who
2976-622: The Office for National Statistics , with figures in £ millions. Finance and manufacturing are now the main elements of its economy. A major employer in the area is the English division of the Student Loans Company , Student Finance England, which is based at Lingfield Point and employs over 1,000 people. Other large service sector companies with offices in the town include Darlington Building Society . Darlington Borough Council announced that
Harrowgate, County Durham - Misplaced Pages Continue
3072-609: The River Tees and River Skerne pass through the borough, the Skerne later joining the Tees which then flows east and into the North Sea . Due to river bifurcation at the Baydale Beck and Cocker Beck, which later flow into the Tees and Skerne respectively, much of the western side of Darlington forms a river island . In the north are Harrowgate , Coatham Mundeville and Beaumont Hill and to
3168-408: The River Tees at Stockton , passing through Darlington on the way. The original plan was to use horses to draw coal carts on metal rails, but after company director Edward Pease met Stephenson, he agreed to change the plans. Stephenson surveyed the line in 1821, and assisted by his 18-year-old son Robert, construction began the same year. A manufacturer was needed to provide the locomotives for
3264-464: The Royal Society , Stephenson demonstrated his own lamp to two witnesses by taking it down Killingworth Colliery and holding it in front of a fissure from which firedamp was issuing. The two designs differed; Davy's lamp was surrounded by a screen of gauze, whereas Stephenson's prototype lamp had a perforated plate containing a glass cylinder. For his invention Davy was awarded £2000, whilst Stephenson
3360-518: The Suez Canal . George Stephenson's daughter was born in 1805 but died within weeks of her birth. Descendants of the wider Stephenson family continue to live in Wylam (Stephenson's birthplace) today. Also relatives connected by his marriage live in Derbyshire. Some descendants later emigrated to Perth , Australia, and Minnesota , with later generations remaining to this day. This Stephenson engineering family
3456-636: The West Coast Main Line taking the direct route favoured by Joseph Locke over Shap between Lancaster and Carlisle , Stephenson was in favour of a longer sea-level route via Ulverston and Whitehaven . Locke's route was built. Stephenson tended to be more casual in estimating costs and paperwork in general. He worked with Joseph Locke on the Grand Junction Railway with half of the line allocated to each man. Stephenson's estimates and organising ability proved inferior to those of Locke and
3552-524: The Whessoe company) and the rest is unparished. Before the ward boundary changes in 2015 was enclosed on two sides by railways — the East Coast Main Line to the east, and the Tees Valley Line to the west. The Ashbrook area, which lies to the east of the main line now also forms part of the ward. The ward extends as far south as Thompson Street and as far north as Beaumont Hill. The old ward population
3648-419: The 18th century. The so-called Durham Ox came from Darlington; born in the early 19th century, this steer became renowned for its excellent proportions which came to inform the standard for Shorthorn cattle. During the early 19th century, Darlington remained a small market town. The Stockton and Darlington Railway ran steam locomotives designed for passengers and goods, built to a standard gauge, on
3744-484: The Anglo-Saxon Dearthington , which seemingly meant 'the settlement of Deornoth's people' but, by Norman times, the name had changed to Derlinton. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the town was usually known by the name of Darnton . Darlington has a historic market area in the town centre. St Cuthbert's Church , built in 1183, is one of the most important early English churches in the north of England and
3840-679: The Chesterfield Market Festival. A statue of him dressed in classical robes stands in Neville Street, Newcastle, facing the buildings that house the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne and the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers , near Newcastle railway station . The statue was sculpted in 1862 by John Graham Lough and is listed Grade II. From 1990 until 2003, Stephenson's portrait appeared on
3936-574: The Geordie Lamps simply went out. There is a theory that it was Stephenson who indirectly gave the name of " Geordies " to the people of the North East of England. By this theory, the name of the Geordie Lamp attached to the North East pit men themselves. By 1866 any native of Newcastle upon Tyne could be called a Geordie. Cornishman Richard Trevithick is credited with the first realistic design for
Harrowgate, County Durham - Misplaced Pages Continue
4032-521: The Heritage Lottery Fund and revamped as The Hippodrome and connects to the children's theatre Hullabaloo . The Friends' Meeting House in Skinnergate is a Grade II* listed building. The Friends (Quakers) have met on this site since 1678, having previously met in private homes. The present building dates mainly from 1846. Upstairs of The Quaker meeting house is home to Artist Lucas Roy. Lucas
4128-620: The Hummersknott end of town, was another music venue. It opened the same year as the Forum. Darlington Dog Show was a championship event from 1969. It was usually held in September on the showground in South Park ; but it has now moved to Ripon. Darlington has a wide array of churches scattered around the town including the iconic and notable parish church of St Cuthbert's in the centre of town, with
4224-409: The Liverpool and Manchester Railway, paved the way for the railway engineers who followed, such as his son Robert, his assistant Joseph Locke who carried out much work on his own account and Isambard Kingdom Brunel . Stephenson was farsighted in realising that the individual lines being built would eventually be joined, and would need to have the same gauge. The standard gauge used throughout much of
4320-560: The Pennines, laying a foundation of heather and branches, which became bound together by the weight of the passing coaches, with a layer of stones on top. As the L&MR approached completion in 1829, its directors arranged a competition to decide who would build its locomotives, and the Rainhill Trials were run in October 1829. Entries could weigh no more than six tons and had to travel along
4416-594: The Prime Minister, the Duke of Wellington . The day started with a procession of eight trains setting out from Liverpool. The parade was led by Northumbrian driven by George Stephenson, and included Phoenix driven by his son Robert, North Star driven by his brother Robert and Rocket driven by assistant engineer Joseph Locke . The day was marred by the death of William Huskisson , the Member of Parliament for Liverpool , who
4512-449: The Stockton and Darlington Railway. The engineering firm of William and Alfred Kitching also manufactured locomotives there around this time. The town eventually developed three significant railway works: During the 19th century, Darlington Quaker families such as those of Pease and Backhouse emerged as major employers and philanthropists. Industrialist Joseph Pease gave Darlington its landmark clock tower in 1864. The clock face
4608-618: The author L.T.C. Rolt relates that opinion varied about the two lamps' efficiency: that the Davy Lamp gave more light, but the Geordie Lamp was thought to be safer in a more gaseous atmosphere. He made reference to an incident at Oaks Colliery in Barnsley where both lamps were in use. Following a sudden strong influx of gas the tops of all the Davy Lamps became red hot (which had in the past caused an explosion, and in so doing risked another), whilst all
4704-509: The board's dissatisfaction led to Stephenson's resignation causing a rift between them which was never healed. Despite Stephenson's loss of some routes to competitors due to his caution, he was offered more work than he could cope with, and was unable to accept all that was offered. He worked on the North Midland line from Derby to Leeds , the York and North Midland line from Normanton to York,
4800-536: The busiest of Stephenson's life as he was besieged with requests from railway promoters. Many of the first American railroad builders came to Newcastle to learn from Stephenson and the first dozen or so locomotives utilised there were purchased from the Stephenson shops. Stephenson's conservative views on the capabilities of locomotives meant he favoured circuitous routes and civil engineering that were more costly than his successors thought necessary. For example, rather than
4896-625: The council has been a member of the Tees Valley Combined Authority along with Hartlepool , Middlesbrough , Redcar and Cleveland and Stockton-on-Tees . Unlike Darlington, the other four districts in the combined authority had all been part of the short-lived county of Cleveland between 1974 and 1996. As of 2024 , the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Darlington constituency is Labour 's Lola McEvoy . Former members of parliament for
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#17328523336484992-406: The design of cast-iron edge rails to reduce breakage; rails were briefly made by Losh, Wilson and Bell at their Walker ironworks. According to Rolt, Stephenson managed to solve the problem caused by the weight of the engine on the primitive rails. He experimented with a steam spring (to 'cushion' the weight using steam pressure acting on pistons to support the locomotive frame), but soon followed
5088-476: The first railway using no animal power, opened in 1822. This line used a gauge of 4 ft 8 in ( 1,422 mm ) which Stephenson had used before at the Killingworth wagonway. Other locomotives include: In 1821, a parliamentary bill was passed to allow the building of the Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR). The 25-mile (40 km) railway connected collieries near Bishop Auckland to
5184-474: The first to be constructed since the 1960s. It was intended to be the 50th member of the long withdrawn LNER Peppercorn Class A1 engine, called Tornado and numbered 60163, from scratch in the 1853 former Stockton and Darlington Railway Carriage Works at Hopetown. Many of the original fleet had been built at Darlington locomotive works in the late 1940s. Tornado was completed in January 2008. To commemorate
5280-431: The line. Pease and Stephenson had jointly established a company in Newcastle to manufacture locomotives. It was set up as Robert Stephenson and Company , and George's son Robert was the managing director. A fourth partner was Michael Longridge of Bedlington Ironworks . On an early trade card, Robert Stephenson & Co was described as "Engineers, Millwrights & Machinists, Brass & Iron Founders". In September 1825,
5376-442: The master of the craft. George Stephenson had two children. His son Robert was born on 16 October 1803. Robert married Frances Sanderson, daughter of a City of London professional John Sanderson, on 17 June 1829. Robert died in 1859 having no children. Robert Stephenson expanded on the work of his father and became a major railway engineer himself. Abroad, Robert was involved in the Alexandria–Cairo railway that later connected with
5472-416: The more built-up parts of the Darlington township. The commissioners were superseded in 1850 when the whole Darlington township was made a local board district , governed by an elected local board. The local board was in turn replaced when Darlington was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1867. The borough boundaries were enlarged on several occasions, notably absorbing the Harrowgate Hill area from
5568-521: The north-east are Whinfield and Haughton Le Skerne. To the east is the suburb of Eastbourne and Red Hall with Firthmoor and Skerne Park to the south. Situated in the west end are Hummersknott , Mowden and Blackwell . Finally, to the north-west are Branksome , Cockerton , Faverdale , The Denes , West Park , High Grange and Pierremont which is associated with the notable Henry Pease (MP) . The trend of regional gross value added of Darlington at current basic prices published (pp. 240–253) by
5664-407: The parish of Haughton-le-Skerne in 1872, Cockerton in 1915, Haughton-le-Skerne in 1930 and Blackwell in 1967. In 1915 the borough was elevated to become a county borough , taking over county-level functions from Durham County Council . The borough was substantially enlarged in 1974 to take in most of the surrounding Darlington Rural District, such that the modern borough of Darlington covers both
5760-481: The practice of 'distributing' weight by using a number of wheels or bogies. For the Stockton and Darlington Railway Stephenson used wrought-iron malleable rails that he had found satisfactory, notwithstanding the financial loss he suffered by not using his own patented design. Stephenson was hired to build the eight-mile (13-km) Hetton colliery railway in 1820. He used a combination of gravity on downward inclines and locomotives for level and upward stretches. This,
5856-435: The pumping engine at High Pit, Killingworth was not working properly and Stephenson offered to improve it. He did so with such success that he was promoted to enginewright for the collieries at Killingworth, responsible for maintaining and repairing all the colliery engines. He became an expert in steam-driven machinery. In 1815, aware of the explosions often caused in mines by naked flames, Stephenson began to experiment with
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#17328523336485952-422: The site for the DL1 complex, previously a car park for Darlington Town Hall , was also to be redeveloped to house riverside office space for the Department for Education to replace its previous office on the edge of the town in Mowden, in an effort to safeguard Darlington jobs. This was officially opened on 19 March 2015. The Disclosure and Barring Service has a national office in the town. Amazon UK operates
6048-472: The solution he had. In 1833 a House of Commons committee found that Stephenson had equal claim to having invented the safety lamp. Davy went to his grave believing that Stephenson had stolen his idea. The Stephenson lamp was used almost exclusively in North East England , whereas the Davy lamp was used everywhere else. The experience gave Stephenson a lifelong distrust of London-based, theoretical, scientific experts. In his book George and Robert Stephenson ,
6144-447: The third time, to Ellen Gregory, another farmer's daughter originally from Bakewell in Derbyshire, who had been his housekeeper. Seven months after his wedding, George contracted pleurisy and died, aged 67, at noon on Saturday 12 August 1848 at Tapton House in Chesterfield, Derbyshire. He was buried at Holy Trinity Church, Chesterfield , alongside his second wife. Described by Rolt as a generous man, Stephenson financially supported
6240-430: The town and a surrounding rural hinterland. The enlarged borough was also reconstituted as a non-metropolitan district as part of the 1974 reforms, with Durham County Council once more providing county-level services to the town. The borough was made a unitary authority on 1 April 1997, regaining its independence from the county council. The borough remains part of County Durham for ceremonial purposes . Since 2016,
6336-443: The town include Peter Gibson , Jenny Chapman , Alan Milburn (the former Secretary of State for Health under Tony Blair 's Labour government) and Michael Fallon (who was Secretary of State for Defence under David Cameron 's coalition government and Theresa May 's Conservative government). Darlington is located in the south of County Durham close to the River Tees, which acts as the border between Durham and Yorkshire. Both
6432-489: The town's contribution to the railways, David Mach 's 1997 work Train is located alongside the A66, close to the original Stockton–Darlington railway. It is a life-size brick sculpture of a steaming locomotive emerging from a tunnel, made from 185,000 Accrington Nori bricks . The work had a budget of £760,000. In 2001, Darlington became the first place in England to allow same-sex civil ceremonies and as of 2022 , it hosts an annual Gay Pride Festival at venues across
6528-402: The town. A 2005 Darlington Borough Council project to pedestrianise areas of the town centre, this included some Victorian features along High Row. In August 2008, a fire, in which nobody was killed, caused damage and weeks of closure until the damage fixed for several shops (including Woolworths ). The King's Head Hotel was also affected with damage to the roof and 100 bedrooms, the hotel
6624-410: The track for a total distance of 60 miles (97 km). Stephenson's entry was Rocket , and its performance in winning the contest made it famous. George's son Robert had been working in South America from 1824 to 1827 and returned to run the Forth Street Works while George was in Liverpool overseeing the construction of the line. Robert was responsible for the detailed design of Rocket , although he
6720-415: The wives and families of several who had died in his employment, due to accident or misadventure, some within his family, and some not. He was also a keen gardener throughout his life; during his last years at Tapton House, he built hothouses in the estate gardens, growing exotic fruits and vegetables in a 'not too friendly' rivalry with Joseph Paxton , head gardener at nearby Chatsworth House , twice beating
6816-513: The works at Forth Street, Newcastle, completed the first locomotive for the railway: originally named Active , it was renamed Locomotion and was followed by Hope , Diligence and Black Diamond . The Stockton and Darlington Railway opened on 27 September 1825. Driven by Stephenson, Locomotion hauled an 80-ton load of coal and flour nine miles (14 km) in two hours, reaching a speed of 24 miles per hour (39 kilometres per hour) on one stretch. The first purpose-built passenger car, Experiment ,
6912-552: The world is due to him. In 2002, Stephenson was named in the BBC 's television show and list of the 100 Greatest Britons following a UK-wide vote, placing at no. 65. The Victorian self-help advocate Samuel Smiles had published his first biography of George Stephenson in 1857, and although attacked as biased in the favour of George at the expense his rivals as well as his son, it was popular and 250,000 copies were sold by 1904. The Band of Hope were selling biographies of George in 1859 at
7008-423: Was illiterate until the age of 18. In 1801 he began work at Black Callerton Colliery south of Ponteland as a 'brakesman', controlling the winding gear at the pit. In 1802 he married Frances Henderson and moved to Willington Quay , east of Newcastle. There he worked as a brakesman while they lived in one room of a cottage. George made shoes and mended clocks to supplement his income. Their first child Robert
7104-473: Was 5,997 at the 2011 census and needed expanding to meet around 7,000. In 1894 Harrowgate Hill became a separate civil parish , being formed from the parts of Cockerton and Haughton-le-Skerne in Darlington Municipal Borough, on 1 October 1907 the parish was abolished and merged with Darlington. In 1901 the parish had a population of 2316. This County Durham location article
7200-511: Was able to reopen in 2012. There is one main tier of local government covering Darlington, at unitary authority level, being Darlington Borough Council . The council is a member of the Tees Valley Combined Authority , led by the directly elected Mayor of Tees Valley . Most of the built-up area of Darlington is an unparished area , although some outer parts of the urban area now extend into neighbouring parishes. The council
7296-457: Was accused of stealing the idea from Davy, because he was not seen as an adequate scientist who could have produced the lamp by any approved scientific method. Stephenson, having come from the North-East, spoke with a broad Northumberland accent and not the 'Language of Parliament,' which made him seem lowly. Realizing this, he made a point of educating his son Robert in a private school, where he
7392-599: Was attached and carried dignitaries on the opening journey. It was the first time passenger traffic had been run on a steam locomotive railway. The rails used for the line were wrought-iron , produced by John Birkinshaw at the Bedlington Ironworks . Wrought-iron rails could be produced in longer lengths than cast-iron and were less liable to crack under the weight of heavy locomotives. William Losh of Walker Ironworks thought he had an agreement with Stephenson to supply cast-iron rails, and Stephenson's decision caused
7488-535: Was born in 1803, and in 1804 they moved to Dial Cottage at West Moor , near Killingworth where George worked as a brakesman at Killingworth Pit. Their second child, a daughter, was born in July 1805. She was named Frances after her mother. The child died after just three weeks and was buried in St Bartholomew's Church, Long Benton north of Newcastle. In 1806 George's wife Frances died of consumption ( tuberculosis ). She
7584-599: Was built for the Kilmarnock and Troon Railway in 1817 but was withdrawn from service because of damage to the cast-iron rails. Another locomotive was supplied to Scott's Pit railroad at Llansamlet , near Swansea , in 1819 but it too was withdrawn, apparently because it was under-boilered and again caused damage to the track. The new engines were too heavy to run on wooden rails or plate-way, and iron edge rails were in their infancy, with cast iron exhibiting excessive brittleness. Together with William Losh , Stephenson improved
7680-533: Was buried in the same churchyard as their daughter on 16 May 1806, though the location of the grave is lost. George decided to find work in Scotland and left Robert with a local woman while he went to work in Montrose . After a few months he returned, probably because his father was blinded in a mining accident. He moved back into a cottage at West Moor and his unmarried sister Eleanor moved in to look after Robert. In 1811
7776-738: Was crafted by T. Cooke & Sons of York , and bells cast by John Warner & Sons of nearby Norton-on-Tees . The bells are sisters to Big Ben . Darlington Mechanics Institute was opened in 1854 by Elizabeth Pease Nichol , who had donated towards its cost. In 1853, South Park was laid out, over 91 acres (37 ha), with financial support from the Backhouse family. Architect Alfred Waterhouse , famous for work including London's Natural History Museum and Manchester Town Hall , designed Darlington's Grade II listed Old Town Hall and Market Hall, Darlington in 1860. Four years later he contributed Backhouse's Bank building that is, as of 2022 ,
7872-401: Was in constant postal communication with his father, who made many suggestions. One significant innovation, suggested by Henry Booth , treasurer of the L&MR, was the use of a fire-tube boiler , invented by French engineer Marc Seguin that gave improved heat exchange. The opening ceremony of the L&MR , on 15 September 1830, drew luminaries from the government and industry, including
7968-521: Was known as Durham Tees Valley Airport from 2004 until mid-2019. It has flights to a few domestic locations across the UK and international flights to some locations in Europe. Many private or general aviation flights use the airport. The airport has a Fire Training Centre. The nearest large airports are Newcastle (42 mi (68 km)) and Leeds Bradford (62 mi (100 km)). Darlington railway station
8064-481: Was made chief engineer with the first part of the line opening in 1832. During this same period the Snibston estate in Leicestershire came up for auction, it lay adjoining the proposed Swannington to Leicester route and was believed to contain valuable coal reserves. Stephenson realising the financial potential of the site, given its proximity to the proposed rail link and the fact that the manufacturing town of Leicester
8160-780: Was nine years his senior. George and Fanny married at Newburn Church on 28 November 1802. They had two children Robert (1803) and Fanny (1805) but the latter died within months. George's wife died, probably of tuberculosis, the year after. While George was working in Scotland, Robert was brought up by a succession of neighbours and then by George's unmarried sister Eleanor (Nelly), who lived with them in Killingworth on George's return. On 29 March 1820, George (now considerably wealthier) married Betty Hindmarsh at Newburn. The marriage seems to have been happy, but there were no children and Betty died on 3 August 1845. On 11 January 1848, at St Chad's Church in Shrewsbury , Shropshire, George married for
8256-500: Was on a training exercise when one of its engines caught fire and it crashed on farmland near Lingfield Lane. McMullen heroically stayed at the controls while his crew parachuted to safety and directed the stricken aircraft away from the houses below. He was killed on impact. His heroism was honoured by renaming Lingfield Lane "McMullen Road" and erecting a memorial monument. Starting in 1993, rail enthusiast group A1 Steam Locomotive Trust worked on building an all-new steam locomotive,
8352-406: Was rejected and a revised bill for a new alignment was submitted and passed in a subsequent session. The revised alignment presented the problem of crossing Chat Moss , an apparently bottomless peat bog, which Stephenson overcame by unusual means, effectively floating the line across it. The method he used was similar to that used by John Metcalf who constructed many miles of road across marshes in
8448-466: Was struck by Rocket . Stephenson evacuated the injured Huskisson to Eccles with a train, but he died from his injuries. Despite the tragedy, the railway was a resounding success. Stephenson became famous, and was offered the position of chief engineer for a wide variety of other railways. 1830 also saw the grand opening of the skew bridge in Rainhill over the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. The bridge
8544-438: Was suggested the name sprang from Blücher's rapid march of his army in support of Wellington at Waterloo ). Blücher was modelled on Matthew Murray 's locomotive Willington , which George studied at Kenton and Coxlodge colliery on Tyneside, and was constructed in the colliery workshop behind Stephenson's home, Dial Cottage, on Great Lime Road. The locomotive could haul 30 tons of coal up a hill at 4 mph (6.4 km/h), and
8640-590: Was taught to speak in Standard English with a Received Pronunciation accent. It was due to this, in their future dealings with Parliament, that it became clear that the authorities preferred Robert to his father. A local committee of enquiry gathered in support of Stephenson, exonerated him, proved he had been working separately to create the 'Geordie Lamp', and awarded him £1,000, but Davy and his supporters refused to accept their findings, and would not see how an uneducated man such as Stephenson could come up with
8736-453: Was the basis for the 4-foot- 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 -inch (1.435 m) standard gauge used by most of the world's railways. Pioneered by Stephenson, rail transport was one of the most important technological inventions of the 19th century and a key component of the Industrial Revolution . Built by George and his son Robert 's company Robert Stephenson and Company , the Locomotion No. 1
8832-463: Was the first steam locomotive to carry passengers on a public rail line, the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1825. George also built the first public inter-city railway line in the world to use locomotives, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway , which opened in 1830 . George Stephenson was born on 9 June 1781 in Wylam , Northumberland , which is 9 miles (15 km) west of Newcastle upon Tyne . He
8928-464: Was the first successful flanged-wheel adhesion locomotive: its traction depended on contact between its flanged wheels and the rail. Altogether, Stephenson is said to have produced 16 locomotives at Killingworth, although it has not proved possible to produce a convincing list of all 16. Of those identified, most were built for use at Killingworth or for the Hetton colliery railway . A six-wheeled locomotive
9024-439: Was the first to cross any railway at an angle. It required the structure to be constructed as two flat planes (overlapping in this case by 6 ft (1.8 m)) between which the stonework forms a parallelogram shape when viewed from above. It has the effect of flattening the arch and the solution is to lay the bricks forming the arch at an angle to the abutments (the piers on which the arches rest). The technique, which results in
9120-454: Was the second child of Robert and Mabel Stephenson, neither of whom could read or write. Robert was the fireman for Wylam Colliery pumping engine, earning a very low wage, so there was no money for schooling. At 17, Stephenson became an engineman at Water Row Pit in Newburn nearby. George realised the value of education and paid to study at night school to learn reading, writing and arithmetic – he
9216-507: Was then being supplied coal by canal from Derbyshire, bought the estate. Employing a previously used method of mining in the midlands called tubbing to access the deep coal seams, his success could not have been greater. Stephenson's coal mine delivered the first rail cars of coal into Leicester dramatically reducing the price of coal and saving the city some £40,000 per annum. Stephenson remained at Alton Grange until 1838 before moving to Tapton House in Derbyshire. The next ten years were
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