Darlington Railway Town

Darlington has a significant railway heritage, with the S&DR200 festival in 2025 celebrating the birth of the modern railway, between March and November 2025.  The year 2025 includes the bicentenary of George Stephenson’s Locomotion No. 1’s historic journey on the Stockton & Darlington railway on 27th September 1825.  Creative Darlington is supporting several creative projects which are taking place during the festival months including:

*  three exhibitions creatively exploring railways at the Art Gallery in Darlington Library

*  the Write on Track creative writing project led by Ann Cuthbert and Pam Plumb

*  the Bicentennial Pen Pals creative writing project led by Bob Beagrie

*  a railway themed mural commission by the Arthur Wharton Foundation

*  Tracks Darlington’s Last Train Home 2025 music and comedy festival

Hopetown Darlington, a fantastic family visitor attraction, opened to the public in July 2024, and has since secured several awards for its brilliant offer, which includes free and ticketed components.  The site is awash with creativity and its offer includes archives, a fantastic café, exhibitions, fantastic facilities, and a regular programme of activities and events. Click here to find out more Hopetown – Home.

Both Darlington Station and North Road Station are based in the borough, and with a multimillion-pound revamp of Darlington Station underway this investment in connectivity will contribute to our future prosperity, as well as offering environmentally friendly travel for commuters.  Darlington holds many railway heritage assets, including the Grade 1 listed Skerne Bridge, the oldest railway bridge in continuous use in the world, and with part of the original track-bed of the Stockton & Darlington railway running through the borough.  More recently, public artwork has celebrated the importance of railways here.  This includes David Mach’s Brick Train originally unveiled in Darlington in 1997, Andrew McKeown’s quartet of works inspired by locomotives dear to Darlington, Locomotion No. 1, Derwent, Prince of Wales, Tornado unveiled here in 2021 and his subsequent work unveiled at Hopetown Darlington in 2024. Further railway themed murals are expected to be unveiled in the borough in 2025.

Railways, both in Darlington and worldwide, have been a rich source of inspiration for creative practice and exploration, helping people travel and explore, meet new people, exchange ideas, visit new places, as regular commuters or on journeys home.

Darlington Railway Town

Heritage on Track was part of the Great Place Tees Valley programme supported by Arts Council England, the National Heritage Lottery Fund and other parties, including Tees Valley Combine Authority and local authorities.  The programme creatively explored the importance of both rail and local heritage within some of the places near to the track bed of the Stockton & Darlington railway (Red Hall, North Road, and Middleton St George).   Darlington Borough Council led the project, with Groundwork NE & Cumbria managing the community programme and Tees Valley Arts managing the Creative programme. The film below is part of a collection of films created especially for the Heritage on Track project. The films are also available on Groundwork YouTube Channel.

Heritage on Track is delivered by Groundwork NE & Cumbria and  Tees Valley Arts on behalf of Creative Darlington and is part of Great Place Tees Valley. This project is supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Previous Projects

Julie Macbean, Crown Street Art Gallery Exhibition, 2013

Creative Darlington has supported a number of artists and been involved in promoting programmes or events creatively exploring our railway heritage, including performing arts and visual arts activity. An example of which can be found here. Cath Campbell created miniature models of railway stations linked to the story of Elizabeth Bidder who, at 18 years old became part of a ship’s crew accompanying Robert Stephenson. 

  • HOS Tracks Across Time poster and display space
  • Hilarity Bites Darlington Comedy Festival Head of Steam platform. Photo credit Leona White-Hannant
  • Hilarity Bites Darlington Comedy Festival Head of Steam. Photo Credit Leona White-Hannant
  • Darlington Jazz Festival 2014, Head of Steam
  • Splendour of Steam exhibition, Crown Street Art Gallery. Stephen Bainbridge painting in gallery.
  • Crown Street Gallery Exhibition, Julie Macbean, 2013
  • Crown Street Gallery Exhibition, Julie Macbean, 2013
  • Collections, Sara Cooper, Head of Steam Museum

In 2014-15 artist Sara Cooper worked with a local primary school as part of her Collections artist-led project. Pupils explored the Head of Steam Museum, made maps of their walks around the collection and created artworks in response to railway artefacts and stories.

Collections Project, Sara Cooper, Head of Steam Railway Museum. Photo Credit : Jason Hynes

Artists, including Julie Macbean and Stephen Bainbridge have also developed and shared exhibitions informed by railways in Crown Street Art Gallery.  The Head of Steam railway museum programmes regular exhibitions and events, frequently involving practicing artists and organisations.