New Shildon: an exploration of a pioneering railway town fuelled by coal
Lecture
Marcus Jecock and Lucy Jessop
Lecture Room 2, Herschel Building, Newcastle University
Description
Today we think of the arrival of the railways as transformative for landscapes, places and industries, bringing swift, intense change to the population. So it was for Shildon, a small community in rural County Durham, when the Stockton & Darlington Railway (S&DR) was constructed on its doorstep between 1822 and 1825.
In 2021-23, Historic England researched the buildings and planning of New Shildon, as this newer section of the town was initially known (today the original and new parts of the settlement are collectively known as Shildon), as part of our contribution to the Stockton & Darlington Railway Heritage Action Zone initiative of 2018-23. This research culminated in a Historic Area Assessment.
New Shildon plays a central part in the story of the S&DR and railway history in general. Once the home of the S&DR’s engineering works, it now houses Locomotion, part of the National Railway Museum, and it is celebrated as England’s first railway town. The museum brings visitors to this part of the historic line – much of which remains in railway use – and the town retains buildings which express the history of the railway and of other industries, as well as reflecting national changes in religion, education and housing.