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Stockton
Historical and geographical information
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Dates are in red.
Hyperlinks to other pages are in dark blue.
Headlines are in brown.
References and citations are in turquoise.
Contextual history is in purple.
This
webpage about the Stockton has the
following section headings:
- Farndale
family history and Stockton
- Stockton,
overview
- Timeline of Stockton
history
- The Stockton
and Darlington Railway
- Links, texts and books
The Farndales of Stockton
The Stockton
1 Line are the descendants of John Farndale (FAR00230), 1796 to
1868, farmer, farm labourer, then iron foundry labourer in Stockton.
John Farndale (FAR00305)(born
1829) was a grocer’s warehouseman of Stockton. Peter Farndale (FAR00373), 1847
to 1895 was a solicitor’s clerk of Stockton. The Stockton 2 Line are the
descendants of Robert Farndale (FAR00254), 1814
to 1866, was a master grocer of Stockton (grocer's assistant in 1861). Robert
Edward Farndale (FAR00363)
1844 to 1875 was a plasterer and cement maker of Stockton who later lived in
Birmingham. The Stockton 3 Line are the
descendants of William Farndale (FAR00386), born
1851, was a footman of Hutton Ambro and later a labourer in a wine vault. James
Farndale (FAR00833),
1916 to 1941 was a private of the West Yorkshire Regiment who died of wounds on
16th March 1941 in Eritrea.
John Farndale (FAR00217), the
author lived in Stockton.
Stockton
Stockton-on-Tees is
a market town in County Durham.
Stockton is an Anglo-Saxon name with the typical
Anglo-Saxon place name ending 'ton' meaning farm, or homestead. The name is
thought by some to derive from the Anglo-Saxon word Stocc meaning
log, tree trunk or wooden post. 'Stockton' could therefore mean a farm built of
logs. This is disputed, because when the word Stocc
forms the first part of a place name it usually indicates a derivation from the
similar word Stoc, meaning cell, monastery
or place. 'Stoc' names along with places called Stoke or Stow, usually indicate farms which
belonged to a manor or religious house. It is thought that Stockton fell into
this category and perhaps the name is an indication that Stockton was an
outpost of Durham or Norton which were both important
Anglo-Saxon centres. This is a matter of dispute, but Stockton was only a part
of Norton until the eighteenth century, when it became an independent parish in its own right. Today the roles have been reversed
and Norton has been demoted to a part of Stockton.
Stockton Timeline
125,000 BCE
Stockton
is known to be the home of the fossilised remains of the most northerly hippopotamus ever
discovered on Earth. In 1958, an archaeological dig four miles north-west of
the town discovered a molar tooth from a hippo dating back 125,000 years ago.
However, no-one knows where exactly the tooth was discovered, who discovered
it, or why the dig took place. The tooth was sent to the borough's librarian
and curator, G. F. Leighton, who then sent to the Natural History Museum, London.
Since then the tooth has been missing, and people are trying to rediscover it.
Anglo Saxon
Stockton
began as an Anglo-Saxon settlement on high ground close to the northern bank of
the River Tees.
The Victoria County History – Durham, A History of the County
of Durham: Volume 3 Parishes: Stockton on Tees, 1928: The early
history of Stockton is bound up with that of Norton. From the names it may be
surmised that Stockton was the original Anglian settlement formed upon a
defensible site beside the river, and that Norton afterwards grew up to the
north either as pleasanter to dwell in or more secure from attack. Later, while
the church was built at Norton, which thus gave a name to the parish, the
bishops preferred to establish their manor-house at Stockton, which provided a
name for the ward or administrative division of the county.
1138
The manor of
Stockton was created around 1138.
1189
The
manor of Stockton was purchased by Bishop Pudsey of Durham in
1189.
Thirteenth century
During
the 13th century, the bishop turned the village of Stockton into a borough.
When the bishop freed the serfs of Stockton, craftsmen came
to live in the new town. The bishop had a residence in Stockton Castle,
which was just a fortified manor house.
1310
Stockton's
market can trace its history to 1310 when Bishop Bek of Durham granted a
market charter: to
our town of Stockton a market upon every Wednesday for ever. The town grew
into a busy little port, exporting wool and
importing wine which
was demanded by the upper class. However even by the standards of the
time, medieval Stockton-on-Tees was a small town
with a population of only around 1,000, and did not grow any larger for
centuries.
1376
The
first recorded reference to the castle was in 1376.
1569
The
Victoria County History – Durham, A History of the
County of Durham: Volume 3 Parishes: Stockton on Tees, 1928: According to Sir
George Bowes in 1569 'the best country for corn' lay around Stockton. The
district was in 1647 described as a 'champion country, very fruitful, though a
stiff clay'; there was no wood growing on the castle demesne or elsewhere in
that part of the country. In an official report of the end of the 18th century
the soil was described as loamy or rich clay; the flat grounds near the Tees,
which were of considerable extent, were drained by means of wide ditches
commonly called 'Stells.' Wheat and other cereals are grown. A chamber of
agriculture was formed in 1888.
Seventeenth century
Shipbuilding
in Stockton, which had begun in the 15th century, prospered in the 17th and
18th centuries. Smaller-scale industries began developing around this time,
such as brick, sail and rope making, the latter reflected in road names such as
Ropery Street in the town centre. Stockton became the major port for County Durham,
the North Riding of Yorkshire and Westmorland during
this period, exporting mainly rope made in the town, agricultural produce
and lead from
the Yorkshire Dales.
1644
The Scots captured
Stockton Castle in 1644 and occupied it until 1646. It was destroyed at the
order of Oliver Cromwell at the end of the Civil War.
1735
The
Town House was built in 1735.
1740
The
Victoria County History – Durham, A History of the
County of Durham: Volume 3 Parishes: Stockton on Tees, 1928: In 1740 there was a great disturbance
here; wheat was scarce, and in May and June the populace refused to allow any
to be exported from the town. Soldiers were brought in to overawe them, some
prisoners were made and sent to Durham, but there the mob released them. Troops,
this time Germans, were again brought to Stockton in 1745–6 during the alarm
caused by the early successes of the Scottish Jacobites
under Charles Edward the Young Pretender, and their advance to Carlisle and
Derby. Their final defeat at Culloden was celebrated in festive manner; among
other illuminations was that provided by a raft laden with combustibles on fire
and sent floating down the Tees. Wesley, who visited the town many times, gives
the following account of a press-gang raid in July 1759:
I
began near Stockton market-place as usual. I had
hardly finished the hymn when I observed the people in great confusion, which
was occasioned by a lieutenant of a man-of-war who had chosen that time to
bring his press-gang and ordered them to take Joseph Jones and William Allwood.
Joseph Jones telling him, 'Sir, I belong to Mr. Wesley,' after a few words he
let him go; as he did likewise William Allwood, after a few hours,
understanding he was a licensed preacher. He likewise seized upon a young man
of the town, but the women rescued him by main strength. They also broke the
lieutenant's head, and so stoned both him and his men that they ran away with
all speed.
1766
The
first theatre in Stockton opened in 1766.
1771
In
1771, a five arch stone bridge was built replacing the nearby Bishop's Ferry.
Until the opening of the Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge in
1911, this was the lowest bridging point on the Tees.
1779
The Victoria County History – Durham, A History of the County
of Durham: Volume 3 Parishes: Stockton on Tees, 1928: The wars with the
French in the latter part of the 18th century contributed in certain ways, as
in shipbuilding, to the material prosperity of the town, but alarm was caused
in 1779 by the appearance of Paul Jones, the American privateer, off the mouth
of the Tees, where he captured a sloop. A small band of volunteers was raised
about that time for the defence of the town, and another corps in 1798 called
the Loyal Stockton Volunteers or 'Blue Coats.' These were disbanded in 1802,
but again enrolled in 1803, and finally disembodied in 1813.
Late Eighteenth Century
From
the end of the 18th century the Industrial Revolution changed
Stockton from a small and quiet market town into a flourishing centre of heavy
industry. The town grew rapidly as the Industrial Revolution progressed, with
iron making and engineering beginning in the town in the 18th century.
1807
Wordsworth
wrote part of the White Doe of Rylstone while on a visit to the
Hutchinsons at Stockton in 1807.
1851
The
town's population was 10,000 in 1851. . The discovery of iron ore in
the Eston Hills resulted
in blast furnaces lining the River Tees from
Stockton to the river's mouth. In 1820 an Act set up the Commissioners, a body
with responsibility for lighting and cleaning the streets. From 1822
Stockton-on-Tees was lit by gas.
1822
In
1822, Stockton witnessed an event which changed the face of the world forever
and heralded the dawn of a new era in trade, industry
and travel. The first rail of George
Stephenson's Stockton and Darlington Railway was
laid near St. John's crossing on Bridge Road. Hauled by Locomotion No
1, the great engineer himself manned the engine on its first journey
on 27 September 1825. Fellow engineer and friend, Timothy
Hackworth acted as guard. This was the world's first passenger
railway, connecting Stockton with Shildon.
The opening of the railway greatly boosted Stockton, making it easier to bring
coal to the factories; however the port declined as business had moved down
river to Middlesbrough.
1827
Stockton
witnessed another discovery in 1827. Local chemist John Walker invented the friction
match in his shop at 59 High Street. The first sale of the
matches was recorded in his sales-book on 7 April 1827, to a Mr. Hixon, a
solicitor in the town. Since he did not obtain a patent, Walker received
neither fame nor wealth for his invention, but he was able to retire some years
before his death. He died in 1859 at the age of 78 and is buried in the parish
churchyard in Norton village.
1834
In
1833 the then Bishop of Durham, William Van Mildert (1765 - 1836) gifted five
acres and the land of an existing burial site called "The Monument"
(originally a mass grave from a prior cholera outbreak) to the town of
Stockton. Upon this land, the process of building of and designing the gothic
style Holy Trinity Church began, using funds originally allocated for church
building in the Commissioners' church Act of 1818. It was designed by John and
Benjamin Green, and construction began in 1834. It was consecrated as an
Anglican church on December 22, 1835.
1856
The
first bell for Big Ben was cast by John Warner and Sons in Norton on 6 August 1856, but became
damaged beyond repair while being tested on site and had to be replaced by a
foundry more local to Westminster.
1858
The Victoria County History – Durham, A History of the County
of Durham: Volume 3 Parishes: Stockton on Tees, 1928: A weekly
newspaper, the Stockton and Thornaby Herald, is published at Stockton on
Saturdays. It was founded in 1858. The earliest newspaper published here was
the Advertiser, begun in 1858, but lasting only a year. A local magazine called
the Stockton Bee began in 1793 and continued until 1795; it contained essays,
poems, puzzles and other miscellaneous articles. The
Gazette was founded in 1859 by the efforts of Robert Spears, a Unitarian
minister then stationed at Stockton. It continues as the North-eastern Gazette,
published at Middlesbrough. The News and Advertiser, begun in 1864, and the
Examiner, later, did not succeed.
1867
1877
A
hospital opened in Stockton in 1862 and a public library opened in 1877.
1881
Steam trams began running
in the streets in 1881 and were replaced by electric trams in 1897. Buses
replaced the trams in 1931.
1901
Stockton’s
population had reached over 50,000 in 1901.
1928
The
Victoria County History – Durham, A History of the
County of Durham: Volume 3 Parishes: Stockton on Tees, 1928: The town of
Stockton grew up on the elevated tongue of land between the Tees and Lustring
Beck, along the road going north from the Bishop of Durham's manor-house or
castle, long ago destroyed, to the old parish church at Norton…. Stockton is now
mainly urban, but it was formerly a rich agricultural district. … The main
part of the town of Stockton, centrally placed in its township, stands well up
above the river, here flowing north, whereas on the opposite Yorkshire bank the
land is low and flat; but to the east of the town is a large low-lying tract of
marsh land, and on the north and west is the valley of the Lustring Beck. The
winding course of the Tees to the east of the town caused serious inconvenience
to shipping even when sea-going vessels were very small compared with their
modern successors.
1930s
In
the 1930s slums were cleared and the first council houses were built. At this
time, Stockton was still dominated by the engineering industry and there was
also a chemicals industry in the town.
1933
On
10 September 1933 the Battle of Stockton took place, in which
between 200 and 300 supporters of the British Union of Fascists were taken
to Stockton and attempted to hold a rally in the town, but they were driven out
by up to 2,000 anti-fascist demonstrators.
1990s
In
the late 20th century manufacturing industry severely declined, although
the service industries grew, and today are the
town's main employers.
The Ragworth district near the town centre was the scene of
rioting in July 1992, when local youths threw stones at buildings, set cars
alight and threw missiles at police and fire crews. The area later saw a
£12million regeneration which involved mass demolition or refurbishment of the
existing properties, as well as new housing and community facilities being
built.
The Stockton and Darlington Railway
The Stockton and Darlington Railway (“S&DR”)
was a railway company that operated in north-east England from 1825 to 1863.
The world's first public railway to use steam
locomotives, its first line connected collieries near Shildon with Stockton-on-Tees and Darlington,
and was officially opened on 27 September 1825. The movement of coal to ships
rapidly became a lucrative business, and the line was soon extended to a new
port and town at Middlesbrough. While coal waggons were hauled
by steam locomotives from the start, passengers were carried in coaches drawn
by horses until carriages hauled by steam locomotives were introduced in 1833.
The
S&DR was involved in the building of the East Coast Main Line between York and Darlington,
but its main expansion was at Middlesbrough Docks and west into Weardale and
east to Redcar.
It
suffered severe financial difficulties at the end of the 1840s and was nearly
taken over by the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway,
before the discovery of iron ore in Cleveland and the subsequent increase in
revenue meant it could pay its debts.
At
the beginning of the 1860s it took over railways that had crossed the Pennines to
join the West Coast Main Line at Tebay and Clifton, near Penrith.
The
company was taken over by the North Eastern Railway in
1863, transferring 200 route miles of line and about 160 locomotives, but
continued to operate independently as the Darlington Section until 1876.
The opening of the S&DR was seen as
proof of the effectiveness of steam railways and its anniversary was celebrated
in 1875, 1925 and 1975. Much of the original route is now served by the Tees Valley
Line, operated by Northern.
.jpg)
The seal of the Stockton & Darlington Railway
The Victoria County
History – Durham, A History of the County of Durham: Volume 3 Parishes:
Stockton on Tees, 1928: Stockton
has a prominent place in the history of railways, for the first line on which
locomotive engines were used is that from Stockton to Darlington. This was
begun in 1822 and formally opened on 27 September 1825. The station was at the
south end of the town and is now a goods station. The line was continued along
the line of quays. In 1830 a suspension bridge was thrown across the Tees to
carry a line to Middlesbrough; this had to be supported by timber struts, and
in 1844 was replaced by an iron bridge. Coals were delivered at Stockton by the
Port Clarence railway in 1833. A railway to Hartlepool was opened in 1841, the
station being in Bishopton Lane; the company was incorporated in 1842. In 1852
it was amalgamated with the Hartlepool West Harbour and Dock Company as the
West Hart!epool Harbour and
Railway Company, and took over the Port Clarence line. In 1846 the Leeds and
Northern railway, now the North Eastern, obtained
powers to make a branch to Stockton by way of Yarm and Egglescliffe,
and the station in Bishopton Lane was opened on 15 May 1852. By amalgamation in
1854 and later all the lines have been united in the North
Eastern system, and the Bishopton Lane station has been enlarged and
made the only passenger station in the parish, that called Eaglescliffe
Station being just outside on the south. There is a branch goods line with a
station in Norton Road, at the north end, running to the river side; near this
point there is a ferry across to Thornaby. The Stockton and Castle Eden branch
passes on the west through Stockton and East Hartburn. The tramways through
Stockton connect the town with Thornaby, Middlesbrough and North Ormesby in one
direction and with Norton in another; they were first formed in 1882, and are owned by a private company. Before that time
there was an omnibus service to Norton.
Eighteenth century
Coal from the inland mines
in southern County Durham was taken away on packhorses,
and then horse and carts as the roads were improved. A canal was proposed
by George Dixon in 1767
and again by John Rennie in 1815, but both schemes
failed. Meanwhile, the port of Stockton-on-Tees,
from which the Durham coal was transported onwards by sea, had invested
considerably during the early 19th century in straightening the Tees in order to
improve navigation on the river downstream of the town and was subsequently
looking for ways to increase trade to recoup those costs.
A few years later a canal
was proposed on a route that bypassed Darlington and Yarm, and a meeting was
held in Yarm to oppose the route. The Welsh engineer George Overton was
consulted, and he advised building a tramroad. Overton carried out a survey and
planned a route from the Etherley and Witton
Collieries to Shildon, and then passing to the north of Darlington to
reach Stockton.
1818
The Scottish
engineer Robert Stevenson was
said to favour the railway, and the Quaker Edward Pease supported
it at a public meeting in Darlington on 13 November 1818, promising a five per
cent return on investment. Approximately two-thirds of the shares were
sold locally, and the rest were bought by Quakers nationally.
1819
A private bill was
presented to Parliament in March
1819, but as the route passed through Earl of Eldon's estate and one of
the Earl of Darlington's fox
coverts, it was opposed and defeated by 13 votes.
1820
Overton surveyed a new
line that avoided Darlington's estate and agreement was reached with Eldon, but
another application was deferred early in 1820, as the death of King George
III had made it unlikely a bill would pass that parliamentary
year. The promoters lodged a bill on 30 September 1820, the route having
changed again as agreement had not been reached with Viscount Barrington about the line passing
over his land. The railway was unopposed this time, but the bill nearly
failed to enter the committee stage as the required four-fifths of shares had
not been sold.
Pease subscribed £7,000;
from that time he had considerable influence over the
railway and it became known as "the Quaker line".
1821
The Act that
received royal assent on 19 April 1821 allowed for
a railway that could be used by anyone with suitably built vehicles on payment
of a toll, that was closed at night, and with which land owners within 5 miles could
build branches and make junctions; no mention was made of steam
locomotives. This new railway initiated the construction of more railway
lines, causing significant developments in railway mapping and cartography, iron and steel manufacturing, as well as in any industries
requiring more efficient transportation.
Concerned about Overton's
competence, Pease asked George
Stephenson, an experienced engine-wright of the collieries of
Killingworth, to meet him in Darlington.
On 12 May 1821 the
shareholders appointed Thomas Meynell as Chairman and Jonathan Backhouse as
treasurer; a majority of the managing committee, which included Thomas Richardson, Edward
Pease and his son Joseph Pease, were Quakers.
The committee designed a
seal, showing waggons being pulled by a horse, and adopted the Latin motto Periculum
privatum utilitas publica ("At private risk for public
service").
By 23 July 1821 it had
decided that the line would be a railway with edge rails, rather than a plateway,
and appointed Stephenson to make a fresh survey of the line. Stephenson
recommended using malleable iron rails, even though he owned a share of the
patent for the alternative cast iron rails, and both types were
used. Stephenson was assisted by his 18-year-old son Robert during
the survey, and by the end of 1821 had reported that a usable line could
be built within the bounds of the Act, but another route would be shorter by 3
miles and avoid deep cuttings and tunnels.
1822
Overton had kept himself available, but had no further involvement and the
shareholders elected Stephenson Engineer on 22 January 1822, with a salary of
£660 per year.
On 23 May 1822 a ceremony
in Stockton celebrated the laying of the first track at St John's Well, the
rails 4 feet 8 inches apart, the same gauge used
by Stephenson on his Killingworth Railway.
Stephenson advocated the use of steam
locomotives on the line. Pease visited Killingworth in mid-1822 and
the directors visited Hetton colliery railway, on which
Stephenson had introduced steam locomotives.
1823
A new bill was presented, requesting
Stephenson's deviations from the original route and the use of
"loco-motives or moveable engines", and this received assent on 23
May 1823. The line included embankments up to 48 feet high, and Stephenson
designed an iron truss bridge to cross the River Gaunless. The stone bridge over the River Skerne was
designed by the Durham architect Ignatius
Bonomi.
In 1823 Stephenson and Pease
opened Robert Stephenson and Company, a locomotive works
at Forth Street, Newcastle, from which the following
year the S&DR ordered two steam locomotives and two stationary engines.
1825
On 16 September 1825, with the
stationary engines in place, the first locomotive, Locomotion
No. 1, left the works, and the following day it was advertised that
the railway would open on 27 September 1825.
.jpg)
The opening procession of
the Stockton and Darlington Railway crosses the Skerne bridge
The cost of building the
railway had greatly exceeded the estimates.
By September 1825 the
company had borrowed £60,000 in short-term loans and needed to start earning an
income to ward off its creditors. A railway coach, named Experiment, arrived
on the evening of 26 September 1825 and was attached to Locomotion No. 1,
which had been placed on the rails for the first time at Aycliffe Lane station following the
completion of its journey by road from Newcastle earlier that same day. Pease, Stephenson and other members of the committee then made an
experimental journey to Darlington before taking the locomotive and coach to
Shildon in preparation for the opening day, with James Stephenson, George's
elder brother, at the controls.
On 27 September 1825,
between 7am and 8am, 12 waggons of coal were drawn up Etherley
North Bank by a rope attached to the stationary engine at the top, and then let
down the South Bank to St Helen's
Auckland. A waggon of flour bags was attached and horses hauled the
train across the Gaunless Bridge to the bottom
of Brusselton West Bank,
where thousands watched the second stationary engine draw the train up the
incline. The train was let down the East Bank to Mason's Arms Crossing at
Shildon Lane End, where Locomotion No. 1, Experiment and 21 new
coal waggons fitted with seats were waiting.
The directors had allowed
room for 300 passengers, but the train left carrying between 450 and 600
people, most travelling in empty waggons but some on top of waggons full of
coal. Brakesmen were placed between the waggons, and
the train set off, led by a man on horseback with a flag. It picked up speed on
the gentle downward slope and reached 10 to 12 miles per hour, leaving behind
men on field hunters (horses) who had tried to
keep up with the procession.
The train stopped when the
waggon carrying the company surveyors and engineers lost a wheel; the waggon
was left behind and the train continued. The train stopped again, this time for
35 minutes to repair the locomotive and the train set off again, reaching
15 mph before it was welcomed by an estimated 10,000 people as it came to
a stop at the Darlington branch junction.
Eight and a half miles had
been covered in two hours, and subtracting the 55
minutes accounted by the two stops, it had travelled at an average speed of
8 mph. Six waggons of coal were distributed to the poor, workers stopped
for refreshments and many of the passengers from Brusselton
alighted at Darlington, to be replaced by others.
Two waggons for the Yarm
Band were attached, and at 12:30pm the locomotive started for Stockton, now
hauling 31 vehicles with 550 passengers. On the 5 miles of nearly level track
east of Darlington the train struggled to reach more than 4 mph. At Eaglescliffe near Yarm crowds
waited for the train to cross the Stockton to Yarm turnpike. Approaching
Stockton, running alongside the turnpike as it skirted the western edge
of Preston Park, it gained
speed and reached 15 mph again, before a man clinging to the outside of a
waggon fell off and his foot was crushed by the following vehicle. As work on
the final section of track to Stockton's quayside was still ongoing, the train
halted at the temporary passenger terminus at St John's Well 3 hours, 7 minutes
after leaving Darlington. The opening ceremony was considered a success and
that evening 102 people sat down to a celebratory dinner at the Town Hall.
The railway
that opened in September 1825 was 25 miles long and ran from Phoenix Pit, Old Etherley Colliery, to Cottage Row, Stockton; there was also
a ½ mile branch to the depot at Darlington, ½ mile
of the Hagger Leases branch, and a ¾ mile branch to Yarm. Most of the
track used 28 pounds per yard malleable iron rails, and 4 miles of 57 ½
lb/yd cast iron rails were used for junctions. The line was single track
with four passing loops each mile; square sleepers supported each rail
separately so that horses could walk between them.
Stone was used for the
sleepers to the west of Darlington and oak to the east; Stephenson would have
preferred all of them to have been stone, but the transport cost was too high
as they were quarried in the Auckland area. The railway opened with the company
owing money and unable to raise further loans; Pease advanced money twice early
in 1826 so the workers could be paid.
1827
By August 1827 the company
had paid its debts and was able to raise more money. That month the Black Boy
branch opened and construction began on the Croft and
Hagger Leases branches. During 1827 shares rose from £120 at the start to £160
at the end.
The route of the Stockton &
Darlington Railway in 1827, shown in black, with today's railway lines shown in
red
Initially the line was
used to carry coal to Darlington and Stockton, carrying
10,000 tons in the first three months and earning nearly £2,000. In
Stockton the price of coal dropped from 18 to 12 shillings, and by the beginning of 1827
was 8 shillings 6 pence (8s
6d). Initially the drivers had been paid a daily wage, but after February
1826 they were paid ¼ d per ton per mile; from this they had to pay
assistants and fireman and to buy coal for the locomotive.
The 1821 Act had received
opposition from the owners of collieries on the River Wear who
supplied London and feared competition, and it had been necessary to restrict
the rate for transporting coal destined for ships to ½ d per ton per
mile, which had been assumed would make the business uneconomic. There was
interest from London for 100,000 tons a year, so the company began
investigations in September 1825.
In January 1826 the first staith opened at Stockton, designed so waggons over a
ship's hold could discharge coal from the bottom. A little over 18,500
tons of coal was transported to ships in the year ending June 1827 and this
increased to over 52,000 tons the following year, 44 ½ per cent of the total carried.
The locomotives were
unreliable at first. Soon after opening, Locomotion No. 1 broke a
wheel, and it was not ready for traffic until 12 or 13 October. Hope,
the second locomotive, arrived in November 1825 but needed a week to ready it
for the line. The cast-iron wheels were a source of trouble. Two more
locomotives of a similar design arrived in 1826; that August 16s 9d was spent
on ale to motivate the men maintaining the engines. By the end of 1827 the
company had also bought Chittaprat from
Robert Wilson and Experiment from Stephenson. Timothy
Hackworth, locomotive superintendent, used the boiler from the
unsuccessful Chittaprat to build the Royal
George in the works at Shildon and it started work at the end of
November. John Wesley Hackworth later published an account stating
that locomotives would have been abandoned were it not for the fact that Pease
and Thomas Richardson were partners with Stephenson in the Newcastle works, and
that when Timothy Hackworth was commissioned to rebuild Chittaprat it was "as a last experiment"
to "make an engine in his own way". Both Tomlinson and
Rolt stated this claim was unfounded and the company had shown earlier
that locomotives were superior to horses, Tomlinson showing that coal was being
moved using locomotives at half the cost of horses. Robert Young states
that the company was unsure as to the real costs as they reported to
shareholders in 1828 that the saving using locomotives was 30 per cent. Young
also showed that Pease and Richardson were both concerned about their
investment in the Newcastle works and Pease unsuccessfully tried to sell his
share to George Stephenson.
New locomotives were
ordered from Stephenson's, but the first was too heavy when it arrived in
February 1828. It was rebuilt with six wheels and hailed as a great improvement, Hackworth being told to convert the remaining
locomotives as soon as possible. In 1828 two locomotive boilers exploded within
four months, both killing the driver and both due to the safety valves being
left fixed down while the engine was stationary. Horses were also used on
the line, and they could haul up to four waggons. The dandy cart was
introduced in mid 1828: a small cart at the end of
the train, this carried the horse downhill, allowing it to rest and the train
to run at higher speed. The S&DR made their use compulsory from November
1828.
Passenger traffic started
on 10 October 1825, after the required licence was purchased, using
the Experiment coach hauled by a horse. The coach was initially
timetabled to travel from Stockton to Darlington in two hours, with a fare of
1s, and made a return journey four days a week and a one-way journey on
Tuesdays and Saturdays.
In April 1826 the
operation of the coach was contracted for £200 a year; by then the timetabled
journey time had been reduced to 1 ¼ hours and passengers were
allowed to travel on the outside for 9d. A more comfortable coach, Express,
started the same month and charged 1s 6d for travel inside. Innkeepers
began running coaches, two to Shildon from July, and the Union, which
served the Yarm branch from 16 October. There were no stations. In
Darlington the coaches picked up passengers near the north road crossing,
whereas in Stockton they picked up at different places on the quay.
Between 30,000 and 40,000
passengers were carried between July 1826 and June 1827.
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