Darlington

Darlington is a large market town in County Durham, England. The Borough of Darlington is governed from the town. In 2011, the town had a population of 92,363 and the larger Borough of Darlington‘s population was recorded as 105,564.[2][3][4]

The unitary authority is a constituent member of the Tees Valley Combined Authority. The borough, therefore, is part of the Tees Valley mayoralty. The River Skerne flows through the town; it is a tributary of the River Tees. The Tees itself flows along south of the town.

In the 19th century, Darlington underwent substantial industrial development, spurred by the establishment there of the world's first permanent steam-locomotive-powered passenger railway: the Stockton and Darlington Railway. Much of the vision (and financing) behind the railway's creation was provided by local Quaker families in the Georgian and Victorian eras.

Darlington started as an Anglo-Saxon settlement. The name Darlington derives from 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.[5]

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 is Grade I listed.[6] 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 the 18th century.)[7]

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.)[5]

During the early 19th century, Darlington remained a small market town.[8]

The Stockton and Darlington Railway ran steam locomotives designed for passengers and goods, built to a standard gauge, on 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 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. The largest of these was the main-line Darlington Works, whose main factory, the North Road Shops, opened in 1863 and remained in operation until 1966. A second works, Robert Stephenson & Co. (colloquially: "Stivvies"), moved to Darlington from Newcastle upon Tyne in 1902. It was renamed "Robert Stephensons & Hawthorns" in 1937, was absorbed by English Electric around 1960, and had closed by 1964. The third was Faverdale Wagon Works, which was established in 1923 and closed in 1962. In the 1950s, it was a UK pioneer in applying mass-production techniques to the manufacture of railway-goods wagons.

As the 19th century progressed, Quaker families in the Darlington area, such as the Peases and Backhouses, became prominent employers and philanthropists. Darlington's most famous landmark, the clock tower, was given to the town by the industrialist Joseph Pease in 1864.[9] The clock's face was crafted by T. Cooke & Sons of York, and the tower bells were cast by John Warner & Sons of nearby Norton-on-Tees.[6] These bells were the sister bells to those inside the Elizabeth Tower at the Houses of Parliament in London, the most famous of which is Big Ben.

The Darlington Mechanics Institute was opened in 1854 by Elizabeth Pease Nichol, who had made the largest donation towards its building costs.[10] The 91-acre South Park was redeveloped into its current form in 1853, with financial support from the Backhouse family.[11]

Alfred Waterhouse, who designed London's Natural History Museum and Manchester Town Hall, also designed Darlington’s Grade II-listed old Town Hall and Market Hall (in 1860), and its Backhouse's Bank building (in 1864). The latter, which took three years to build, is today now a branch of Barclays bank.[6]

During this same period, the architect George Gordon Hoskins was responsible for much of the town's architecture, designing buildings such as The King's Head Hotel.

The Darlington Free Library, a Grade II listed building situated in Crown Street, was built with £10,000 funding from Edward Pease, who lived from 1834 to 1880. It was opened on 23 October 1885 by his daughter, Lady Lymington, after the town council accepted the gift of the purpose-built library and agreed to run it in perpetuity.

(The library building today houses a central lending department, a reference library and a "centre for local studies".)[12][13]

In 1870, The Northern Echo newspaper was launched.[14] William Thomas Stead, a notable editor of The Northern Echo, died in the Titanic disaster in 1912. Opposite the Northern Echo building in Priestgate is the William Stead public house.

In 1939, Darlington had the most cinema seats per capita in the United Kingdom.[6]

On the night of 13 January 1945, a Lancaster bomber piloted by Pilot Officer William Stuart McMullen of Canada 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.[15][16]

Starting in 1993, the rail enthusiast group A1 Steam Locomotive Trust[17] worked on building an all-new steam locomotive, 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 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.[18][19][20]

Darlington was the first town in England to allow same-sex civil ceremonies in 2001.[21] The town hosts an annual Gay Pride Festival which comprises a series of celebrations of local LGBT culture and acceptance held at venues across the town.

The town centre has undergone a full refurbishment entitled The Pedestrian Heart, which has seen the majority of the town centre pedestrianised.[22] Initially, the project received criticism surrounding changes to public transport, and removal of Victorian features along High Row.[23][24] There is now growing evidence, however, that the now-completed changes are meeting with local approval.[25] Then in 2014, the town saw the revamp of one of its old cinemas, The Majestic, into a soft play centre and theatre.

In August 2008 the King's Head Hotel in the town centre was devastated by fire, severely damaging the roof and 100 bedrooms. Several shops, including Woolworths, were damaged and had to close for weeks afterwards. No one was killed in the blaze. The hotel was carefully restored to its former glory and re-opened in 2012.[26][27]

On 1 April 1997, the Borough of Darlington became a unitary authority area with the formation of Darlington Borough Council, which separated it from the non-metropolitan county of Durham for administrative purposes only, as the town is still within County Durham for ceremonial purposes. Although the former districts and boroughs of Durham now form the unitary authority of County Durham. This means that County Durham now has four unitary authorities. As of 2021[update], the Member of Parliament (MP) for this seat is Conservative Peter Gibson. Former members of parliament for the town include Jenny Chapman, the former Shadow Prisons Minister and Shadow Minister for Leaving the European Union, Alan Milburn, the former Secretary of State for Health under the Tony Blair Labour Government and Michael Fallon, who was Secretary of State for Defence under the David Cameron 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 the River Tees and River Skerne pass through the town, the River Skerne later joining the River Tees which then flows east and into the North Sea. Neighbouring towns include Bishop Auckland, Eaglescliffe, Newton Aycliffe, Richmond, Stockton and Yarm.

There are several suburbs of Darlington. In the north are Harrowgate Hill, Harrowgate Village, Coatham Mundeville and Beaumont Hill and to 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).[28][29]

The trend of regional gross value added of Darlington at current basic prices published (pp. 240–253) by the Office for National Statistics, with figures in £ millions.

Darlington was un-industrial throughout the 20th century, with finance and manufacturing as the main elements of its economy.

A major employer in the area is the English division of the Student Loans Company, Student Finance England, who are based at Lingfield Point and employ over 1,000 people.[34] Other large service sector companies with offices in the town include Darlington Building Society. Darlington Borough Council announced the neighbouring 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 in an effort to safeguard Darlington jobs. This was officially opened on 19 March 2015.[35] The National Safeguarding Authority has a national office in the town. Amazon operates a warehouse facility, which opened in early 2020, employing 1,300 full-time staff, one of the town’s biggest employers.

EE are the largest private sector employers in the town, hiring 2,500 people. The company took over its operations from one of its predecessors, Orange Mobile. The international telecommunications company BT Group recently announced Darlington as one of the economically important locations in England to have BT fibre-optic cables installed underground as part of the company's BT Infinity superfast broadband rollout project. BT Group cites their decision to include Darlington in the national rollour of multi-provider fibre optic (cable) broadband as necessary due to the towns relatively large amount of IT demanding firms and future plans for developments including space for high-tech firms. Darlington Borough Council, residents and local businesses praised the decision by BT Group and it is hoped the investment will attract enterprise to the town, potentially creating employment for residents and boosting the economy.

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. Companies based in Morton Park and the surrounding area are Infoserve Ltd and vehicle rental company Northgate Vehicle Hire. Morrisons at Morton Park[36] opened in August 1995.

Other commercial spaces in Darlington include North Road Industrial Estate, which includes a Morrisons supermarket;[37] Cleveland Trading Estate and Faverdale Industrial Estate. The council depot on Central Park is also to be redeveloped into commercial space.

Darlington has long been a centre for engineering, major firm within the engineering industry based in the town. Bridge building is prevalent in the town, bridges built in Darlington are found as far away as the River Nile and the River Amazon.[5] Engineering firms include:

As a historic market town, a weekly outdoor market on the market square, which one of the biggest in the country. An indoor market is located underneath the town clock on Prebend Row.

They are a number of shops in the area:

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 development includes a new multiplex cinema run by Vue Cinemas to serve Darlington and the wider South Durham area, as the area currently has no multiplex cinema. The development has an 80 bedroom Premier Inn hotel, and various food and drink venues including Prezzo, Bella Italia and Hungry Horse. The proposal had an expected completion date of late 2014, though this did overrun with completion early 2016.[42]

Darlington Memorial Hospital is on Hollyhurst Road,[43] in the corridor between Woodland Road and The Denes.

The town's main museum is Head of Steam, sited near North Road railway station – it and Piercebridge Roman Fort near the town are run by the Darlington Museum Service.[44]

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 the Heritage Lottery Fund and revamped as 'The Hippodrome' and connects to the children's theatre 'Hullabaloo'.[45]

The smaller but well-used Arts Centre, founded in 1982, featured smaller events, film screenings and more experimental material; however this closed in 2012.[46]

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 the Hummersknott end of town, was another music venue.

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.

The Jamia Mosque and Islamic Society of Darlington is located in the North Lodge Terrace area of the town,[47][48] an area with a relatively high proportion of ethnic minority residents (39.2% of the population in that area, compared to a town average of 6.3%).[49] Constituted as a charity under UK law in 1982,[50] the mosque offers worship facilities, as well as Islamic education, and has its own telecommunications mast for calls to prayer.[51]

Teesside International Airport is five miles (eight kilometres) east of Darlington town centre and serves County Durham and North Yorkshire. The airport was known as Durham Tees Valley Airport, 2004 until mid-2019. It has flights to a few domestic locations across the UK and international flights to locations across Europe. Many private or General Aviation Flights use the airport. Weston Aviation are there for that purpose. The airport has a Fire Training Centre that trains many airport firefighters from all over the UK.

The next-nearest large airports are Newcastle (42 miles (68 kilometres)) and Leeds Bradford (62 miles (100 kilometres)).

Local services run from North Road railway station, the town's original station. Darlington railway station lies on the East Coast Main Line and has regular services to London Kings Cross, Leeds City, Edinburgh Waverley, Manchester Piccadilly, Manchester Airport and Newcastle.

Darlington railway station also serves as the mainline interchange for Middlesbrough station, which itself has few intercity services. Darlington also has access to the Tees Valley Line connecting all the main settlements along the River Tees, and runs from Bishop Auckland to Saltburn via Darlington, Stockton-on-Tees and Middlesbrough among many other smaller settlements.

Darlington railway station boasts a large Victorian clock tower which, in the relatively low rise town centre, can be seen throughout large areas of the town.

Darlington is well connected to the North East's major trunk route, the A1(M), which bypasses the town to the west. It was completed in 1965, replacing the Great North Road route which is now known as the A167. The town is served by three closely-spaced junctions of the A1(M): Junctions 57 A66(M), 58 A68, and 59 A167. Junction 59 is the access exit for Darlington Motorway Services (Newton Park), with an onsite filling station, hotel and restaurant. Darlington is also close to other major trunk routes, including the A66 trans-Pennine route connecting Darlington to Stockton and the A19.

The £5.9 million five miles (eight kilometres) A66 Darlington Eastern Bypass opened on 25 November 1985. The Darlington Eastern Transport Corridor, linking the Central Park regeneration zone (Haughton Road) and Darlington town centre to a new roundabout on the A66, was opened in the summer of 2008.

Bus transport in the town is provided by Arriva North East. Darlington lost out on considerable public receipts when the municipal bus operator Darlington Transport Company was placed into administration during an attempted privatisation, due to continuing financial difficulties and the Darlington Bus War.

Stagecoach used to operate in the town (since the Bus War) until 2007, when they sold their operations to Arriva. Arriva therefore became the main bus operator. Arriva services connect Darlington to neighbouring towns such as Durham, Bishop Auckland, Richmond, Stockton, and Middlesbrough.

There is also two smaller independent operators that run services in the town, which are called Dales & District and Scarlet Band.

Darlington was chosen by the Department for Transport as one of three national Sustainable Travel Demonstration Towns (together with Peterborough and Worcester) in 2004 and delivering a three-year research and marketing programme to promote sustainable travel choices under the brand name 'Local Motion'. It was also chosen as one of six cycling demonstration towns in October 2005, receiving £3 million worth of funding from the government and local council money.[52]

2007 Town Centre Pedestrian Heart Project worth 10 million pounds, saw most of Darlington Town Centre modernised with an emphasis on vehicles less common in the centre and roads pedestrianised completely.

The money has also been spent over the course of three years on other improvements to cycling facilities and routes, and linking the town to the national cycle route network. Darlington is the only place to win both sustainable travel and cycling demonstration town status.[53]

Teesside University opened a Darlington campus in 2011. It offers higher education in the town to students and businesses.

The town has one further education college, Darlington. It has two sixth forms the Queen Elizabeth (a former grammar school) and Carmel.

There are multiple secondary school academies including: Carmel College, Wyvern, Haughton, Hummersknott, Hurworth School, Longfield and St Aidan's. Polam Hall is a former boarding school, presently a free school.

There are also multiple primary schools including: Federation of Abbey Schools, Mowden School, West Park School, Skerne Park primary school

Darlington is home to the regional daily newspaper The Northern Echo and its sister weekly newspaper Darlington & Stockton Times.

The regional radio station 'Darlo Radio' broadcasts from the town.[54]

In November 2009 the town appointed an official 'Twitterer in residence', the first of its kind in the UK. Mike McTimoney (known on Twitter as TheDarloBard) is a local regular Twitter user who has been officially charged with tweeting for and about Darlington,[55] and to help promote The Darlington Experiment 2.0, the town's social media campaign.

In 1998 the County Durham town of Darlington hit the national headlines after local man David James Harker murdered and beheaded his girlfriend Julie Paterson before eating parts of her body in the Harewood Grove area, close to the large Sainsbury's supermarket; followed by the dumping of her torso which was later discovered in bushes by residents and reported to Durham Police. Harker was later diagnosed by experts as having Antisocial Personality Disorder, and is remembered as the Darlington Cannibal Killer. He was jailed for life in February 1999.[56]

The town is home to Darlington Football Club which play at Blackwell Meadows and play in National League North. Darlington Railway Athletic F.C., plays in the Wearside League Division One and play at Brinkburn Road.

Darlington FC is a phoenix club, it was formerly Darlington 1883 FC until the club reclaimed its name. The club is known as The Quakers because of the contributions made to the town by men such as Edward and Joseph Pease, members of the Religious Society of Friends. Before the 2012 administration, played at the 25,000 capacity Darlington Arena (after 120 years at the Feethams ground) when it opened on Neasham Road in 2003. In the 2010–11 season Darlington won the FA Trophy however they were relegated from the Football League, into the then Football Conference. Administration caused Darlington to play home games at Heritage Park in Bishop Auckland and relegation by four divisions to Division One of the Northern Football League, of which the club was one of the founders of in 1889, for the 2012–13 season. It moved back to Darlington from the 2016/17 season with a long term groundshare arrangement with Darlington RFC at Blackwell Meadows. Darlington's first home game at Blackwell Meadows (a 3–2 home win against Halifax Town) took place on 26 December 2016. In the subsequent season, the club was allowed to change back to its current name.[57]

Darlington has two Rugby Union clubs Darlington Mowden RFC and Darlington RFC. Darlington Mowden Park play in National League 1, the third tier of English rugby union. The club own and play at the Darlington Arena, which played a role in the 2015 Rugby World Cup as hosts to the New Zealand national team. Darlington RFC play at Blackwell Meadows in Durham/Northumberland 2.

Cricket clubs are Darlington Cricket Club and Darlington Railway Athletic Cricket Club. Both play in the North Yorkshire and South Durham Cricket League, Darlington CC won the league twenty times during the 20th century.[58]

Darlington's leading athletics club, the Darlington Harriers, was formed in 1891 and has had a number of successful athletes wearing the club colours as well as GB vests. The club celebrated its 125th year in 2016, with anniversary games held at Eastbourne Sports Complex. The Darlington 10K road run is held every August, and attracts several thousand competitors.

The Dolphin Centre, which provides a wide range of sporting facilities, was opened by Roger Bannister in 1982. It received a £5 million refurbishment in 2006 and was later officially opened by Redcar athlete Tanni Grey-Thompson.

Brick Train sculpture

Darlington in 2004

Darlington railway station

North side of Darlington centre square

Darlington is twinned with: