RT Journal Article
T1 Commemorating the past
A1 Sophie Vohra
YR 2022
VO 17
IS Spring 2022
K1 Stockton and Darlington Railway
K1  railway history
K1  commemoration
K1  memory
K1  remembrance
K1  celebration
K1  corporate history
K1  business history
K1  corporate identity
K1  identity
K1  local history
K1  localism
K1  heritage
K1  regional history
K1  technology
K1  material culture
AB This paper examines how and why communities connected to the railways celebrated anniversaries of important moments in the industry’s history. It focuses on the jubilee (1875) and centenary (1925) anniversary celebrations of the Stockton and Darlington Railway (established 1825) by railway companies, workers and local communities. While these anniversaries were used to symbolically affirm a continuity in railway history, they occurred under different organisational conditions – 1875, during the heyday of multiple smaller companies and 1925, during the consolidated control of the amalgamated ‘Big Four’. A comparative study of these commemorative events reveals continuities and changes in the construction of railway history, and corporate and community identities. To demonstrate this, the analysis will focus on narrative construction, temporal interplay between the past, present and future, and the role of agency. Conveyed through a series of commemorative ‘components’ (Papadakis, 2003), these elements converge to establish the shape and function of the events, and highlight the motivations of different groups for celebrating the past, how commemorative narratives were developed for select audiences, and what vehicles were used to carry said narratives. These core narratives concertinaed elements of the industry’s past, present and future, and were deployed to validate cultural values, draw together communities and consolidate political or economic loyalties. Overall, the paper will demonstrate how and why different stakeholders create and foster commemorative cultures, and critique and measure the efficacy of the forms and functions of this performative engagement with railway history.
NO Stockton-on-Tees Railway Centenary Committee, (1925), Stockton and Darlington Railway, The Centenary of Public Railways: At Their Birthplace, Stockton-on-Tees, With a Brief History of the Town Prior to and Since 1825 (Stockton-on-Tees: Published under the authority of the Stockton-on-Tees Railway Centenary Committee), p 61; ‘Railway Centenary Supplement, 1825-1925 – Opening of the Stockton & Darlington Railway’, 3 February 1925, Northern Echo, p 21
NO The plans for the S&DR bicentenary led by Tees Valley Combined Authority can be found here: Tees Valley Combined Authority, ‘Stockton and Darlington Railway Heritage Programme’, Culture & Tourism, https://teesvalley-ca.gov.uk/culture-tourism/stockton-and-darlington-railway-heritage-action-zone/ (15 September 2021). The National Railway Museum and Locomotion are also planning their own commemorations for 2025.
NO See for work related to railways and commemorative practices: Jack Simmons, 1980, ‘Rail 150: 1975 or 1980?’, The Journal of Transport History, Vol 1. no 1, pp 1–8; Christine Macleod, 2007, Heroes of Invention: Technology, Liberalism and British Identity, 1750–1914 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press); Ben Roberts, ‘Income Before Identity: Railway Celebrations, High Business and Local Commemoration in Darlington, 1825–1925’, 25 March 2013, Social History Society Conference (Conference paper, University of Leeds); Ben Roberts, 2014, ‘Civic Ritual in Darlington and Middlesbrough in Comparative Perspective’, (PhD thesis, Teesside University); Erin Beeston, 2020, ‘Spaces of Industrial Heritage: A History of Uses, Perceptions and the Re-making of Liverpool Road Station, Manchester’, (PhD thesis, University of Manchester).
NO Also see: Ben Roberts, 2014, ‘Civic Ritual in Darlington and Middlesbrough in Comparative Perspective’, (PhD thesis, Teesside University)
NO This paper will not question the veracity of the S&DR as the first in the world, though there have been many debates surrounding what British railway can be called the ‘first’ based on a range of criteria such as locomotive use, types of tracks and usage, for example.
NO See for context: David Gobel and Daves Rossell, 2013, ‘Introduction’, in David Gobel and Daves Rossell (eds), Commemoration in America: Essays on Monuments, Memorialization and Memory (London: University of Virginia Press), pp 1–8.
NO The National Archives, RAIL 667/165, ‘Minutes of Meeting of Committee to Celebrate the Railway Jubilee’, p 26
NO RAIL 667/165, ‘Minutes of Meeting of Committee to Celebrate the Railway Jubilee’, pp 4–5
NO RAIL 667/165, ‘Minutes of Meeting of Committee to Celebrate the Railway Jubilee’
NO RAIL 667/165, ‘Minutes of Meeting of Committee to Celebrate the Railway Jubilee’. Guests based on capital noted in this source as: ‘Where the capital of the Company is not less than £2,000,000, Chairman, Deputy Chairman, Manager, Secretary and Engineer to be invited. Under £2,000,000 and not less than £1,000,000, Chairman or Deputy Chairman and Manager or Secretary and Engineer, £1,000,000 and not under £500,000, Chairman or Deputy Chairman and Manager or Secretary, and where the Capital does not exceed £500,000 Chairman or Deputy Chairman only’. Jeans (ed), The Railway Jubilee at Darlington, September 27th and 28th, p 29.
NO National Railway Museum, NRM – Documents, 2007-7241, ‘North-Eastern Railway. Fiftieth Anniversary of the Opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway. Programme of Fireworks’; Andrew Stove Private Collection, Poster, ‘The Railway Jubilee. “General Holiday”’; Andrew Stove Private Collection, ‘North Eastern Railway. Celebration at Darlington of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, September 27th and 28th, 1875. General Programme’; Andrew Stove Private Collection, Poster, ‘Railway Jubilee. Grand Tea Meeting’
NO RAIL 667/165, ‘Minutes of Meeting of Committee to Celebrate the Railway Jubilee’; National Railway Museum, NRM – Photographic Collection, Misc/111, ‘Catalogue of Engines Exhibited, Complete with Photographs and Locomotive Histories, 1875’
NO With the range of aspects of Pease’s life represented in the statue, it was restored in 2007 and re-unveiled for the bicentenary of the Act abolishing the slave trade: ‘Statue of Joseph Pease’, Listing, Historic England, https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1322930 (accessed 20 December 2019).
NO Andrew Stove Private Collection, ‘Plan of the Town of Darlington, 1875’
NO The National Archives, RAIL 667/459, ‘Jubilee: Admission Tickets, Guide Book, Concert Programmes, Seating Plan etc’
NO S&DR motto – ‘periculum privatum utilitas publica’ which translates as ‘at private risk for public service’
NO Andrew Stove Private Collection, ‘27th September 1875 – Envelope containing Henry Pease’s Hand-written speech (15 pages) and notes for the Jubilee Banquet’
NO Andrew Stove Private Collection, ‘27th September 1875 – Envelope containing Henry Pease’s Hand-written speech (15 pages) and notes for the Jubilee Banquet’.
NO National Railway Museum, NRM – Documents, 2008-7612, ‘London and North Eastern Railway Committee Minutes Regarding the Stockton and Darlington Centenary Celebrations, 1925’
NO NRM – Documents, 2008-7612, ‘London and North Eastern Railway Committee Minutes Regarding the Stockton and Darlington Centenary Celebrations, 1925’
NO In December 1923, the Mayor of Darlington stated that ‘this celebration [the centenary] should be at Darlington, which was the recognised birthplace of railways’: NRM – Documents, 2008-7612, ‘London and North Eastern Railway Committee Minutes Regarding the Stockton and Darlington Centenary Celebrations, 1925’.
NO According to the minutes, the committee originally aimed to have King George or the Prince of Wales to unveil the commemorative plaque: NRM – Documents, 2008-7612, ‘London and North Eastern Railway Committee Minutes Regarding the Stockton and Darlington Centenary Celebrations, 1925’.
NO The National Archives, RAIL 393/336, ‘Commemoration of Railway Centenary. Guard Book Compiled by Company’
NO The National Archives, RAIL 390/14, ‘Minutes of meetings of special committee including: Joint Areas Hotels London Suburban Traffic Jt. Locomotive and Traffic Superannuation Funds L.N.E.R. Housing Trust Special Committee of Directors (Stockton & Darlington Centenary) Welfare Expenditure on Capital Account Post-War Policy’
NO Details of events in: Borough of Stockton-on-Tees, 1925, Railway Centenary Celebrations, 2nd and 3rd July, 1925: Official Programme & Sports Catalogue (Stockton: Edward Appleby)
NO Ceremonial opening attended by invited guests only.
NO The engines in the cavalcade were later added to the Faverdale Wagon Works exhibition.
NO The National Archives, RAIL 390/1602, ‘Stockton and Darlington Centenary Celebrations’, p 3
NO RAIL 390/1602, ‘Stockton and Darlington Centenary Celebrations’, p 1
NO NRM – Photographic Collection, 1997-7245, ‘Collection of Photographic Prints B&W, ex-BR Headquarters, York’
NO National Railway Museum, NRM – Coins and Medals, 1960–76, ‘Bronze Medal Struck to Commemorate the Centenary of the Stockton & Darlington Railway’
NO The centenary medallion was available on sale at King’s Cross Station and the makers in London with the proceeds going to the Railway Benevolent Society.
NO Andrew Stove Private Collection, ‘Souvenir Napkin, S&DR Centenary, 1925, Depicting Edward Pease, George Stephenson, and Locomotion No. 1’; Andrew Stove Private Collection, ‘Souvenir Napkin, S&DR Centenary, 1925, Depicting the Duke and Duchess of York’; Andrew Stove Private Collection, ‘Souvenir Napkin, S&DR Centenary, 1925, with Photograph of Locomotion No. 1’; National Railway Museum, NRM – Documents, 2004-7163, ‘Commemorative Paper Napkin Printed with Programme and Souvenir of the Railway Centenary event Wednesday July 1st, and Thursday July 2nd, 1925. Illustrated with Drawing of Travelling by Stagecoach and Horses and Surrounded by Yellow and Green Floral Motif’.
NO National Railway Museum, NRM – Photographic Collection, 1997-7236, ‘An Album of 140 Silver Gelatine Prints, Featuring the Centenary Celebrations of the Stockton & Darlington Railway’
NO National Railway Museum, NRM – Documents, 2008-7606, ‘The Railway Centenary Opened by the Duke of York’
NO Andrew Stove Private Collection: County Borough of Darlington, 1925, Railway Centenary Celebrations. Programme of Variety Entertainments (Darlington: W. H. and Sons, Printers)
NO ‘Visit of International Railway Congress’, p 90
NO National Railway Museum, NRM – Coins and Medals, 1986-8015, ‘Commemorative Medallion, Railway Centenary’
NO Andrew Stove Private Collection, ‘The Railway Centenary. United Service of Thanksgiving to be Held at Darlington Railway Station, at 2-15 p.m., on Sunday, 5th July, 1925. Order of Service and Hymns’
NO NRM – Coins and Medals, 1986-8015, ‘Commemorative Medallion, Railway Centenary’
NO National Railway Museum, NRM – Pictorial Collection (Railway), 1977-7544, ‘Accompanying Letter by Malcolm Spence Written 1911 to The First Railway Jubilee in the World (Darlington)’
NO ‘The Railway Jubilee’, 5; Andrew Stove Private Collection, Poster, ‘H. F. Pease, Borough of Darlington. Railway Jubilee. “General Holiday”’
NO NRM – Documents, 2008-7612, ‘London and North Eastern Railway Committee Minutes Regarding the Stockton and Darlington Centenary Celebrations, 1925’
NO NRM – Documents, 2008-7612, ‘London and North Eastern Railway Committee Minutes Regarding the Stockton and Darlington Centenary Celebrations, 1925’
NO There are varying reports on who conceived the idea to hold the celebrations.
NO For more on the ‘Railway Queen’, see: Reeves, H J, 2018, ‘An Exploration of the “Railway Family”’ (PhD thesis, Keele University); Beeston, E, 2020, ‘Spaces of Industrial Heritage’, University of Manchester administered thesis: PhD.
PB The Science Museum Group
SN 2054-5770
LA eng
DO 10.15180/221708
UL http://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/browse/issue-17/commemorating-the-past/
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WT Science Museum Group Journal
OL 30