A BLACK door, filthy from decades of roadsplash grime, opens directly from the street. On one side of it is a pizza shop; on the other a couple of kebab takeaways, and the downcomer beside it has rusted away at headheight so that when it rains, the water must splurge out onto the pavement. The fanlight above the door is so encrusted with dirt that no light filters into the narrow dark passage behind. The passage leads straight to another doorway which opens to reveal complete blackness. I pull out my phone and turn on the flashlight only to discover that I’m wrapped up in a straggly curtain of thick spiders’ webs. Behind the curtain is gloryhole of junk in an understairs cupboard.
BURIED in the countryside on the northern edge of Darlington is an abandoned 17th Century farmhouse called Coatham Grange. It is beside the Stockton & Darlington Railway – indeed there is an “accommodation bridge”, perhaps dating from 1825, which allowed the farmer and his animals to go under the line without getting run over.
Robert Stephenson, seated, with his father, George - both men used the same method to take their railway lines over notorious bogs This farmhouse was once called Myers Flat and, as Memories 517 told, this area was where George Stephenson had the most difficulty when building the world’s first modern railway.
Solved: The location of the mystery bridge crossing the A1 around Darlington thenorthernecho.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thenorthernecho.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Darlington Borough Council will see Locomotion No.1 move to Locomotion in Shildon in the coming weeks, but return to Darlington for six months in 2025 – the bicentenary year for the iconic Stockton & Darlington Railway.
The agreement also allows for two further loans of Locomotion No.1 to Darlington – totalling 12 months – between 2026 and 2030.
Father and daughter train drivers urge more women to pursue career
A father and daughter duo of train drivers are urging more women to consider pursuing the career on International Women’s Day.
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Avanti West Coast, hope International Women’s Day will inspire people to “challenge gender stereotypes”.
They are believed to be the only father and daughter drivers working for the same operator on the UK railway network.