On Friday 4 July, the bells from St John’s Church rang out across the community for a marathon 3 hours 20 minutes, writes Rev. Carol Harris, as ringers replicated the Centenary Bell Peal on 4th July 1925 to celebrate 100 years of the railways.
Friday’s peal commemorated the 200 years and signalled the start of the two-day Bicentenary celebrations in the churches.
Children from the top classes in our three primary schools, Timothy Hackworth, Thornhill and St John’s C of E, all came to the church to take part in an engineering challenge and to explore the history of Shildon and the railways with Ms. Anne Hopps from the Locomotion Museum.
They brought their banners which they have made for this special year and they all joined in well, thinking and discussing together in their groups as they worked together to make the strongest bridge possible from five pieces of paper and two paper cups. The bridges were then tested with model coal trucks and coal to see which groups had managed to make the strongest bridges and a winning group was found.
The schools were joined by two members of the original Geordie’s Penkers, the singing group who wrote the Iron Road song for the 150 year celebrations in 1975.
It was wonderful to hear all the children singing this song together at the end of the morning, a song we will hear a lot more of as the year goes by, no doubt.
In the afternoon the Methodist Church hosted an exhibition on the life of Timothy Hackworth and his Methodist roots alongside refreshments.
At 2pm many gathered at the grave of Timothy Hackworth in St John’s churchyard for an outside thanksgiving service led by the Rev. David Payne, from the Methodist Church.
He was joined by Jane Hackworth Young and the Rev. Ulick Loring, the great, great grandchildren of Timothy Hackworth and it was very special to hear their reflections on his life.
Children from all three primary schools also attended this service and pupils from Timothy Hackworth School read the bible readings.
It was special to see all ages gathered from across the town to remember and give thanks for the life of a man from Shildon who changed the world with his engineering genius.
On the Saturday, St John’s Church was open with the upstairs room transformed into a Victorian railway café serving delicious treats for all.
Downstairs there was a model railway, old newspapers, photographs and memorabilia from Shildon’s railway past to explore.
There were also church history displays, postcards from the three schools written by the children about why they are proud to live in Shildon, railway craft stalls, railways quizzes, engineering challenges and short films about the town and the history of the railways.
Many people of all ages came along and enjoyed the activities and chatting about their own memories and the history of the town.
St John’s Church and Shildon Methodist Church would like to thank everyone who worked so hard to put these two days on and to thank everyone who came along and made the events a success.
A particular mention must also go to John Raw from the Stockton and Darlington Railway Heritage group and Brussleton Incline group for his energy and ideas in seeing the two days come together.
Carol Harris
Shildon & District's local community newspaper.
