Goods and passengers passed through it in the early days of steam travel. Now an urgent appeal has been launched to resurrect what is believed to be the world’s oldest railway station.
The derelict Heighington stop in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, dates back to the early 19th century when it was an important location on the Stockton and Darlington Railway, built by the engineer George Stephenson.
Campaigners hope to raise £500,000 ahead of the 200th anniversary of the line’s construction next year.
Niall Hammond, chair of Friends of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, called the station’s current condition a “blot” and said it was a source of inspiration and education for the next generation.
“It is where Locomotion No 1 was first placed on the tracks, it is where three boys became its first passengers, and it is the world’s first railway station – the cobbles outside it may well be the world’s first railway platform,” he said.
“It should be an object of pride to local people and the businesses around it that their forefathers were involved in something revolutionary that changed the world.”
Phase one of the campaign aims to acquire the site to “prevent it lending an air of dereliction to the 2025 celebrations which, it is believed, will be of global interest”. The second, longer-term aim is to bring it back into economic and community use as an 1825-themed pub or restaurant with accommodation.
The community heritage group hopes that £400,000 can be raised through grant applications. It has launched an online petition and is appealing to members of the public and local companies to help raise the remaining amount. Durham county council plans to build a cycle lane and footpath along the 26-mile route in time for the bi-centenary.
Historic England has added Heighington station to its Heritage at Risk Register, listing it as Grade II* building, which places it in the top 8% most important buildings in the country. It is described as an “early proto-railway station designed as a public house and domestic accommodation to oversee a coal depot, but also accommodating passengers; marking it out as possibly the world’s first railway station”.
The Stockton and Darlington railway opened in 1825. Heighington station was one of three buildings commissioned by the railway company in 1826 to handle goods and passengers, and it was first in operation in early 1827 – predating Liverpool Road in Manchester, which is thought to have been the world’s first inter-city terminus, opening in 1830.
The station continued in railway use until the 1970s, when it became dilapidated. It was restored in 1984 and reopened as the Locomotion No 1 inn, but that closed in 2017.
• This article was amended on 28 February 2024 to reinstate the name of the pub mentioned in the final paragraph, which had been inadvertently deleted during the editing process.
