A VALUABLE 100-year-old railway banner that has been stashed away for many years is going on public display to help celebrate a landmark anniversary.

The colourful banner of the Bishop Auckland Branch of the National Union of Railwaymen will be on display at Darlington’s Head of Steam Museum throughout September as part of the celebrations of the 190th anniversary of the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway.

The oil painted, silk banner has been brought back into public focus by the Bishop Auckland Station History Group, which was alerted to its continued existence.

The group tracked it down at the National Railway Museum in Shildon, where it had been in storage.

Made by George Tutill & Co, the premier manufacturer of his day, the banner is a piece of art in its own right and remarkably well preserved.

One side depicts a view of Bishop Auckland Station in its heyday, the other side shows a group of railway workers being urged on to a better future by a classical female figure draped in a sash bearing the words ‘light, education, industrial organisation, political action’.

At the height of its importance, hundreds of people would have worked at Bishop Auckland Station and on the local rail network.

The banner, which would have cost the equivalent of many thousands of pounds to manufacture, was a sign of the Branch's high status.

Its production was commissioned in 1915, the year the Union was opened to female membership, in recognition of service on the railway network in the First World War.

The banner itself saw action on a number of occasions.

It was proudly paraded in support of the General Strike of 1926 and against the closures of Darlington North Road Shops in 1966 and Shildon Wagon Works in 1983.

Michael O’Neill, Chairman of the Bishop Auckland Station History Group said: “We’re delighted to support the Stockton and Darlington Railway celebrations in this way and intend to display the banner at similar events in the future in support of the region's railway heritage.”

For further information about Bishop Auckland Station History Group, contact Mr O'Neill on 01388-661668 or follow the group on Twitter and Facebook.