ON Monday, it is exactly 200 years since Thomas Meynell was pulled by 300 cheering, singing navvies in his carriage from his home in Yarm five miles into Stockton, with the Yarm Town Band in front, playing joyfully away.
Stockton had seen nothing like it since June 1815, when the whole town had turned out to celebrate the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo.
This was “Inauguration Day” of the Stockton & Darlington Railway (S&DR), when the first rail was laid and the first railway rip-off was experienced.
A half-day holiday had been declared in Stockton for the historic occasion.
“The ships in the harbour displayed all the bunting they possessed, the town hall was gay with flags, and from many private houses streamed well worn banners which had done good service in commemorating in bygone years the successive victories by which the French had been driven off the ocean, and the hated Bonaparte deprived of his dreaded power,” said The Northern Echo in 1875.
Mr Meynell, of The Friarage in Yarm, was the chairman of the S&DR. With him in his carriage was Benjamin Flounders, a Quaker who owned linen mills at Crathorne and who had invested heavily in the railway.
Thomas Meynell of Yarm, the chairman of the S&DR who laid the first rail 200 years ago on Monday
At the town hall that Thursday, they met the mayor of Stockton, Richard Jackson, and the recorder, Leonard Raisbeck. Together, with the band still playing, they all processed down to St John’s Well, Stockton. The well – a spring of allegedly health-giving water gushing out of the ground – was just outside the town centre and is now the site of a busy road junction.
Benjamin Flounders, a wealthy Quaker and early investor in the S&DR, who was there 200 years as the first rail was laid
Construction of the railway, from Stockton to Darlington to Shildon, had properly begun on May 13, 1822, and by May 23, they were ready for the grand ceremonial laying of the rail.
At 3pm, the band fell silent as Mr Meynell did the honours. But he was a man of few words and didn’t feel the need to make a speech, or say anything at all.
Instead, a celebratory cannon was let off in a nearby field and the band struck up the National Anthem.
Perhaps the lack of a speech pleased the 300 workmen who must have been tired after dragging Mr Meynell’s carriage for miles. It enabled the VIPs to promptly process back to the town hall for a celebratory meal while the workmen themselves were treated to free bread, cheese and ale in the Black Lion Hotel.
The Black Lion Hotel, on the right, was on the east side of Stockton High Street and was demolished in 1969. Here 300 railway navvies enjoyed free bread, cheese and beer after the first rail was alid 200 years ago
The celebrations probably grew into a long, hazy evening, and before closing time, an entrepreneurial boy toured the streets selling souvenirs of the historic day. For a halfpenny, he sold a document which said it was “a full and faithful report of what Mr Meynell said at the opening”.
The boy took the souvenir-seekers’ ha’pennies and scarpered sharpish. The purchasers opened up their mementoes to discover to their horror that they had bought a blank sheet of paper.
“Hey,” they yelled after the fleeing boy, “there’s no speech here, you young rascal!”
“Ah knaw that,” replied the youth in a good local accent. “He m’yad n’yan!”
Stockton Town Hall, where the banquet was held in 1822, as drawn by Sandra Johnson for the new film, The First Rail
A 20 minute film has been made of the events of exactly 200 years ago and will receive its world premiere at the Arc in Stockton on the evening of the anniversary.
The film, The First Rail, tells of the day through the eyes of Martha Howson (played by Angela Pickering), who was the landlady of the Black Lion Hotel where the workmen had their bread and cheese, and Margaret Foxton (Sandra Johnson), who laid on the banquet in the town hall. The taciturn Thomas Meynell (Martin Peagam) puts in an appearance along with a fictional navvy Jackie Thompson (played by Barry Thompson). All the “actors” are members of the Friends of the Stockton & Darlington Railway, and artwork by Sandra Johnson also helps tell the story.
The Arc is opening specially for the 6.30pm showing, which is free (although there will be a donations box), and tickets can be booked via the Arc’s website. The film will be followed by a Q&A session.
A First Rail Ale is being brewed by Three Brothers Brewery for the anniversary and will be in the Half Moon and House of Hops in Darlington, and the Golden Smog, Wasp’s Nest and Hope & Union in Stockton. It is said to be a traditional dark English beer of the style drunk in 1822.
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