More than 10,000 decorated peg dolls created to celebrate 200 years since the world’s first passenger railway journey began in County Durham are set to go on public display next week.
The dolls were produced as part of commemorations marking the bicentenary of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, which carried its first passengers through County Durham. Members of the public were invited to decorate the figures inspired by memories of their favourite journeys.
The dolls are now to go on display at Durham County Council’s Durham Town Hall, from Saturday 23 to Sunday 31 May. The exhibition coincides with a major milestone for the venue with the Great Hall, where the dolls will be on display, marking its 175th anniversary this year.
Sarah Glynn, Durham County Council’s strategic manager for culture, said:
“We’re delighted to be hosting this special exhibition which is a continuation of the celebrations of 200 years of the Stockton and Darlington Railway and its first journey setting off from our area.
“Standing side by side in mass ranks awaiting our inspection, this exhibition promises to be a fun and moving spectacle, with such an outpouring of people’s memories and stories having gone into the dolls.
“It’s also fitting that such a celebration of history is being held in the Great Hall in this, the 175th year since it opened to the public.”
‘Memory of a Journey’ is a legacy project of S&DR200, the events programme which last year celebrated the two hundredth anniversary of the Stockton and Darlington Railway.
The line is celebrated for hosting the world’s first passenger train journey, which began at Witton Park, picked people up for the first time at Shildon and took them to Stockton, in 1825.
Taking inspiration from the memory of their favourite journey, thousands of children and adults from community groups, schools and care homes across County Durham and Tees Valley took part in workshops to personalise their own peg doll, giving each a unique character.
Tied around the neck of each doll is a brown luggage label containing the name of its maker and a hand-written message relating to the journey that the doll represents.
Since it would be impractical to allow visitors to pick up and handle the peg dolls to read what is written on the luggage labels, a sound scape has been specially created, adding the texture of voices reading aloud the memories captured.
The exhibition will be open to the public at the town hall, in Market Place; from 10am to 3pm each day.
While the exhibition is on, there will also be an opportunity for visitors to personalise their own peg doll to take home with them. The free drop-in workshops will be held from the Monday to the Friday, from 10.30am to 2.30pm.
The town hall’s Great Hall, where the dolls will be displayed, celebrates its 175th anniversary this year, having opened to the public in 1851.
