All change as Middleton St George station is brought back to life

The Friends of the Stockton & Darlington Railway are holding an open day at Fighting Cocks in Middleton St George to unveil the mural, which is based on an 1875 print of the station in its heyday, showing it surrounded by smoking industry.

It commemorates how when the railway opened in 1825, Fighting Cocks was just a rural level crossing but grew over the next 50 years into a hive of brickworks, ironworks and gasworks.

Fighting Cocks, with chimneys and a windmill around it, as portrayed in the Illustrated London News in 1875

1801

The Cocks family inherit the area from the Pembertons and Killinghalls who have owned it for 600 years. Their emblem is three fighting cocks.

1825

A large crowd gathers where an old Roman road crosses the new railway to witness the opening day of the S&DR. In fact, Joseph Pease later said the funniest moment of the whole day occurred at the Fighting Cocks crossing as an old farmer stood for many minutes staring at Locomotion No 1, desperately trying to work out what outside force was making it move. Eventually, he approached Mr Pease, who was on the footplate with his hand gently resting on one of the levers, and asked "if you pull the engine by them things". Mr Pease tried to explain the modern equation of coal + fire + water = steam but it was too much for the old boy to comprehend.

1829

The Fighting Cocks crossing is the obvious place for coal to be dropped off by the railway so that it could be carted to people’s houses. Soon, 1,000 tons of coal and lime are being offloaded, and William Woodhouse, of nearby Palm Tree House, is selling refreshments to the men doing all the shovelling.

An Edwardian view of the Fighting Cocks pub, although its original frontage was on the side, facing the Roman road to Sadberge. Picture courtesy of Beamish The Living Museum of the North

Early 1830s

The S&DR built a “cottage for the accommodation of passengers and parcels and the sale of coals, lime etc” on the crossing. It was called “Railway Lodge”, although we would know it as a “station”. Opposite it, principal landowner Henry Cocks built a pub, with Mary Woodhouse its first licensee.

READ MORE: THE FULL HISTORY OF THE FIGHTING COCKS PUB

1860s

The lodge is rebuilt as a proper station because the area is booming: 30,000 passengers are passing through it, many of them going to the tourist resort of Middleton One Row for its health-giving spa waters. Industry is beginning, with a claypit giving rise to a brickworks at Fighting Cocks. , but then in 1864, Squire Cocks realises his land is midway between the iron ore mines in the Cleveland Hills and the coal mines of Durham. He unites the two by starting his first blast furnace.

READ MORE: WHEN LAWLESS MIDDLETON ST GEORGE HAD ITS OWN PRISON TO DEAL WITH DRUNKEN IRISHMEN

1880s

There are nine passenger trains a day in each direction calling at the station, and there are six blast furnaces in the ironworks which employs 300 men – largely Irish immigrants. They live, and drink, in the new village of Middleton St George, which has a population of 1,100.

Fighting Cocks station on July 1, 1887, the last day of its passenger operation. The windmill behind has had its sails removed

1887

On July 1, Bank Top becomes Darlington’s principal station and a new loop line connecting it to Teesside is opened, running to the south of MSG and calling at the new station of Dinsdale. Passengers are removed from the awkward old line going through Fighting Cocks, which now is relegated to handling goods only.

1940s

The opening of Patons & Baldwins, the world’s largest wool factory, at Lingfield Point beside the original S&DR ensures there are still plenty of goods trains going through Fighting Cocks.

Fighting Cocks station and signalbox in 1963. Picture courtesy of Robin Coulthard

1963

The Beeching Axe swings, but it falls first on the Simpasture branch which means that all eastbound coke traffic is suddenly rerouted through the old S&DR. Fighting Cocks is busy again, handling 30 trains a day, much to the delight of Norman Hugill, who has kindly lent many of today’s pictures. His father was a railway platelayer who lived in the station where Norman was born in 1950.

“In our house, you could hear the crossing gates going together and I was out of our front door, standing on the fencing, watching…” says Norman, who has spent a lifetime working on the railways.

Norman Hugill and his younger brother, Ernie, watching a freight train returning to Shildon at Fighting Cocks. Picture by Robin Coulthard

The level crossing gates at Fighting Cocks. Picture by Norman Hugill

1967

With the south Durham mines closing, the coke traffic dwindled, and Fighting Cocks no longer has a role. The lines are lifted, the coal depot dismantled, the signal box removed, the crane taken away and the semaphore signal taken down – it is now a garden ornament in Maidenhead in Kent! The trackbed becomes a footpath and cycleway.

Removing signals at Fighting Cocks on the day the signal box was demolished, May 21, 1967. Picture by Norman Hugill

A diverted train steams through Fighting Cocks. Picture courtesy of Norman Hugill

2021

The Fighting Cocks Inn, now called Platform 1, closes after 190 years and permission is granted to turn it into a Sainsburys. However, the lineside part of the plot has to be landscaped with a nod to its railway heritage. Opposite, house-builders are keen to demolish the remains of a curious building known as “the waiting shed”, but they are deterred. Maz and Alex Holmes continue to create a little garden alongside the footpath.

The roof and front of the "waiting shed" at Fighting Cocks no longer survive, but the walls have been saved and a nice garden  has been planted around them. But what was the shed for: a stable for horses in the early days? A platelayers' cabin? "Ramps" suggests it was used to store the ramps that helped get a derailed wagon back on the tracks? Norman remembers it as the paraffin store, where signalmen took their lamps to be refilled? And some people reckon passengers once waited in there...

Fighting Cocks station and signalbox in 1963. The line on the right is now a footpath and cycleway, while the siding and coal depot on the right are behind the Sainsbury's Local are to become a green area with interpretation. Picture courtesy of Robin Coulthard

2024

Next Saturday, April 27, the Friends of the S&DR are inviting everyone to see the landscaping taking shape, to talk about the area’s fabulous railway stories, to hear author Caroline Hardie read her children’s book, Little Loco’s Big Day, and to see the mural which – fingers crossed – is to be created by Lewis Hobson, of Durham Spray Paints, whose work adorns many historic places across the region. It runs from 10.30am to 2.30pm.

The Hugills and other villagers turn out to see the Queen being driven over the Fighting Cocks crossing, probably in 1967 when she came to Darlington to celebrate the borough's centenary

READ MORE: THE HIDDEN MEANING IN THE BRICKWORK ON A DARLINGTON HOUSE

OR: WHEN THE KING OF SPAIN STAYED IN DARLINGTON'S IMPERIAL HOTEL