A NEW book looks back over the last century in a town hailed as a "cradle of the railways".

Fifty photographs dating back to the early 1900s illustrate Memories of Shildon, published by County Durham Books, the publishing arm of Durham County Council.

Pictures of shops, schools, street scenes and scouts are displayed alongside the town's churches, chapels, carnivals and championship-winning football teams.

Best known for its role in the birth of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, Shildon has been chosen for the site of an extension of the National Railway Museum next to the Timothy Hackworth Museum.

Shildon takes its name from the Anglo-Saxon words sciyd, meaning shield of refuge, and dun, meaning hill.

The town is on a ridge separating the Wear and Gaunless valleys from the Tees valley and the coast.

In the early 1800s, coal mining was the area's major industry and the railways developed from the need to transport coal more efficiently to the River Tees.

The line opened in 1825, running from the Witton Park mines to Stockton through Shildon, where pioneering rail engineer Timothy Hackworth established the Soho engine works.

At its peak, the rail industry employed more than 3,400 people, but Shildon suffered a severe blow when the workshops closed in 1984.

Memories of Shildon costs £2.95 from libraries and bookshops. It is launched in Shildon Library on Wednesday, September 10.