Westbrook Guided Walk and Heritage Day

Westbrook is an oasis of calm and birdsong in the heart of the busy railway quarter of Darlington. Our walk will start close to the new Hopetown Darlington museum, where we will consider the green field site prior to work on the 1825 Railway. We go on to view the significant architectural remains of the railway at Westbrook, including the Tally Man's Cabin and Coal Drop walls. We will discuss the period of use as a pleasure garden in the 1850s - identifying some immense beech tree survivors of this planting. The talk will consider all the Victorian villas later built on the site, some in the gothic style by noted architect George Gordon Hoskins. Finally, we have the human stories of Quakers, Town Criers, War heroes and more.

This year we are making plans to celebrate the unique heritage of Westbrook and its connections to the Stockton and Darlington Railway as part of the 2025 Bicentenary festival. We hope visitors to our walk will contribute to the designs for an updated Art Heritage Trail that will run along the Coal Drops wall. To support this, we will have on display images of internal architectural details, historic documents and more detail of the history of Westbrook and its railway connections.

Following the guided walk refreshments will also be on sale.

Timings & Tours

Sunday 15 September:

Guided walk begins at 1400

Location & directions

Westbrook, Darlington, County Durham, DL3 6TD

Directions:

The meeting place for the guided walk is the corner of Station Road and Widdowfield Street, close to Hopetown Darlington museum.

Contact on day:

Amanda Woolley

Telephone number:

+447762788274

Booking information

Pre-booking requirement:

Pre-booking not required

Accessibility details

There is stepped access from the walk start at Station Road onto Westbrook. There is no parking space available on Westbrook itself. Please come via public transport or park elsewhere.

Additional information

Est. tour duration:

2 hour(s)

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