TV star Steph McGovern unveils exciting plans for festival to celebrate birth of the British railway

A nine-month festival to people the bicentenary begins successful March adjacent year.

TV prima Steph McGovern has unveiled breathtaking plans for a festival to observe the commencement of the modern railway successful Britain. The 200th day of the Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR) volition spot cut-price bid question crossed the country. It falls connected Sept 27, 2025.

But a nine-month festival to people the bicentenary begins successful March adjacent year. Free, large-scale outdoor events volition instrumentality spot on with exhibitions.

There volition beryllium creation commissions successful nationalist spaces, libraries and museums. 'S&DR 200' volition besides re-enact the 26-mile mainline travel which 'changed the world'.

The archetypal steam locomotive to tally connected the line, named Locomotion No 1, pulled waggons of ember and goods, and a carriage of fare-paying passengers, from the mines of southbound Durham to the River Tees, via Darlington, Shildon and Yarm.

Middlesbrough-born Steph, 42, said it was an accidental to showcase our engineering practice to visitors from abroad.

"Being Northerners, I don't deliberation we outcry capable astir what we person achieved successful the world," said Steph, who present lives successful Newcastle.

"It is truly bully to beryllium capable to outcry astir it. I retrieve erstwhile I started astatine the BBC. I went from Middlesbrough to London successful the days erstwhile they had much wealth and they paid for maine to spell down.

"Before I got there, determination was a feline astatine Radio Four - virtually the poshest spot connected Earth. He said 'we person this miss coming down, she is truly unusual, she is Northern. Maybe we tin instrumentality her to the theatre due to the fact that she won't person been earlier and I wouldn't transverse her due to the fact that she volition astir apt beryllium truly bully successful a fight'.

"There is this consciousness that we are antithetic but we person truthful overmuch to beryllium arrogant of, and we person to amusement radical that they tin beryllium portion of this, successful each sense."

S&DR 200 festival manager Niccy Hallifax (c) promised 'jaw-dropping' performances for the public, with a 'terracotta army' of tiny creation works planned with the assistance of everyone from schoolchildren to aged radical successful attraction homes.

"Local authorities and municipality councils volition galvanise thousands to instrumentality part," she said. "We privation everyone to recognize the bequest of the railway and bring unneurotic the past and present."

The cardinal figures of the S&DR included investors Edward Pease, a retired wool merchant, his lad Joseph Pease and starring engineers of the clip George Stephenson and Timothy Hackworth.

Speaking astatine the motorboat successful Darlington, Co Durham, organiser Alison Clark said: "The opening of S&DR led to the commencement of the modern railways which went connected to alteration the world.

"We privation to present a festival that volition spark renewed local, regional, nationalist and planetary involvement successful the pioneering story, providing unforgettable experiences for each our visitors."

Details of the discounted obstruction tickets are owed to beryllium revealed by the Government aboriginal adjacent year.