The Partnership has been working with Shildon Station Adopters and Locomotion, on a project to improve the experience of using Shildon Station. The footbridge is used by rail passengers and the local community to get into town. It has been neglected for many years and graffiti has made walking across it an unpleasant experience and through engagement with two local secondary schools, and the amazing skills and mentoring from local artist Dan Walls, the team have brought the bridge back to life making it an enjoyable experience to walk across.

Shildon Station had many anti-social behaviour reports including graffiti and stone throwing. The station footbridge is used by rail users, residents accessing Shildon Town and visitors to Locomotion. The experience of crossing the bridge was awful due to explicit graffiti and poor maintenance. This needed to change before 2025 when the Stockton & Darlington Railway (S&DR) will celebrate its 200^th Anniversary. Locomotion is a primary attraction on the route and one of 3 key gateways to a new 26-mile walking and cycling route and it will attract a huge number of visitors; hopefully many of them arriving by train and using the footbridge.

The project team wanted to engage local young people to help improve the experience of using the using the footbridge so it felt safer and more welcoming, to reduce anti-social behaviour and to increase community pride. By involving local young people, the project aimed to tackle anti-social behaviour peer to peer – identifying ambassador students to develop and apply the design, who would then feel supported to speak up if any future graffiti is applied to the bridge. By taking part in the project they would feel a sense of pride which they would share with their peers.

The project team secured funding from CrossCountry, Northern and the Bishop Line CRP.

Dan and our Rail Education Officer Jess along with staff from Locomotion, visited visited two Bishop Auckland based  secondary schools – St John’s Catholic College & Sixth Form and King James I Academy in March, to engage year 9 students in the project. Over several visits the students have explored the history of Shildon, the relevance of the upcoming 200th anniversary of the Stockton & Darlington Railway, learned about rail safety and about the benefits of street art and how it can enhance a place. They then explored how it felt to use the bridge, how they would like people to feel using the bridge, and created images that represent Shildon. The students developed a set of key words to define their artwork and the designs they created are fabulous. Over 2 further sessions in each school, Dan worked with a small group of students who would become ambassadors for the artwork once complete, developing the words, symbols and images into the final artwork.

Station adopters, Bishop Line CRP officers and Northern prepared the bridge ready for the next phase. Then in the summer students worked with Dan, learning street art techniques and applying the design to the bridge.

We’ve gathered some fantastic feedback while the artwork was being added:

“Oh this is a wonderful idea and very much needed!” (NC – facebook)

“Looking forward to seeing it finished, I walk my 4 little dogs past here most days. In fact one almost got a blue nose for being too nosy while the bridge was being painted” (TB – facebook)

Claire Storey Senior Public Protection Officer and resident of Shildon commented “Congratulations for such a lovely scheme. I visit regularly and would like to try and re-create this sort of project in the subways of Newton Aycliffe as part of my work on the Community Action Team.

Cllr Samantha Townsend, Proudly Serving Shildon and the Dene Valley Villages had this to say about the project. “It’s lovely to see the project on the Shildon railway bridge. As a local councillor this bridge and the graffiti that covered it was a regular issue raised by constituents and I’d repeatedly struggled to find out how was responsible for the bridge in order to rectify it. I’m incredibly grateful to the partners who worked to get to the bottom of this issue and restore the bridge, in such a colourful creative way. We are proud people in Shildon and in the run up to the 200^th anniversary of the Stockton and Darlington Railway it means a lot to us that visitors to our town get a good first impressions when they visit by rail.”

We celebrated the completion of the artwork in July with some key project stakeholders and they had some very positive feedback to share.

Cllr Shirley Quinn, Mayor of Shildon Town Council  “I’d like to say a huge thank you all from the bottom of my heart and from the local community for all the work you have done on this project. The results are absolutely amazing, and you should be very proud of yourselves. This morning we’ve been celebrating the announcement of the plans for the S&DR 200 celebrations and the Railway 200 programme, which is all about the railways of the past present and future. And a photo of Shildon Smart Art was shown as part of the presentation to national press and media, so that has brought this project to the forefront. Our railway heritage is how we all came to be here, because of the past. But going forward the railway is going to form part of our new world. Just remember there are jobs in rail, all sorts of jobs, in the construction of things, driving the engines, train staff, office staff, there are so many jobs that are there, available for young people. So, this is the start. This is not the end of 200 years, this is the next 100 years.”

Phoebe Ackers – Community & Engagement Lead and Director of Learning for Art & Photography at King James I Academy “Having the opportunity to work on the project was an absolute honour. We took the whole cohort of year 9 students and explored the theme of pride in our community.  Dan and the team worked with them to develop ideas and feelings around the area and encouraged the sense of pride from being where they are from. Throughout the day our students designed their own bridge ideas based on key words relating to the Shildon Area. From then, we chose 4 local students to complete the artwork who will be ambassadors for the local area, encouraging their peers to take pride in where they are from. They have done an absolutely amazing job & take pride in the work they have done. Our school has been a buzz since the project and we are regularly getting feedback from other local students on how the bridge has been transformed.”

Dan Walls – Illumination Wall Art “I’m so grateful to be involved in this project. I travel by train frequently and it has always been an enjoyable experience. To have this opportunity to share my art and celebrate 200 years of rail travel is such an honour. The positivity from the people of Shildon has been enormous I hope we have inspired some local pride. I want to say a huge thank you to the young artists at King James I Academy and St John’s for all their help and to the Locomotion museum.”

Pam Porter – Operations and Events Manager, Locomotion “Locomotion is proud to be part of the Station Adopter team at Shildon Station. By working in partnership on the Shildon Smart Art project, we were able to reach out to local young people to tell the exciting story of Shildon’s links to the earliest days of the rail industry, and to talk about the opportunities which the railway could offer them now and in the future. The final artwork has had a significant positive impact on the station environment, and has been extremely well received by the local community and museum visitors.”

Marie Addison – Northern Community & Sustainability Manager – North East “I’d like to say a huge thank you on behalf of Northern Trains who manage this station, this bridge was awful, and look at it now. I didn’t realise how busy this bridge was! We had such positivity on the days when we were here painting it, from the people that were using the bridge, walking their dogs, walking with their children, everyone has something positive to say about it. And they were all saying thank you as well, which is so lovely. This is a huge addition to the station it really is, and I hope to replicate this at other stations.”

Charlie Walton – Vice Chair of the Bishop Line CRP “We’ve been campaigning to get the station bridge artwork done for a number of years, our main focus was to ensure that this bridge was a proper gateway to Shildon, Shildon being the first railway town in the world and the home of the national railway museum. So, its very important generally, but more particularly next year, when we hope to get thousands of visitors coming to see the museum, that the station is up to par. And you guys have done a marvellous job with this, and absolutely superb job, I applaud you all, it shows a little bit of innovation in Shildon that I’m sure Timothy Hackworth would have been proud of.”

We hope you love it as much as we do.

Well done everyone!

Bishop Line Community Rail Partnership is looking to recruit an interim volunteer chairperson who has the enthusiasm and drive to support the CRP through a task and finish review of the partnership’s governance until 31^st March 2025.

We are seeking an individual who brings strong experience of governance to work with the partnership’s steering group and offer support and direction to the partnership officer to review and update key partnership documents and processes.

The individual should be able to effectively set the agenda and chair steering group meetings and be able to work with all partners to ensure the continued success of the CRP.

New expressions of interest to be received by 15th November 2024. 

If you are interested in this voluntary role and feel you can demonstrate you have the characteristics below and proven experience required, please email chair@bishopline.org . Please include a statement of interest highlighting your suitability for this role and how you would approach the interim role’s governance review. If you would like an informal chat about the role with a partnership member please also email chair@bishopline.org and we can put you in touch with a representative.

We look forward to hearing from you! 

Key characteristics and requirements of the Interim Volunteer Chairperson:

 1. Characteristics required for the task and finish review of the partnership’s governance:

• Proven strong experience of governance.
• Proven leadership skills and a willingness to lead this partnership.
• Proven Collaborative working/Team building.
• Enthusiasm/drive.

 2. Additional characteristics beneficial to chair the CRP:

• Commitment to attend and give full attention to meetings and matters of partnership business.
• Advantageous to have experience of the rail industry, community development or sustainable travel.
• Good communication and interpersonal skills.
• Impartiality, fairness, and the ability to respect confidences.
• Ability to ensure decisions are taken and then actions followed-up.

3. Requirements to ensure the partnership functions properly:

• Meet with the CRP Officer on a monthly basis to check progress on each element of the action plan, to provide any support needed to overcome any challenges.
• Ensure meeting matters are dealt with in an orderly, efficient manner, actions are taken, carefully considered decisions are made and to arrange for accurate minutes to be recorded.
• Bring impartiality and objectivity to meetings.
• Facilitate change and address conflict within the steering group.
• Review governance performance and skills.
• Ensure the steering group has representation from all partners and communities covered

 4. Requirements to ensure the steering group is managed effectively:

• Coordinate with the CRP Officer and secretary quarterly regarding steering group meeting agendas and ensure meetings are run in accordance with the Constitution.
• Ensure financial reports, progress reports and metrics are circulated to steering group members at least 7 days before the quarterly steering group meetings by the CRP Officer/Secretary
• Ensure the CRP is meeting its contractual obligations with funding partners and vice versa
• Ensure the CRP Code of Conduct is always being adhered to

5. Requirements to represent the organisation:

• Act as an ambassador and effectively communicate the vision and purpose of the community rail partnership to external partners in the rail industry, public sector bodies and the media at external meetings and events.
• Be aware of current issues in rail and local communities that might affect the organisation.

 Time Commitment:  The role of interim voluntary chair requires an estimated average commitment of 8 hours/month.  These hours will be Monday – Friday during the working day, however there may be a few occasions where events are in the evening or at weekends.

Additional opportunities – There will be the opportunity to attend additional events such as the Community Rail Network (CRN) awards, CRN chair meetings and industry conferences/webinars and training can be made available through CRN.