Hopetown Darlington

Hopetown Darlington is a 7.5 acre visitor attraction where every element has been designed to tell the story of the birth of the modern railway.

Each building houses a piece of interactive history, Wagon Woods and our railway-themed adventure play park builds on the story of the Stockton & Darlington Railway and lets your imagination run wild, in the heart of the museum.

Playing in a moment of history

It all started in 1825, when a railway journey changed the world forever.
Locomotive No. 1 became the first steam locomotive to haul a passenger-carrying train on a public railway - the Stockton and Darlington Railway.
It began a people-powered revolution.

The story of that first passenger journey offered us the unique opportunity to build the play around that world-changing event.

Creating the play

The team spent some time mining the history of the site and discovered the amazing story of the Brusselton incline. The information from the historical site says that the challenge facing the Stockton Darlington Railway was that the coal they were transporting between the two locations had to first be brought over two great hills.

The solution they created was two rope-hauled inclines over the hills; both powered by static steam engines.

The problem with the system was that if the rope snapped, the wagons would run back down the hill and, smash everything in their path. Therefore they employed a gang of young men based towards the bottom of the hill. Their job, if a train broke free and began running down the hill at great speed, was to throw tree trunks in its path to derail it, before it did any serious damage.

You can see that reflected in the play and the image above shows how much of an inspiration it was for the final design.

There are loads more small details embedded too. You can see the original chimney, with the signalling bell above. Only from this highest position do you gain access to the long tubular slide. It's a simple way to ensure that only those that are brave enough, get to ride the giant slide.

The high-level walkway that leads from this higher point takes you on a route around the trees and the views beyond to the hill down and the derailed wagons below.

Making the play accessible

You can see from the initial sketch how much we tried to embed the play into the environment.
We wanted it to feel as though it was central to the whole offer and as though it had always been there.

Accessibility is always central to our thinking, so we will always revisit our designs throughout the process, to ensure that we are creating play that is as accessible to all as possible.

There's an accessible feature you may see on some of the images, which looks like two upturned barrels.
What this is in reality is an accessible and cleverly disguised talking tube system.
Climb inside the barrel and you can talk magically to your friend in the other one.
We have loved seeing this in action as when the kids work out what it is and how it works, they want to play in it all of the time.

We have always believed that play is better when everyone can play together, whatever their abilities.
You can see that in action here, with our marked-up sketch.

The next stage in the design process is to create the final CGI's to give a real sense of scale and purpose. We were pleased with how these feel and when you compare them to the finished build, you will see the similarity between the design and the reality. They are close to identical.

Welcome to Hopetown Darlington

Hopetown Darlington opened in Early July 2024 and has been incredibly well received with some superb feedback across the whole site. The idea has been to use this project to help regenerate the town and the surrounding areas. History and heritage are always great ways to do this and we are really hopeful it will continue to deliver that for many years to come,

Entry is free to the site and there is a small charge for some of the areas. You can see more here.