Today’s Objects of the Week, the pride of a Darlington park, are among the largest we’ve ever featured. THERE are many fine trees in Darlington’s South Park, but there are two which stand head and shoulders above the rest. The giant redwoods, or Wellingtonias, planted in 1863 to commemorate the wedding of the future King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, are two examples of the largest living organism on Earth – sequoiadendron giganteum. There are hundreds of other specimens at stately homes, botanic gardens and arboretums across the county and almost all of them, were planted in the same decade – the result of a craze for growing them in the early Victorian period.
Monday is the 200th anniversary of one of the most important events in local railway history which took place in a kebab shop ON the evening of April 19, 1821, two strangers approached the front door of Edward Pease s home in Northgate, Darlington. They came from wildest Northumberland and had set off early that morning by horse for Newcastle. At Newcastle, they caught a stagecoach bound for Stockton by nip – tipping the driver rather than paying the fare. From Stockton, they walked 12 miles across farm and field, following the path that was proposed for the Stockton and Darlington Railway, until they came to Mr Pease s home on the northern edge of town.