As one of our projects celebrating Railway 200, future pioneers and careers in the rail industry, we have worked with singer songwriters, Gareth and Bronwen Davies-Jones, Hallbankgate Village School and Lanercost CoE Primary School. Entitled “A Song for Edmondson”, the project introduced the children to many new skills and experiences based on Brampton's railway heritage.
This culminated in the premiere of new songs performed by children and teachers in the beautiful Lanercost Priory.
Workshops in the weeks prior to the event run by Gareth and Bronwen helped the children write lyrics to songs featuring Brampton Railway Station and its stationmaster in 1836, Thomas Edmondson, the pioneer of railway ticketing, when the station was called Milton. A sound engineer visited Hallbankgate recording one of the songs and introducing the children to many skills required to create a sound recording.
Their song entitled “Edmondson” featured the ticketing system invented by him whilst working at Brampton, which was introduced throughout the country and internationally. Many were able to have the first experience of rail travel as they visited Haltwhistle to see the racks of Edmondson tickets in the Old Booking Hall and experience how tickets were sold in the 19th century.
Whilst writing the lyrics to their song, Lanercost schoolchildren learned about why Brampton Station is 1.8 miles from the town and the importance of coal to the Earl of Carlisle in the 1800's..
As well as singing the songs written during the songwriting sessions, the children also performed other songs which had been created for an event at Wylam, birthplace of George Stephenson, but connected to Brampton as the final working days of Stephenson’s Rocket was spent hauling the Earl of Carlisle’s coal.
Headteacher of Hallbankgate Village School, Clare Hutton, said “We have been lucky to have taken part in this project. We knew that it would be special, but little did we know how special this part of our learning journey would be…singing makes us feel good.”
Parents, family members and invited guests were enthralled by the performances and enthusiasm of the schoolchildren in the Priory. After the event, Anne Ridley, our Marketing, Comms & Events, Director, said “What an amazing afternoon, such a wonderful, memorable, passionate and enthusiastic performance. The feedback from members of the audience I spoke to as they were leaving was so positive and enthusiastic”.
“The project introduced so many new skills and experiences to everyone involved, the children learned about Brampton’s railway heritage, rail travel today, songwriting, public performance, sound engineering, whilst enjoying singing the songs they wrote” said Fiona Forsythe, TVCRP’s officer.
We are grateful for the financial support provided by CrossCountry and Community Rail Network/DfT CRDF and have uploaded videos of the performances in Lanercost Priory in a playlist of the songs here
TVCRP's other Railway 200 projects and events include:
- the installation of a human sundial at Haltwhistle Station celebrating that the building of railways resulted in the standardisation of time throughout the country.
- a series of "fireside chats", railway themed talks being held in the Old Booking Hall at Haltwhistle. Details of future events will be publicised on the website and on social media @tvcrp
