The Whitfield Library at Shildon Railway Institute

The collection focuses on several themes:

1. Railway engineering and  our local railway heritage, the Stockton & Darlington Railway.
2. The history and heritage of Shildon and the surrounding villages.
3. Regional industry including various forms of engineering, mining and agriculture.
4. Other communities across the North East.
5. Our region's cultural heritage.
6. Rare documents with insight into our town and area's past.

One of the features for which our Institute was always renowned was its extensive library of books for access by members which started in 1833. It was a resource rarely afforded to working men and women, and inspired by a Quaker stance relating to educating the masses, which wasn't a uniformly popular idea at that time.

That original collection, which would have been quite priceless now, was long since removed, and it might be felt to be an old idea of little value in the high technology age where information can be gathered at the click of a screen. But we're not so sure - not all useful knowledge has made the transition to the digital realm.

This revived project started in 2022 when we reached an agreement with the Friends of the Darlington Railway Museum to become permanent owners and custodians of their collection of books. The collection has been Incremented through donations from others including current chair, Dave Reynolds, life-member Jimmy Graham and the family of former engineer John Peacock of nearby Toronto.

The library can be visited by:

• Members of the Institute
• Members of the general public (by special arrangement - contact us by email)

Previously operating only on a reference basis, the library will now loan out many of the books to Institute members, and will have scheduled open days throughout the year.

A searchable catalogue is available online using the link below.

View our Searchable Catalogue of Books on TinyCat