A CASH windfall will see Terry Bragg set to go shopping - for a couple of vintage railway carriages.
The Heritage Lottery Fund has awarded a grant of £173,600 to Bellingham Heritage Centre in Northumberland, whose exhibitions include material on the Border Counties railway line which ran through the town.
Founded in 1994 by volunteers, Bellingham Heritage Centre is based in the town’s former railway station.
The centre wants to acquire and refurbish two Mark I railway carriages of the type which were used on the line in the 1950s.
They would be installed in the station yard, with one being used as an education centre and new exhibition space.
The other would be converted into a tea shop after a survey of visitors showed that this was a facility which most wanted to see.
The centre is now seeking further help from the Leader uplands funding programme and a decision is expected by the end of the month.
If the centre’s bid is successful, heritage centre chairman Terry Bragg will set off to inspect half a dozen Mark I carriages which have been located in Devon, Somerset and the Midlands. Over the last three years the centre has doubled its annual visitor numbers to 4,000.
But the target is to increase that figure to 10,000 with the help of the extra facilities provided by the carriages.
Terry said: “This would be a substantial boost to the local economy.
“We are delighted with the Heritage Lottery Fund grant at a crucial time in our development. Our railway display is a huge attraction and the railway carriages will give us more exhibition space as well as a learning space for children and young people, while 95% of visitors we surveyed said that a tea shop was what they wanted.”
Head of the Heritage Lottery Fund in the North East, Ivor Crowther, said: “The heritage centre at Bellingham provides a great insight into the varied heritage of the local area and is a hugely important resource. This project, especially the education programme, means its fascinating collections will be available for more people to appreciate and learn about.”
The centre has permanent exhibitions on the Border Reivers, local coal pits, stone quarries and ironworks, and Border Counties Railway.
Visitors can access more than 2,500 local photographs and a database of names of people connected to the area, and hear recordings of local people talking about Bellingham life in the past.
Meanwhile, students on a management degree course at Newcastle University Business School are working on a 10-year strategy for the centre as part of their studies.
“They are a wonderful group to work with and they are learning a lot from this project, from which we will also benefit,” said Terry.
Border counties railway
THE Border Counties Railway was built between 1855 and 1862, running from Hexham up the North Tyne valley to Bellingham and across the border into Scotland, joining the Carlisle to Edinburgh line at Riccarton Junction.
Running north from Hexham, the stations on the line were at Wall, Chollerford, Chollerton, Barrasford, Wark, Redesmouth Junction, Bellingham, Charlton (closed 1862), Tarset, Thorneyburn, Falstone, Plashetts, Lewiefield Halt, Kielder, Deadwater, Saughtree and Riccarton.
Originally intended to serve the colliery at Plashetts, now submerged under the Kielder Reservoir, and other small mines in the area, the 42-mile single-track line eventually formed a vital lifeline for the small communities of the North Tyne for around a century, until it was finally closed in 1958.
The Heritage Centre at Bellingham is now the only place where many mementoes of this lost railway are preserved. There are hundreds of maps and historic photographs of the line, its stations and buildings, staff and traffic, and artefacts ranging from tickets and sign boards to railwaymen’s lamps and tools and even the original Bellingham station clock.
