Preston Park Museum reopens as part of railway bicentenary celebrations

Preston Park Museum in Stockton-on-Tees has reopened after the completion of a multi-million-pound extension designed to create space for touring exhibitions and loans.

The £20m Spence Building was unveiled on 13 September, ahead of the bicentenary of the Stockton and Darlington Railway.

It opened with a series of exhibitions as part of S&DR200, the festival celebrating 200 years since the Stockton and Darlington Railway became the world’s first public railway to use steam locomotives.

The first series of exhibitions to be held in the Spence Building, Tracks of Change, explore the social and cultural impact of the railway.

The Gateway to the World exhibition brings three paintings by William Powell Frith together for the first time, loaned from the Royal Collection and Manchester City Galleries. It is also the first time the paintings have been exhibited in the North East. 

A new installation by artist Rebecca Louise Law, Corridors, takes the form of thousands of preserved flowers suspended from the ceiling, exploring human connection to the natural world.

All Aboard is an interactive exhibition, which gives children a chance to pump pistons and turn wheels in a replica train.

Niccy Hallifax, S&DR200’s festival director, said: “It’s fantastic to see both internationally renowned and national artists featured in this ambitious exhibition series at Preston Park Museum. 

“From powerful new commissions to historically important paintings that reveal how the railways shaped the world we live in; this is a celebration of innovation past and present.”

The S&DR200 celebrations are centred around a newly restored replica of Locomotion No. 1, the railway’s first locomotive, which will run on original sections of the line on 26, 27 and 28 September.

The festival will also include outdoor performances, live music and exhibitions in and around Stockton and Darlington.  

Reuben Kench, the S&DR200 partnership board chair and Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council’s director of community services, environment and culture, said: “The S&DR story inspires pride across the region and beyond.”

“The collaborating museums in Shildon, Darlington and Stockton will continue to tell the railway story for years to come, illuminating the many industrial, social and cultural impacts that railways have had,” he added.