Cradle of the Railways EP (CD)

Great thing happen when people gather to do things together.

This CD would make a great gift for anyone whose life has been touched by time spent in this town, whether they are still here through deeply formed roots, or whether they have needed to leave, carrying their fondest memories with them.

Throughout 2021 and into the early months of 2022, Shildon Railway Institute, our Shildon Institute Singers and several volunteers from the Shildon Heritage Alliance CIC collaborated with and under the guidance and direction of Citizen Songwriters CIC, a Durham based community songwriting group. The result was a really quite stunning piece of work.

Following a series of workshops in which people from across the community telling their stories and recalling what made Shildon special to them, this small collection of songs was born. They are the distilled essence of the past, present and future of our town, and loaded with pride, hope and connection.

Naturally the collection uses our unique railway story as its foundation, but the songs are about much more than just a re-telling of a story told before. Through the guiding help and musical and compositional skill of of project director Sam Slatcher, along with the skill of a handful of exceptional local musicians these songs a simply lovely and timeless representation of how the people involved in the project feel about their town.

The songs:

SHILDON TOWN
A catchy sing-along folk song celebrating how, just as we were from the very start, we're still connected to our region, and the world, by the railway lines that bring people here, and of the friendly welcoming nature of this town and its people through a spirit that keeps bringing new people, and the inevitable return of those that leave.

WONDERFUL GIANTS OF OLD
Take a trip back in time to the 27th September 1825, and join us as we follow the first five miles of the first journey on the Stockton & Darlington Railway from Witton Park Colliery, over the Etherley and Brusselton Inclines and down to Shildon where the very latest in steam technology awaited, along with George Stephenson and our local hero Timothy Hackworth to take coal to the sea. With lashings of delightful violin from Cathy Edmunds, you'll be humming its melody for weeks.

FOOTSTEPS OF GIANTS
From the very first line of "This is a town that gets under your skin..." you know that this is a song about how easy people find it to connect to this very special place - even those not born here. It's also a declaration that as much as we're proud of what has been achieved here in the past, we all tread in the footsteps of those past masters, and have the ability in our DNA to reach great heights in our own ways.

LEAN ON ME
You're right, you know this one. This is a cover chosen by the Shildon Institute Singers, our friendly inclusive Friday evening singing society, as being a great representation of the people of Shildon and it's community coherence. As Bill Wither's classic song goes, we've all needed someone to lean on from time to time, and through the nature of its people our town is the kind of place where you will find that in easy reach.

SET THE WORLD ON TRACK
Almost a travelogue within a song, this piece uses people's fondest and most prescient memories of travelling on the railway line that passes through our town to collate a collection of individual snapshots that combine to express the continued importance of the gift that Shildon brought to the world when that first steam passenger journey set off from here in 1825.