The origins of the Stockton and Darlington Railway can be dated back to October 1767 when local businessmen decided that communication links between the coalmines of South Durham and the port of Stockton-on-Tees needed dramatic improvements.

We can be in no doubt that this period in history was dominated by canals, so it was the obvious choice to consult with the leading authority of the time, James Brindley. In 1768, Robert Whitworth, assistant to Brindley, made an initial survey of possible routes between South Durham and Stockton. Brindley and Whitworth published their report on 19th July 1769. The route they proposed was very similar to the actual route that the railway was to follow in 1825. The estimated cost for the canal scheme was £63,722, this amount was deemed too much to a public who weren't used to large amounts of investments, and therefore the plans for the canal were taken no further.

Forty-one years later, in 1810, a revival of interest was raised by the ‘Tees Navigation Company’ who had plans to re-route the River Tees (known as ‘New Cut’), cutting out a large meandering loop of the River between Stockton and the North Sea. This made Stockton a deep-sea port.

It was at the official opening of the ‘New Cut’ on 18th September 1810 that a resolution was proposed by Leonard Raisbeck, Recorder of Stockton, that a committee was set up to examine the practicality and feasibility of building either a canal or railway from the South Durham coalfield to Stockton. This resolution was seconded by Benjamin Flounders of Yarm.

The businessmen of Darlington became interested in the project in 1812. It was at a meeting on January 17th that the towns’ industrialists decided to obtain a report from the eminent civil engineer, John Rennie. Like the Stockton ideas, Rennie was asked to detail the advantages and disadvantages of either a railway or canal.

John Rennie published his report on 13th August 1813. He recommended a canal which was similar in design to the plans proposed by James Brindley. Rennie priced the project at £95,600 for the section between Darlington and Stockton. This scheme, like the earlier one, was also scrapped due to the lack of financial support.

During the 5 years between 1813 and 1818 no practical steps where taken regarding the idea of a railway or canal scheme, however, the Stockton interests where starting to sway towards the idea of a direct canal from Stockton to Darlington, bypassing Yarm, direct to the coalfields of South Durham.

The leading parties of Darlington and Yarm were naturally opposed to this idea and a feud began between the commercial men of the two sides. This state of deadlock would have gone on for many years had it not been for the intervention of Mr Edward Pease (pictured left). Edward Pease was a recently retired Darlington Wool Merchant who had a large number of influential Quaker friends.

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Mr Pease arranged a meeting for 4^th September 1818. At the meeting were interested parties from the three towns involved in the various canal and rail projects. Present at the meeting where:

In general, the Stockton party, with the exception of Raisbeck, favoured the construction of canal, where as the Darlington and Yarm parties favoured the construction of a tram-road. At the meeting, Pease managed to successfully demonstrate the advantages and disadvantages of both schemes and it was decided to consult once again with John Rennie. Meanwhile, the interested parties of Yarm invited the Welsh engineer George Overton to carry out a survey on possible routes for either a track or canal. On the 20th October 1818, Overton published his report favouring a railway scheme at a cost of £124,000.

After very careful consideration of the new report Messrs Pease and Backhouse held a meeting at Darlington Town Hall on November 13th 1818 to discuss the formation of a railway company. After this meeting, on December 19th, a Railway Company was formed and it appointed Robert Stevenson (grandfather of Robert Louis Stevenson) to produce a survey prior to the drawing up of a Bill for Parliament in 1819. Objections from local landowners started to emerge, as the planned route was to cross their land.