IT was a very cultured week, starting with the launch at Teesside University’s Darlington campus of the Tees Valley’s bold and welcome bid to mark the 200th anniversary of the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 2025 by becoming the City of Culture.

A day later, the North-East launched its regional “Case for Culture” at Durham Castle, with a cultural “manifesto” for the next 15 years. And that led to the launch on Thursday night of the 28th annual Stockton International Riverside Festival (Sirf),which is always a spectacle.

Yes, all very cultural indeed, and The Northern Echo intends to be a big supporter of the City of Culture proposal for Tees Valley, which has much to offer beyond the magical milestone of the birth of the railways. There have already been moans about Tees Valley not being a city, but that didn’t stop the Ruhr Valley, in Germany, becoming European City of Culture in 2010, and the 200th railway anniversary is an unmissable opportunity to do something really positive.

So well done to the university and the five local authorities of Darlington, Stockton, Middlesbrough, Redcar, and Hartlepool for giving it a go – or at least saying they will. If the home of Captain Cook can’t be adventurous and embark on a voyage of discovery, it’s a sad state of affairs.

But, while it is right that we celebrate our riches of heritage, cultural attractions, and events, it is also important not to kid ourselves that everything in the garden is rosy – although Sir John Hall is about to add more than a splash of colour in his spectacular gardens at Wynard Hall.

The competitors for the City of Culture title will tick a long list of cultural boxes too and there is a lot of work to do to make sure Tees Valley’s offer is polished in time for the judging.

For two decades, The Northern Echo has campaigned for the area to wake up to the badly missed opportunity of its unique railway heritage. This area changed the world – but do we make the most of that glorious claim to fame? The answer, sadly, is no.

Darlington has its Head of Steam museum but it requires investment and where will that come from when the local authority can barely make ends meet in the face of crippling austerity? Indeed, it is only a year since the town stepped back from the unthinkable suggestion that the birthplace of the railways might have to close its museum which houses Locomotion No. I.

On August 22, Darlington’s likeable Mayor Tom Nutt will embark on a charity walk along the 22-mile length of the Stockton and Darlington Railway (see page 6) but there is precious little to mark his way, not even a footpath. The march of progress has stamped over history, with the development of Darlington’s Eastern Transport Corridor and the 1825 Way – off the A66 and into the heart of Stockton – paying no respect to the historic track-bed beneath.

The original 1825 stone sleepers, unearthed by the road builders, ended up being sold illegally on eBay instead of being used to promote our past in some imaginative, educational way.

The Skerne Bridge, the largest piece of infrastructure on the route, was the world’s first architect-designed railway bridge, but who would know as it lies neglected and unmarked off North Road in Darlington. It was important enough to feature on the £5 note in the 1990s but all that’s fresh about it now is the paint from the vandals’ spray cans.

The Stockton and Darlington Railway was the fore-runner of the Tees Valley, helping to define its route: from Darlington, through Middleton St George and Eaglescliffe, before originally terminating on the (also unmarked) quayside at Stockton. Two years later, the world’s first railway suspension bridge took the track over the Tees into Port Darlington, the original name for Middlesbrough, before being connected to Redcar and Saltburn, opening up excursions to one of the first seaside railway resorts.

But where’s the trail for Tom Nutt and others to follow? Where are the artefacts and signposts marking our route into history?

Yes, we have much to celebrate: world-changing industrial heritage; outstanding natural beauty; and a long string of “pearls”, including Hartlepool’s Historic Quay, Midldesbrough’s Institute of Modern Art, Saltburn’s Victorian water-balanced cliff-lift, Darlington’s soon-to-be refurbished Civic Theatre, and Stockton’s revamped and iconic Globe Theatre.

Tees Valley really can be the City of Culture in 2025 – but there is work to do along the line. We all need to jump on board.