John North: Good and Prosser

THOMAS Prosser - not to be confused with Oofy Prosser, who was one of Bertie Wooster's wasters - was principal architect of York's majestic train station and of many another grand design along the region's railways.

Hexham goods shed may therefore be regarded as one of his humbler creations, as Sir Richard Grant put it when writing O Worship the King.

It is a Prosser, nonetheless, and a Prosser is to North Eastern Railwaymen what a Meerschaum may be to a pipe smoker or a Stradivarius to a musician.

What's more, it is not just a single but a double or lesser spotted Prosser, and all the more venerated for its rarity.

Double trouble, alas, Safeway plans to demolish it to make way for its new supermarket in the Northumberland town. If they have tears to shed, railway historians shed them now.

Michael Ellison from Stockton, who draws the column's attention to the threat, was for ten years secretary of the North Eastern Railway Association.

"It's almost unique in that the former railway buildings have survived to make up what is a key site in the region, nationally and internationally," he says. "Unfortunately, Safeway seem hell bent on pulling down the shed."

English Heritage, The Times architectural correspondent, the Hexham Courant and the Department of Culture, Media and Whatnot have all become involved. It was time for a trip up the Tyne Valley line, where famously fell the wrong sort of leaves.

Hexham station itself is a Grade II listed building - a lovely, other age sort of a place save for the electric clocks which tick like J M Barrie's crocodile and the computerised PA system in danger of disappearing up its own mainframe.

The rest of the former station site is in a conservation area, several other railway buildings now used by agricultural companies. The trouble is, no one seems to know - or care - about the double Prosser. "Best ask at the ticket office," said the waitress in the next door restaurant.

"I didn't know we had a goods shed," said the girl in the ticket office.

"Know nowt about it, mate," said the feller fetching fertiliser from Farmway - and he was about five yards from the site.

Though Safeway is adamant that demolition will go ahead - the company cites something called "reserved matters planning permission", granted last month - campaigners believe they're not yet at the end of the line.

They hope that the shed will also be declared a listed building, like the "single" Prosser at Goathland on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.

"The plans are awful. It will have a major impact on the whole station area," says Evelyn Cook, one of the leaders.

"It's a very important little cluster of buildings which we cannot afford to lose. I think alarm bells may be starting to ring at last."

The goods shed is presently fenced off, its use uncertain. Michael Ellison still believes they can keep Safeway at bay - for a Prosser goods shed, a freight worse than death.

ON Newcastle station, incidentally, there's an Arriva poster headed "Keeping you in the picture" which bangs on about increased efficiency and punctuality. It's sub-titled "A monthly update". The month in question is April.

STILL on the railways, GNER launched its new look rolling stock with a special train for champagne quaffing VIPs. Parable of the rich man's feast, the column was there, too.

There was a jazz band, an accordionist playing Come Back to Sorrento (calling at all stations) and an at-seat magician who really was very tricky. "Staggering," said Dari Taylor, the personable MP for Stockton South.

The old carriages, said GNER chief executive Christopher Garnett, had become "seriously tired" and he may say that again. After gutting them, the company has replaced everything except the curtain rail.

A genuflection to railway history, the refurbished trains will be known as the Mallard fleet. Lunch, a little GNER joke, was to be duck.

There's a refreshed caf-bar, swisher and quieter interiors, more airline seating - "public demand" they insist - and, importantly, more leg room. The fleet will be phased in over the next two years.

Most guests travelled from Newcastle to York and back. Some, like Dari Taylor, joined at Darlington. The tempting looking lunch, alas, wasn't served until the train came within sight of Bank Top station.

The column had to see men about dogs, Dari had to play hell with the Department of the Environment. Both of us alighted unfed.

"Swines," said the honourable member, among other things. The rest may be considered unparliamentary.

Showing Willington (and other stories)

BACK to school, we were invited to present the annual awards at Parkside, a vibrant, diverse, community conscious and over-achieving comprehensive in Willington, south-west Durham.

The school also hopes to gain specialist sports college status - "I guess because of the area's health problems," said Roland Sterry, the head. Clearly the column was there as a Charles Atlas-type role model. You too...

The programme listed subjects like information and communications technology, food technology and construction and design technology. We recalled - the speech day speech - rough hewing a matchbox holder in third form woodwork and being awarded eight out of 100.

The eight, wrote the kindly woodwork master on the end of term report, was for correctly spelling the name on the back of the bit of wood.

Parkside has inter-active white boards, too. We remembered only blackboards, the sole inter-activity when old Drac finally snapped and with unerring aim propelled a piece of chalk against a miscreant ear.

Mr Sterry spoke of lunchtime activities ranging from chess to cheer leading, bridge to health and beauty. In the 1960s, it was football or football.

Dave Shield, a deputy head, was just back from a ten-day fact-finding trip to Canada. Our deputy head had one afternoon a year at County Hall.

The following afternoon, Mr Sterry and some of his pupils were at the wonderfully born-again Rosedale allotments in Willington, about which we wrote earlier this year.

With almost £30,000 from the Prince's Trust, they're helping create three community gardens and have made half a dozen elegant benches. Beats the hell out of matchbox holders any day.

Apart from the busted microphone - new technology for you - it was a most enlightening evening. If today's kids don't make it, it's not for want of others' trying.

STILL among the Willington folk, news of an untimely accident for local county councillor Brian Myers while putting the chapel clock back.

Brian, awarded the MBE last New Year for services to the community, was 15 feet up a ladder when he - or it - slipped.

"I remember singing 'Nearer My God To Thee' as I climbed up and the next thing I knew I was on the deck, temporarily immobile," he says.

The bruising was extensive and fairly immediate, the shock delayed. An hour behind but recovering, County Councillor Myers is happy to count his blessings.

"Obviously," he says, "God's not ready to have a politician seated at his right hand just yet."

...and still at Durham County Hall, a splendid story skips the corridors about Maggie Bosanquet, a highly regarded senior officer in an environmental agency called Local Agenda 21.

Recently invited to a 10 Downing Street reception for those who've had a major impact on environmental issues, Maggie was joined in conversation by another woman, who asked where she came from.

"Oh, I'm from Durham, but I don't suppose you know it," she said.

"Oh yes," said her new acquaintance, "as a matter of fact my husband has a constituency there."

Then Cherie Blair smiled, warmly.