“NEVER in the history of Darlington has there been such a spectacle witnessed as that presented yesterday in connection with the interment of the mortal remains of the late lamented Joseph Pease, of Southend,” reported The Northern Echo 150 years ago this week.

As Memories told last Saturday, Joseph Pease, who founded Middlesbrough and amassed immense wealth from mines, railways and blast furnaces, is probably Darlington’s greatest son. Certainly, he is the only human that townsfolk have thought fit to memorialise through a statue, and there are not many other Darlingtonians who have been remembered through commemorative plates.

The Northern Echo: From The Northern Echo of February 14, 1872

From The Northern Echo of February 14, 1872

“Every milling factory, every shop and workshop in the town was closed at midday,” said the Echo of his funeral that was held on February 13, 1872.

“The bells of the churches tolled muffled peals all day.

“The streets were thronged with crowds of persons of both sexes, many of them dressed in black, all winding their way in one direction, towards Southend mansion gates.”

Joseph’s mansion was the finest in the town. Today, it is the Bannatyne Group’s Grange Hotel.

The Northern Echo: Joseph Pease's Southend mansionJoseph Pease's Southend mansion

Joseph Pease's Southend mansion

“The trains brought crowds of workmen, from mining factory and railway workshops, who marched in orderly positions towards the same centre of melancholy attraction,” said the Echo.

At precisely 2pm, his coffin left the mansion in a “plain, unplumed hearse” and headed to the Friends Meeting House in Skinnergate.

“A dense crowd of men, women, and children lined both sides of Grange Road as far as the eye could reach,” said the Echo. “Every coign of vantage had long been occupied from which a view of the procession could be obtained.

“There were spectators at all the cross streets, they were faces at every window – nothing was to be seen but one vast throng of eager gazers, officiating without ceremony at the last scene in the eventful history of Joseph Pease.”

The Northern Echo: Joseph Pease's simple headstone, which he shares with his wife, Emma

Joseph Pease's simple headstone, which he shares with his wife, Emma

Hundreds crowded into the graveyard to see him laid to rest next to his wife, Emma, who had died 10 years earlier. A thousand or more then attended a service of “silent worship” in the meeting house, while a larger overspill service was held across the road in the Mechanics Institute.

Afterwards, 2,000 were treated to refreshments in Central Hall.

To create a lasting memorial, the 10,000 men in his employment from Crook to the coast collected £3,500. A committee of 43 leading businessmen was formed, and they created a sub-committee containing representatives from Middlesbrough, Stockton, Bishop Auckland, Crook, Barnard Castle, Shildon, Gainford and Saltburn to work out the details.

The Northern Echo: Joseph Pease

They came up with a portrait, by Scottish artist James Macbeth (above), and a 9ft bronze statue by Scottish sculptor George Anderson Lawson. The statue (below) on High Row was unveiled in front of a crowd of 100,000 people on September 27, 1875 – the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Stockton & Darlington Railway.

The Northern Echo: Joseph Pease's statue in High Row, Darlington

“I read last week’s article on Joseph Pease with great interest and I thought back to the 1960s when my mother asked me to look after a plate and a cheese dish when she died,” says Stan Summers in Darlington. “She in turn had got from her mother.

“I acquired them in the 1980s following her passing and have kept them in a safe place.”

We cannot explain the importance of the cheese dish, although Mr Pease was a big fan of Cotherstone cheese and when he was South Durham MP took waxed truckles of it by the suitcase down to the House of Commons to give as gifts to other MPs. So influential is Mr Pease as a Parliamentarian that civil servants still follow his example and carry suitcases of cheese, and wine, into Downing Street for their parties.

The plate (below), though, was a souvenir of the unveiling of Joseph’s statue.

The Northern Echo:

Around the plate’s edges are pictures of Henry Fell Pease, Joseph’s nephew who was the MP for Cleveland, Edmund Backhouse, the Darlington MP, Richard Luck, the Darlington mayor, and George Stephenson, the famed railway engineer. To show how times had changed, the plate also bears an image of Locomotion No 1, from 1825, and another of the latest engine to be built at North Road shops.

More interesting than the front of the plate are the two stamps on the rear.

One says that the plate was made on behalf of the statue committee by J Wardle of North Street, Middlesbrough. Mr Wardle had cornered the market in making commemorative plates for everything from colliery disasters to statue unveilings.

The other mark says that the plate was sold by “JP Clarkson, Tea Dealer, Darlington”.

The Northern Echo: Bondgate, with Clarkson's teapot in pride of place. Picture courtesy of Darlington Centre for Local Studies

Bondgate, with Clarkson's supersize teapot in pride of place. We're looking towards the King's Head Hotel, which was rebuilt between 1890 and 1893. Picture courtesy of Darlington Centre for Local Studies

Joseph Paul Clarkson opened his grocery shop in the early 1860s at the bottom of Bondgate, where the entrance to the Queen Street shopping mall is today – it practically overlooked the statue once it was unveiled.

The shop grew to be one of the largest grocers in town and became renowned for the supersized teapot that Mr Clarkson hung above his door. For 40 years until he retired around 1920, it was a major Darlington landmark.

The Northern Echo: JP Clarkson's teapot in Bondgate, Darlington, as drawn by GA Fothergill in 1900

JP Clarkson's teapot in Bondgate, Darlington, as drawn by GA Fothergill in 1900

The shop was taken over by the famous Middlesbrough store, Amos Hinton, and the giant teapot disappeared.

Mr Clarkson died, aged 83, in September 1925 at his home, The Oaks, in Southend Avenue – one of the first properties to be built on the grounds of Mr Pease’s Southend mansion.

The Northern Echo: A postcard view of Bondgate with Clarkson's tea emporium still very visible but the supersize teapot seems to have gone.  Picture courtesy of Darlington Centre for Local Studies

A postcard view of Bondgate with Clarkson's tea emporium still very visible but the supersize teapot seems to have gone.  Picture courtesy of Darlington Centre for Local Studies

READ THE FULL LIFE STORY OF JOSEPH PEASE - IN EASY PIECES

The Northern Echo: An 1890s advert for Clarkson's tea

An 1890s advert for Clarkson's tea, from Darlington Centre for Local Studies