Today's Object of the Week is a plaque on one of the most significant buildings in the industrial history of the North East.
The Boiler Shop is an arts and music centre, housed in a cavernous building on South Street, just off Forth Street in Newcastle.
Read more: REVIEW The Wonder Stuff in concert at the Boiler Shop, Newcastle
But a plaque on an outside wall explains that this building has an interesting and hugely significant past.
This building was the world's first purpose-built locomotive factory, created specifically to build railway engines - and which would set the template that a global industry was to follow for generations to come.
George Stephenson and his 19-year-old son, Robert, were set up in business to build locomotives for the Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR) and in June 1823, Robert Stephenson and Company Limited was formed. The money behind the company came mainly from Edward Pease, the principle pioneer of the S&DR.
In August of that year, the company purchased land in Forth Street, Newcastle, and began building a factory.
On November 7, 1823, the S&DR committee handed Robert Stephenson and Company its first order: four stationary engines (two 30 horsepower, two 15 horsepower) for use on the Brusselton and Etherley inclines.
On September 16, 1824, the S&DR committee handed the company its first order for "travelling" locomotives: two, at £500 each, which came to be called No 1 Locomotion and No 2 Hope.
But he ground-breaking initiative very nearly ran out of steam.
The trouble with the Stephensons was that over the course of 1824 they had become too successful.
Railway mania was sweeping the country. George found himself acting as a consultant to four planned railways and Robert, who was supposed to be in charge of refining and building his father's blueprints, had disappeared to South America in June 1824. He had taken up a post as expeditionary engineer for the Columbian Mining Association.
By December 1824, Pease was exasperated. It was now time for "self-preservation", he said, and over George's head appointed Michael Longbridge as the executive director of Robert Stephenson and Co.
It was a stuttering start, but eventually the company began to deliver - initially with Locomotion No 1 for the S&DR.
It was Rocket’s triumph at the Rainhilll Trials in 1829 which established the works' pre-eminence and by 1899, 3,000 locomotives had been built at the Forth Street site.
By 1899, the Forth Street works could expand no more and new works were built at Darlington.
In 1937, Robert Stephenson & Co Ltd combined with R & W Hawthorn Leslie & Co Ltd to become Robert Stephenson & Hawthorns Ltd.
The building of main line locomotives was concentrated at Darlington and industrial locomotives at the Forth Banks works.
In 1944 the Vulcan Foundry acquired a substantial stock holding in the company and later the two firms became part of the English Electric Company.
The last steam locomotive to be built in Newcastle was a six-coupled fireless locomotive in 1959 and the Forth Banks works, established in 1823, were closed in 1960, with all diesel and electrical locomotive building concentrated at Darlington.
Read about previous Objects of the Week here:
- What links a hideous dwarf, a gold table and a secret passage to this ruined castle?
- Tragedy as 17-year-old drowned before seeing the Darlington fountain he designed
- The incredible story behind the ship left abandoned on the banks of the River Wear
The office block and one workshop of Stephenson's Forth Street Works in South Street were restored by The Robert Stephenson Trust.
The Trust lost its lease to these buildings in February 2009, following purchase of the whole Robert Stephenson and Hawthorn Leslie locomotive works sites for redevelopment as the 'Stephenson Quarter'.
The site started to be redeveloped in 2013 and now the remaining workshop houses the Boiler Shop, a popular arts and music venue.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here