New Kendal Quaker Tapestry display to open (From The Westmorland Gazette)

New Kendal Quaker Tapestry display to open

12:03pm Saturday 27th March 2010 in

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A SOUTH Lakeland attraction is getting up a head of steam in preparation for the launch of its new display on ‘Quakers and Railways’.

The special display at The Quaker Tapestry, Stramongate, Kendal, features a working model railway track and is sure to be a hit with railway enthusiasts when the exhibition opens on Monday (March 29).

The display is based on one of the 77 embroidered panels of the main exhibition, which among other things tells about the Quaker involvement with the Stockton to Darlington railway.

In the early 19th century, in the north-east of England, a group of local businessmen led by Edward Pease – a Darlington Quaker – were keen to get a ‘rail way’ from the Bishop Auckland coal mines via Darlington to the Tees port of Stockton.

George Stephenson heard of the idea and sought out Edward Pease. He persuaded Pease that steam locomotive power as opposed to horse drawn wagons should be used.

On September 27 1825 the Stockton to Darlington railway was officially opened. Large crowds saw George Stephenson at the controls of Locomotion as it pulled 37 wagons and a coach called ‘the Experiment’ at speeds of up to 15 mph.

Also featured are other well-known Quakers associated with the railways including George Bradshaw who had the idea of publishing the first railway timetables.

Thomas Edmondson, the inventor of the railway ticket ,and several members of the Worsdell family, the Quaker engineering dynasty, also feature.