Hackworth Park (alternately the Recreation Ground) is a

park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...

Shildon Shildon is a town and civil parish in County Durham (district), County Durham, in England. The population taken at the 2011 Census was 9,976. The town has the Locomotion Museum, due to it having the first , built in 1825, and locomotive works on ...

, County Durham, England. It was named after

Timothy Hackworth Timothy Hackworth (22 December 1786 – 7 July 1850) was an English steam locomotive engineer who lived in Shildon, County Durham, England and was the first locomotive superintendent of the Stockton and Darlington Railway. Youth and early work ...

, a railway pioneer from the town.

History

The park was opened on Saturday 28 September 1912. To celebrate the opening there was a procession which included horses, cyclists, the fire brigade, miners lodges and two brass bands. On 30 August 1913 the bandstand was opened. There are two drinking fountains in the park; the first was given by the committee of the old Shildon Working Men's Club and has an ornate canopy with a centre column and

heron The herons are long-legged, long-necked, freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae, with 72 recognised species, some of which are referred to as egrets or bitterns rather than herons. Members of the genera ''Botaurus'' and ''Ixobrychus ...

s surrounding the drinking tube. The second is octagonal, it has 8 roundels between dragon's heads depicting a railway locomotive designed by Timothy Hackworth and is Grade II listed with

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked wit ...

. The park was named after

, a railway pioneer who came from Shildon, there is a statue of him in the park, the original statue was vandalised and moved to the nearby

National Railway Museum Shildon Locomotion, previously known as Locomotion the National Railway Museum at Shildon, is a railway museum in Shildon, County Durham, England. The museum was renamed in 2017 when it became part of the Science Museum Group. Overview The museum was ...

with a modern replacement put in its place. The Surtees Rail Trail passes through the park, it is now a footpath that follows the former Surtees Railway Branch Line, which was a private railway created by the Surtees family to link their

collieries Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

to the main line.http://durhamcc-consult.limehouse.co.uk/file/2909738 p.15

Facilities

Shildon Town Council and Shildon Civic Hall are at the park. There are also playing fields, tennis courts and football pitches.

References

{{reflist Parks and open spaces in County Durham Shildon