A reproduction ceramic tiled map has been erected at Blaydon Railway Station honouring the history of North Eastern Railway (NER) and celebrating railway heritage of the North East.

It is over 125 years since the North Eastern Railway company (NER) commissioned Craven Dunnill of Shropshire to design and manufacture ceramic tiled maps showcasing its’s extensive rail network and to be erected at its stations.

Now volunteer station adopters, the Friends of Blaydon Station, have honoured this initiative by displaying a half-sized reproduction version to the delight of the Tyne Valley rail passengers.

In 1900, George Stegmann Gibb, NER General Manager, was authorised to oversee the initiative to erect the tiled maps across the region’s stations stretching from Berwick to Rotherham and Carlisle to Withernsea. As well as the passenger routes, nearby features including lakes, lochs, country houses, battlefields, castles, abbeys, monasteries, and cathedrals were featured.

It is believed at least twenty-five maps were displayed at stations. However, a century later it is understood only twelve tiled maps exist, nine of them at their original stations, Beverley,  Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Morpeth, Saltburn, Scarborough, Tynemouth, York and Whitby. Some had lucky escapes. The Middlesbrough map had been covered over by the time the station was bombed in 1942. The soon to be demolished South Shields station was saved by the heroic efforts of the volunteers, who removed the map along with the wall behind it for display in South Shields Museum. The National Railway Museum in York also houses one of the maps originally displayed at King's Cross.

Unfortunately there were some unlucky losers. The map at Hexham was destroyed by an ardent station foreman trying to clear posters off it with a scraper.  Bridlington's was smashed by the station demolition contractors while one at Tyne Dock was wrecked by arsonists. Other maps were lost at Alnmouth, Darlington, Durham, Goole, Hull Paragon, Leeds City, Malton, Newcastle Central, Normanton and Selby.

Craven Dunnill, the original manufacturer of the tiles closed in the 1950's. In 1989 the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust established a demonstration tile works and in 2001 Craven Dunnill agreed to restart a limited production of handmade tiles. The wheel turned full circle in 2007 when the North Eastern Tile Company commissioned them to restart production of the NER tiled maps using original methods and in their original factory.

Joseph Codling, Blaydon Station Adopter said, “Blaydon’s beautiful reproduction NER map celebrates the station’s importance to the railway story and builds on our efforts to create a welcoming station with a clear sense of place, which we hope the community can be proud of. The new map looks fantastic next to our popular Blaydon Races mural too!”

The Friends of Blaydon Station are grateful for the help provided by the station facilities team, ISS, erecting the map and to Northern for helping finance this interesting project.