Stand Clear of the Doors, Please
by Andy Griffin
directed by Mary Webb
This play tells of the facinating story of George Stephenson and the railway pioneers, the fight to get railway bills through parliament ("We don't want railways here!" sing the parliamentary landowners opposed to Stephenson) and the colourful characters and local events surrounding that momentous period of history.
The elegant station welcomed future kings and statesmen beneath its famous floral canopy that became known as "the Kew Gardens of the North". Soldiers assembled on the platform for both the world wars, evacuee children were transported to the Northumberland countryside, and the Cullercoats fishwives had thier own battle with the line when the trains went electric!
The rise, fall, and rise again of this seaside station was presented with humour and music in a week's tour of North Tyneside which started with a performance in Tynemouth Station itself on Saturday 1st July 2000.
STAND CLEAR OF THE DOORS, PLEASE! was presented by Tynemouth Pageant Players and funded by a grant from Millennium Festival Awards for All.
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