Cockfield Station from 1901 to 1911

Description

Ian Mitchell, author of this research paper originally published as a series in North Eastern Express, writes:

The NERA archive contains three unusual books of counterfoils from Cockfield station of uncertain origin. They are for passengers’ excess luggage (from 1901 to 1907), passenger luggage deliveries (1903 to 1906) and orders for privilege tickets (1906 to 1907). They are unusual in that the counterfoils
are all used and almost all are readable.

The counterfoils contain several items of individual interest but do not, by themselves, tell us much about the people who appear on them. I have been impressed and inspired by the series of television programmes by the historian David Olusoga, which tell the story of life in individual houses through time. Many of the staff at the station lived in the houses clustered around it, since the station lay roughly a mile from the nearest villages of Cockfield and Butterknowle. Could I achieve, in a very modest way, a story of life of ordinary men at this station in the early years of the twentieth century by combining the counterfoils with other available sources. Much of the research took place online during the Covid-19 restrictions but, after the archives reopened in 2021, I was able to make use of their resources.