Memory of a Journey Community Participation Exhibition

For 200 years, trains have connected people and places. This year we invited all the communities in the region and beyond to reflect on their own unforgettable train journey for our Memory of a Journey project.

This project, as part of the S&DR200 celebrations, went to care homes, schools, community centres, libraries, prisons, shopping centres, social clubs, hospitals, museums and in civic hubs across the region., and we encouraged those involved to decorate wooden peg dolls and turn them into something special.

Thus far we have in excess of 12,000 back with more coming back to us all the time. Each doll has been decorated with the memory of a personal journey, creating a vibrant tapestry of stories, some from as far away as China, Japan and Sierra Leone. Whilst more peg dolls arrive back to us, in the meantime we wanted to show case some of them, as this project has really engaged all the communities in the area and beyond, before we start to digitise them all into an archive.

The main Memory of a Journey exhibit will be held in the music room at the newly renovated Preston Park Museum and you can visit this from 13 September 2025. However, due to the overwhelming response we have had to this project, we have also set up displays in other locations. So, if you want to see your decorated peg doll, you may need to go on your own journey around the region to find it!

Other locations you can see the Memory of a Journey dolls from the end of the month are:

Darlington:

Darlington Library

Hopetown Darlington

Darlington Building society, Darlington High Street

Stockton-on-Tees:

Stockton Library

Visitor Information Centre, Stockton High Street

Thornaby Library

Teesside Park

Durham:

Clayport Library, Durham City

Shildon Civic Centre, Shildon

Locomotion Museum, Shildon

We are also looking to house some small displays wider afield as well and as these sites are found we will add to the list of where to see them on our website.

After displaying the S&DR1825 Community project, young producers and volunteers will be photographing the Memory of a Journey peg dolls, digitising them and they will be then housed in Archives in Durham, Tees Vally, National Railway Museum and the National Archives. We hope some of the very best dolls will be kept by the museums!