Welcome to the home of
The Stephenson Trail Project
A wonderful multimedia piece that combines a fantastic song “Stephenson’s Engine’ written by The Lake Poets supported by Sunderland Male Voice Choir and Houghton Brass Band, with a beautiful selection of images which were submitted to the Stephenson Trail Photographic Project.
Or here’s a stunning version captured by Lonely Tour Film, from an event at Sunderland City Hall (4th Nov 2022) where Marty Longstaff of The Lake Poets performed the new composition, created specifically for the Sunderland, UK Stephenson Trail, marking the course of the ground breaking Hetton Colliery Railway's 200th anniversary.
The changing times the region has been through, beautifully captured by Marty.
CLICK HERE for the education resources were developed with creative professionals through funding from Sunderland City Council. Each artist worked with schools across the region to develop activities that linked curriculum subjects with The Stephenson Trail and that supported wellbeing strategies for young people.Each residency had one of the following focus areas
Nature, Geology, Art and design, Music, Archaeology, History and Industry, Health and Wellbeing
The artists worked with Key Stage 1 and 3 groups to explore themes and activities which have then been developed into short mostly hour long session plans which are suitable for a range of ages, abilities, and settings, this includes home-education and non-compulsory education settings.
History Today
We created a booklet to share some of the images that were submitted to the Stephenson Trail Photographic Project - we called it “History Today”.
Songs for the Trail
Here are a selection of songs for you to listen to, and inspire you, whilst you walk along the trail with your camera/smartphone. The songs included in the playlist are about trains, coal or the City of Sunderland. Plus, there’s also a sprinkling of songs from Sunderland born/based artists too! Keep checking back as new songs are added.
Contact us
If you have any questions about the Stephenson Trail
Photography project, please complete the form opposite.
We will get back to you as soon as possible.
This project has been commissioned and funded by Sunderland City Council along with a series of projects to celebrate 200 years of the Hetton Colliery Railway and the associated Stephenson Trail.
