3-070-852 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The George Stephenson Centenary at Newcastle-On-Tyne: procession passing St. Nicholas Church, 1881. 'A...procession, consisting of the members of the Corporations of Newcastle, Gateshead, Jarrow, and South Shields, the foreign Consuls, various public bodies, friendly and benefit societies, trade councils, and workmen connected with the different workshops and factories of the district, together with the miners of Northumberland and Durham, paraded the streets at noon, the numbers in this procession being estimated at upwards of 40,000...The streets were crowded, and, viewed from the balconies and windows, presented a spectacle which has never been equalled in the district. The platforms on the Town-moor were occupied by the various trade representatives, who delivered addresses appropriate to the occasion. Resolutions extolling the genius of Stephenson and the beneficial results of his work, and pledging the meeting to support the erection of a Stephenson College, were carried amidst great acclamations'. Illustration published in a special supplement to celebrate the centenary of the birth of British civil engineer and mechanical engineer George Stephenson (1781-1848). From "Illustrated London News", 1881.