3-082-993 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Royal Agricultural Society at Darlington: Darlington High Row, 1895. The Clock Tower and Town Hall were designed by Alfred Waterhouse in the Gothic style. The buildings were presented to the town by the railway pioneer, Joseph Pease, but part of the building collapsed during construction in 1863 killing a local farmer. 'The public spirit of Darlington is undeniable, as is shown by the numerous useful and philanthropic institutions which it possesses. For forty-five years it has enjoyed public baths; there is a school of art, a free library, and a literary and scientific institution. The population of the municipal borough approaches forty thousand...The population of the town is keenly interested in the show, and, given a continuation of the good weather with which we have been lately favoured, it will be safe to prophesy that the Royal Agricultural Society of England will not regret the choice of Darlington as the scene of their operations this year. The hospitality for which the North has a high reputation will certainly not be of a meagre description'. From "Illustrated London News", 1895.