First train to Ashington to visit the birth place of the Charlton brothers.
As a boy growing up in the 60s, Bobby and Jackie Charlton had become not only childhood heroes of mine but also world superstars, having been on the winning World Cup side that beat West Germany in 1966 at Wembley. More latterly, I had become a Blue Badge Tour Guide for North East England in 2021 and had read much about Ashington where they grew up, the tough circumstances of its mining town and its inhabitants.
It was therefore, with excitement after I heard on National Radio news, that the Northumberland Line, taking trains from Newcastle to Ashington, was about to start services on Sunday, 16th December 2024 and as luck would have it, I had nothing planned. So having navigated the LNER website and bought two single tickets for £4.35 each (with a railcard) from Durham to Ashington, changing at Newcastle Central and downloaded the tickets to my phone, I was ready to walk my 10 minutes down the hill to Durham Station.
I was surprised at the amount of people who were at the station, but I guess for a last but one Sunday before Christmas, this was fair enough. However, at Newcastle, after an uneventful 15 minute journey, there were a lot of people who were also waiting for the 10.54 train to Ashington. I wasn’t the only quasi train geek wishing to ride he line to Ashington after a 60 year hiatus.
The train was clean, more than half full and left on time. As it pulled out of the station and sliced through the medieval Newcastle Castle and Keep, one could feel the palpable excitement and voices of grown men could be heard reminiscing about their previous train rides to Ashington before the line was axed in the Beeching cuts in 1964. The £300m investment had opened and the first train into Ashington was greeted with cheers. Currently only Seaton Delaval station is open on the 35 minute trip, but, in future, there will be half a dozen stations opening next year.
At Ashington I arrived excitedly and made my way through the grid-patterned streets to the street where the Charltons once played in the back lane. Apart from it being filled with cars and everybody having gas central heating, I daresay not too much has changed. A degree of impoverishment was expected in a town where the main livelihood closed down in 1988 and where unemployment is 4.25%(2021). I found the street and exact house before moving on past the Ashington Central High School and on to nearby Hirst Park where my heroes had practiced their wonderful talent with a ball.
True to form there was a junior team limbering up and around the fences, information boards to explain the great legacy of Ashington footballers. Further on, I discovered the Jackie Charlton statue and information on three other legends who all won the Footballer of the Year title in the 50s and 60s. Bobby of course, in 1966, Jackie in in 1967 but also Jimmy Adamson in 1962 who played his whole life at Burnley and earlier, in 1958, the Newcastle, legendary coalminer-striker that was ‘wor’ Jackie Milburn and a second cousin of the Charlton lads.
The statue is life size and feels very life like. Jackie Charlton was very much a man of the people and a joker and his infectious laugh and camaraderie was well known. This clearly resonates in the sculpture and I have to admit to have been feeling quite emotional, being so close to my schoolboy hero - even if this was a metal copy of the real thing.
I returned to the main part of town, took a warming drink in a nearby pub before heading off to find the second Jackie. Not too far away and outside a modern Leisure Centre is the statue of Jackie Milburn who, as legend has it, was still working night shifts whilst playing for Newcastle United including some weeks when he returned from the pit at 7am on Saturday morning, only to be ready to play at 3pm, the traditional kick off time.
With an hour to spare, I went off to wander round the community woodlands which were planted in the 90s as part of the reclamation of the former pit site. Much of the site is planted with fast growing pine trees but I was happily surprised to see many rides and views through the lower branches.
I then returned to the new Ashington station to make my return trip to Durham via Newcastle. The train was packed and I wondered if this was a later phase of people going to ‘Toon to shop, drink or party. I had had a brilliant sightseeing trip and felt very satisfied in what I had seen.
Ken Bradshaw is a Blue Badge Guide for the North East and specialises in walking tours in Durham and Newcastle and as a British Cycling Level 2 Leader offers bike tours of the area. In 2025, as part of the Stockton and Darlington Railway 200th celebrations, he is offering tours of the line and its museums at Shildon (Locomotion) and Darlington (Hopetown Museum).
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