Tyne Valley Community Rail Partnership (CRP) has had the unique job of herding sheep across the rail network this autumn as part of a community arts project.
Led by Queen’s Hall Arts in Hexham, ‘Illuminated Sheep’ is a visual arts trail that first lit up Northumberland to celebrate the arrival of the Lindisfarne Gospels in the North East in 2022. The trail sees individual members of the flock separated across the region and looked after and customised by community champions, businesses and organisations.
Tyne Valley CRP began looking after their sheep in September, naming him ‘Edmondson’ after Thomas Edmondson, who was a station master at Brampton and inventor of the cardboard ticket, which was used across railways worldwide for many years.
Edmondson had an epic adventure with Tyne Valley CRP, including learning about assistive technology in Leeds, attending the Avanti West Coast stakeholder conference in Liverpool, helping promote the Heritage Open Days Festival at Haltwhistle, and of course travelling by train and meeting lots of passengers along the way.
Fiona Forsythe, Tyne Valley CRP officer, said: “Having a sheep in tow for a month was certainly a good way of engaging people in rail travel and the visitor attractions of the area.
“We’d like to thank Northern train crews and the Avanti West Coast team at Carlisle for their good humour and being very accommodating to Edmondson on his 614.9 miles worth of travels.”
Carole Wears, Illuminated Sheep ‘shepherdess’ at Queen’s Hall Arts, said: “Our sheep have brought such joy to people across Hadrian’s Wall this autumn – but I don’t think any of the flock have travelled the distances Edmonson has! He’s quite the adventurer and we have loved following his journey.
“We understand and appreciate the time and consideration Tyne Valley CRP has put into his adoption and thank them most sincerely for all of it. What smiles you’ve brought to the faces of your community”.
Keep up to date with future news, projects and events from Tyne Valley CRP via their website.
