ABSTRACT
Thus by the inter-war era Darlington was still a considerable centre of heavy and general engineering, while the town's role in the national rail network and in railway production was to remain significant to the local economy until after the Second World War. By 1900, the railways, with Darlington's heavy industry and engineering at the forefront, were very largely concerned with the export trade.6 In 1910 Darlington had become the headquarters of the North Eastern Railway (NER - from 1922, the London and North Eastern Railway, LNER) locomotive department and was the only remaining centre of locomotive building for the
! Sunderland, N., A History of Darlington, (Didsbury, 1967), pp. 1 and 14. 2 Flynn, G., The Book of Darlington, (Buckingham, 1987), p. 87. 3 Freeman, T.W., The Conurbations of Great Britain, (Manchester, 1959), pp. 217 and 223. 4 Woodhouse, R., Darlington: A Pictorial History, (Chichester, 1998), pp. xii and xiii. 5 Sunderland,AHistory, pp. 21, 67-71, and 12-13. 6 Fogarty, M.P., Prospects of the Industrial Areas of Great Britain, (London, 1945), p.185.
