Fighting Cocks railway station

When the Stockton & Darlington Railway first opened on 10 October 1825, there were no official stations, as passenger trains were provided by independent coach operators who purchased a licence from the railway company to enable them to operate on the line. Tickets were sold by local publicans, and so it has been claimed that the Fighting Cocks public house, a coaching inn near where the railway crossed Rykeneild Street, could be one of the oldest surviving station booking office in the world. It was not until the success of passenger services on the Liverpool & Manchester Railway persuaded the S&DR to purchase the coach operators that in December 1833 it began to operate its own…