Michael Smith's film about Witton Park premieres this weekend

Streets of Steel, made by Michael Smith, is being screened at 3pm on Sunday, January 28 in Witton Park Village Hall and admission is free.

Film-maker Michael Smith

“I have lived in Witton Park all my life,” says Michael, who studies at the Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College in Darlington, “and a couple of years ago I started taking images around the village. That got me interested in the history and so I got in touch with people like John McLeod and Dale Daniel who have lived there a long time.

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From Michael's film

“I didn’t know there was a link to the Stockton & Darlington Railway, I didn’t know there was once the largest ironworks in Europe here, I didn’t know the house where I was born, in High Albion Terrace, was built for the ironworks by Bolckow Vaughan – it was a bit shambolic considering I’ve lived here all my life.”

He began filming interviews with people which he was considering posting online as shorts but instead turned into a documentary.

“I’m glad I did,” he says. “It’s my first ever feature length film, from the beginnings of the S&DR to the future: it was really important to me that everyone’s stories were told.”

A drone view of Witton Park from the film

Witton Park was created after 1846 when Bolckow Vaughan built a blast furnace at Paradise Cottage midway between the Durham coalfield and the Cleveland orefield. Within three years, 1,200 men were employed in the ironworks and the village population peaked at 3,982 in 1881. Then, in 1882, the ironworks closed and the long decline of “Paradise” began, with the county council writing it off in the 1950s. Yet the community clung together and with new housebuilding beginning in the 1990s, it has become a popular countryside village in which to live.

A lovely picture of the Bradford brothers memorial adorned with snow

“I can walk the dog and not find any of the history, and I couldn’t believe how much there is, from the Bradford brothers of the First World War to the council’s Category D,” says Michael.

His screening at the village hall has been assisted by local councillor Rob Yorke and is open to all.

“This is something I can give to the village,” he says. “I’m so grateful to everyone who has helped me.”

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