David Griffiths and Roger McKone - Wylam Geordie - George Stephenson - A Celebration in Words and Music (Book and C

The nineteenth century saw the innovations of the Industrial Revolution in Britain. Engineers such as Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Joseph Bazalgette and Thomas Telford developed and built upon the inventions begun in the eighteenth century and transformed the country from its primarily agrarian, farming nature to becoming the workshop of the world during the Victorian era.

George and Robert Stephenson, father and son, were pioneers of the railway system in this country, essential to the growing infrastructure of the Industrial Revolution.

Wylam Geordie is a celebration of the achievements of George and Robert Stephenson, focussing upon the early development of the railway network through music and drama, which it is hoped will appeal to children of Primary School age. This first saw the light of day in the 1990s as a collaboration between David Griffiths and Roger McKone who both worked as education advisers in South Tyneside.

Wylam Geordie was performed several times as part of South Tyneside’s Primary Schools Music Festival at the Customs House, South Shields. Whilst it is possible to perform this purely as an Arts project, it may also serve as basis for further study.

1. How Did He Get There?
2. Search for the Sunshine
3. Perservere
4. He's On His Way
5. The Eighteen Twenty Five (Locomotion)
6. Stop the Trains (Banish the Engines)
7. Perservere (Reprise)
8. Together
9. The Rainhill Trials
10. Wylam Geordie