This series documents the earliest proposals for the construction of a link from the coalfields to Stockton and Darlington. It contains material that debates the project's feasibility and whether the link should take the form of a canal or railway. It covers the public meeting held in Stockton in 1810 during which the possibility of a railway was first postulated, a Committee was formed and a subscription launched to fund a survey. The Committee counted among its number representatives of the Backhouse and Pease families, who would go on to be lynchpins of the railway when it finally came to fruition in the 1820s. It also documents the survey funded by the subscribers that was primarily conducted by the notable civil engineer, John Rennie (the Elder).