Robert was first sent to a village school away in Long Benton. George had received little formal education but was determined that his son would have one and so sent the eleven-year-old Robert to be taught at the Percy Street Academy in Newcastle. Robert became a member of the Newcastle Literary and Philosophical Society and borrowed books for him and his father to read. In the evenings, he would work with his father on designs for steam engines. In 1816 they made a sundial together, which is still in place above the cottage door. After leaving school in 1819, Stephenson was apprenticed to the mining engineer Nicholas Wood, manager of Killingworth colliery. As an apprentice Stephenson worked hard and lived frugally, and unable to afford to buy a mining compass, he made one that he would later use to survey the High Level Bridge in Newcastle. Stockton and Darlington Railway Ways were investigated in the early 19th century to transport coal from the mines in the Bishop Auckland area to Darlington and the quay at Stockton-on-Tees, and canals had been proposed. The Welsh engineer George Overton suggested a tramway, surveyed a route in September 1818 and the scheme was promoted by Edward Pease at a meeting in November. A private bill for a Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR) was presented to Parliament in 1819 but was opposed by landowners and did not pass. The route was changed, Overton carried out another survey and an Act received Royal Assent on 19 April 1821; Pease and George Stephenson met for the first time in Darlington that same day, and by 23 July George had been appointed to make a fresh survey of the line. Stephenson had not completed his apprenticeship, but he was showing symptoms of tuberculosis, and his work was hazardous; he was down West Moor Pit when there was an underground explosion. Wood agreed to release the 18-year-old so that he could assist his father during the survey. By the end of 1821 they reported that a usable line could be built within the bounds of the Act, but another route would be shorter and avoid deep cuttings and tunnels. George was elected engineer by shareholders with a salary of £660 per annum. He advocated the use of steam locomotives, Pease visited Killingworth in the summer of 1822, and the directors visited Hetton colliery railway, on which George had also