If you have walked through Hopetown, Darlington's railway museum, or stopped in the station garden lately, you may have seen a dignified classical figure in terracotta tones, standing quietly among the railway-side planting. The statue of Prudentia in her new setting at Hopetown station garden (Image: ANDREW WHITE)Prudential was keen to project solidity, trust, and moral seriousness, and Prudentia - one of the four cardinal virtues - was an ideal emblem. She was placed in the station garden at Hopetown, Darlington's railway museum, last year (2025) - a fitting location for Prudentia as it is a site with gardening in its bones. Hopetown's station garden, continuing a legacy of horticulture on the Darlington site (Image: ANDREW WHITE)As long ago as 1855, the land here included allotment gardens, and in 1895 the North Eastern Railway launched a station garden competition that proved so popular it was extended in 1907. Today’s station garden, funded by the Tees Valley Museums Group and created in consultation with the local community, carries that same spirit forward.