In the early 20th century she created decorative panels, busts, garden statuary, medallions, group sculptures, and statuettes, in various materials including copper, bronze and painted plaster.

[6][19][24] The Ripon Museum Trust states that, "Despite selling work internationally and winning significant public commissions, Frances died in relative obscurity".

[26]Darlington trained as a sculptor and medallist,[6] and she executed decorative panels, busts, garden statuary, medallions, group sculptures, and statuettes, in various materials including copper and bronze.

[28] After that, she studied at the Central School of Art and Design, South Kensington,[4][5][6] under Édouard Lantéri,[23] and was possibly also taught by Gerald Moira.

During her early career, Darlington worked on official commissions in the Yorkshire area, including relief panels and busts, "with religious and mythological subjects".

[6] Due to her close connection as a worshipper at St Wilfrid's, it has been suggested that some of the figures in her Stations of the Cross reliefs in that church are portraits of members of its congregation.

[5] Besides sculpture, Darlington also produced a railway-poster design, to be "placed at the various stations on the different railways", and to "bring before the public the advantage of Ilkley".

[12] The Maude Palmer commission was followed after her training at the Slade and the Royal College of Art by her marble Bust of Queen Victoria,[34] for Morley Town Hall.

[5][39] Her panel, Madonna della Rosa (1905), was illustrated in the Catholic Home Journal, which described it as "an excellent piece of work".

[40] Early in 1907, the Leeds Mercury reported that Darlington's plaster bas relief of Sir Perceval's Vision of the Holy Grail, a decoration for a mantelpiece in the reading room of Harrogate Ladies' College, had been accepted for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.

[42] The Yorkshire Post commented, "There is some very good modelling in Sir Perceval and the Vision of the Holy Grail, though the difficulties of the composition are not entirely overcome, and there are some awkward lines".

[24][48] When the maquettes for the busts were offered for viewing, the Brighouse News said, "The representations are exceedingly life-like and natural, and should do much to increase Miss Darlington's reputation".

[50][51] The Wharfedale & Airedale Observer commented: "[Darlington] has shown conspicuous ability in this particular line, and we are told that the sculptures do her infinite credit".

[56] The Yorkshire Post commented:[57] Executed in such materials as ivory, bronze-gilt, and enamel, Miss Frances Darlington's Isis ... ought to be very effective; it is thoroughly artistic work, but the colour, especially of the hair, is not completely satisfying.

[24] The Leeds Mercury reported that, "The statue represents Priestley in the act of plunging a lighted candle into an inverted jar, the supreme moment of his life, when he made the discovery of oxygen", and that Darlington had been "widely congratulated on her work".

[58] The Dundee Evening Telegraph, which had examined the plaster maquette in April 1912, said that, "The statue shows Priestley wearing the knee breeches, buckled shoes, cravat, and wig of his day".

[59] The unveiling ceremony was a major local event, attracting a "large and distinguished company", which later adjourned to the Temperance Hall for speech-making.

[60] This work by Darlington of fifteen sculptural plaster reliefs of the Stations of the Cross was commissioned in 1913 by St Wilfrid's Church, Harrogate, where she worshipped.

[6][22] She used "a type of coloured low relief plaster decoration" which had been developed by Frank Lynn Jenkins, together with Édouard Lantéri who had taught Darlington at the Royal College of Art.

[18]: 83  The Camelot Project at the University of Rochester states that at St Wilfrid's "she was invited to interpret the Stations of The Cross in sculptural curves and glowing colour, reputedly incorporating portraits of members of the congregation".

The resultant Consistory Court upheld the appeal, albeit reluctantly, and Lucius Smith, Bishop of Ripon, did not oppose the request.

He was very reluctant to grant the faculty, but the pictures could be amended so as to include the salient points in the life of Our Lord, and yet not be in any sense Stations of the Cross.

[61]This is a large memorial plaque: a painted plaster relief executed by Darlington for St George's House Police Orphanage, Harrogate and completed in December 1918.

[6] It was originally framed in dark oak, with the motto of the Crusaders, Deus vult, and a brass plate carrying the names of the fallen.

[4] Ripon Museums describes the work as follows:[25] A bas-relief sculpture with paint and gold leaf, it features St. George allied with St. Joan of Arc in an idealistic patriotism against the infidel.