Two views of Norton Green. In the first view you can just see Norton smithy, a public house, terraced housing and the duck pond. c1890. In the more recent view you can still see terraced houses and the duck pond. 2004. 
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
i remember going with school on some lesson to the area where the boulder was dug up, I can’t say what happened to it though, must have been sometime before 1982
Does anybody have any information on the boulder unearthed during the construction of the A19 around Billingham? I wonder if anybody could enlighten me as to the exact location of this, I have heard it mentioned a few times as the ‘Boulder Field’ by people living around Billingham, and I wondered if it is visible above ground?
There are still a few of us left, Sarah, who remember Norton House before and during its being demolished. As a very young lad I went into the grounds with my Father on many occasions when we lived in 5 Mill Lane. I know he gathered fruit in season which was either bottled or turned into jam but have no idea why this happened. As the house we lived in had been the carriage house and stables for Norton Hall it may well have been he did some sort of caretaking although I cannot confirm this. I do remember him showing me the Plague pit and telling me the story, the place was consecrated and the tree planted to stop any building ever being done on the land. I have memory of the house being torn down and all the wood burned on the front, very exciting to us kids, huge bonfires? also a traction engine with a wire hauling rope on its winch pulling down large sections at a time, I was a budding engineer even then so that was of interest. I suppose to us it was just an old building at the end of its time, we did not think of the historic events the house had seen. The old walls are still in place from the Green down Beaconsfield road to Lancefield road, behind part of which is the burial ground for the old Chapel. The other section of wall which at one time had a lych gate in it through to Ferny road (is it still there?)and on through Finchly to our playground on the building site which was Letch road at that time. All my new playmates arrived during this period including your Dad Ken, Ray Pig, John Payne, Ian Downs, Tony Bulmer, Billy Watson, John Dent, Bruce Edwards, —Dietz, —Thomas, and the love of my life between five and eight Christine Pollard among the girls, so many of them and all of us the best of pals. Besides 5 Mill Lane some of the cottages on the Green also housed staff for Norton Hall, the Butler, House Keeper, and I believe one cottage had a large wash house for the laundry. The pump at the pond never worked in my memory but the one in the yard at 4 Mill Lane did until the war. The pond before the war was still the old clay bottom and us kids had to watch out for broken glass when we sailed our boats. In the early days of the war when people were digging the holes for the Anderson shelters we heard of many bones being discovered, what happened to them I cannot say. We kids did play in the area known as the pit and one evening when the sirens went early Dad came rushing down to get me and I do remember him saying ‘if a bomb lands here the place will be covered with bones and only a few of them yours’ – things like that stick in your head, I had this vision of masses of bones each time we went in there but as I said it was mainly a cut through to the fun of the building site and melting lead into molds, the poor old watchman had no chance with us scamps. One last thing I remember from back then was the Soldiers evacuating the drill hall and setting up camp in the area which is now Rosemount Grove or Fulford Farm as we knew it. Roseberry road only had a few houses built before building stopped for the war years. The soldiers dug in facing down towards the beck and ICI, they also dug up bones as they dug gun pits and latrines. We kids must have plagued them, real soldiers with real guns and we often got a mess tin of food from the cook tent, I think a lot of them had kids of their own and missed them. The length of time Norton has existed there could be many burial sites around the Green area and in my childhood we were often told of the battle that took place on the bottoms, the number of times the Scots came this way probably more than one battle, that is guess work I do not know if it was just urban myth.
You are interesting and informative as always Mr Harbron. Thank you. This seems to be the best view we can hope to get of Norton House, which is a place that fascinates me. If you get time to, I recommend visiting the area of land with the old tree on Bradbury Road. The tree itself is extremely wide and I must say, contrary to the striking ‘shovel fulls of bones’ image, I found the place to be calming.
Does anyone have a photograph taken by the gazette of the big Elm tree on The Green with a staff member of Patterson’s newsagents sat on the bench below , this lady was probably the last person to have a photo taken here as the tree was then felled due to Dutch Elm disease.
The earlier seat around the Jubilee Tree, was set in place 1897 by Norton Parish Councikl as part of the Diamond Jubille Celebration of Queen Victoria replacing a mix wood and metal structure. Secured by bolts around the tree and then bolted to a circular interlocking block, made by Stockton Stone and Concrete Works, Station Road Norton. The seat made by the local Blacksmith Arthur “Arty” Hall. In the mid 1920s, when Stockton Council took over a much larger seat was made, with a back rest made from wheelwright bar-strip by Mr John Samuelson, using gas-welding. He also serviced and maintained the structure, passing the servicing onto future blacksmiths. At the time of the tree”s felling in 1985 the seat had gone leaving only a concrete plinth
Thanks to you both, Tim and Bob, for your interesting comments regarding the Bradbury Road land. 🙂 If this first photo is circa 1980, then it occurred to me that the seat that I saw around the Jubillee tree in the 1960s and 1970s would have had to have been different to the one seen in this photo. It would have had to have been re-built purely due to the enormous width the tree had grown to in the time. It was very wide as I remember it. Do you have any details about any of the seats which went right around the Jubilee tree Mr. Harbron please? Would the seat I sat on have been the original seat or not I wonder? Just curious. 🙂
This whole area was part of the extending village from 650ad “Beck-Side” to the present 1500-1600 “The Green” site ,with church orientated folk buried alongside or in the Church till the mid 1500s other folk had a “Family-Plot” as the one found at present Bishopmill school site a few years ago The “Plague-Pit” was left undeveloped as the 1930s works of Mr Kendrew were turning up shovel fulls of bones , the site of either a period of starvation or disease. A small niche or arch stood in the ancient wall and Mr Hogg the 1700 owner of Norton House had an ash tree planted on the site , the Ash and Rowan having mystical value The Rowan a guard against evil , the Ash a tree which could stand against a lightning strike
Is there any evidence regarding the “plague pit” actually containing bodies of people who suffered this disease, or is it just an old burial ground/cemetary?
The “plague pit”, as Sarah suggests, is located in Bradbury Road. The area is, I believe, to the rear of the old Norton Hall site and the rear wall to the plague pit is original brickwork from that era. I live opposite the plague pit and was told by the County Archaeologist many years ago that many of our gardens contain human remains. This, however, is a Christian burial site discovered when my neighbour uncovered a number of complete skelletons whilst extending a patio area. Also a large number of graves were uncovered immediately behind our fence a couple of years ago prior to an extension to the Bishopsmill School being built.
Please can anyone explain the patch of land with a large old tree to the rear of where Norton House stood? Why didn”t the housing developers build on this land? Was it a mass plague grave? I attended Brownies and Guides in the “School On The Green” in the 1970″s and we used both the land at the “Old Mill” along Mill Lane and land at the bottom of Station Road for practicing pitching tents and cooking campfire food on before going off to camp at places like Middleton-St-George. I remember the Jubilee tree too – it was very big and provided much welcome shade in the height of summer as I remember.
The smithy was still operating as a smithy in the late 40s and early 50s. The Girl Guides used to meet in the hall behind the smithy and in 1953 in Coronation week we danced around a maypole on the green to the left of the photo.
An 1890s view of the Jubilee-Tree. Norton House on the far left, and to the rear the red phone box on the site of the village pump 1877-1939