Taken c1957, showing the west side of Stockton High Street and the corner of Wellington Street. Also seen is Sparks, Woolworths and Woodhouse.
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
Taken c1957, showing the west side of Stockton High Street and the corner of Wellington Street. Also seen is Sparks, Woolworths and Woodhouse.
Picture Stockton Archive 
My dad worked at Woodhouses as a salesman. His name was Norman Waller and I can’t remember him working anywhere else. He was working there up until his death in 1983 and was there through the 60s & 70s.
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I worked in Woolies around 1966/70 – the pics have brought back a lot memories. Met my husband there and we will be celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary soon.
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When I re-read my last comment I realised it should have been ‘…over 6d’. Sixpence. Woolies pledge had to be bandoned in World War II as changing economic factors increased wholesale prices.
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As a child I always knew Woolworths’ as ‘the bazaar’. When Woolworths’ began in the UK in Liverpool in 1909 it had to compete with Marks and Spencer’s Penny Bazaar which were mainly in open fronted shops and market stalls. The emphasis was on ‘Nothing in these Stores over 6p’. Originally it was expected that goods would be imported from the USA but they proved to be too expensive. So they turned to domestic/UK supplies. I think that there was a very good quality in what was sold at the bazaar. It was great to tour around thinking of spending my Saturday penny!
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My Mam also called it the Bazaar. My memories of Woolies as a kid in the 50s is of warm roasted peanuts sold in paper bags & two bob Airfix models in poly bags.
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Who would ever have thought that Woolies, or as my mother was wont to call it ‘the bazaar’, would be an object of nostalgia?
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They are practically on the site where the old Hills houses and the Pikelet mans house was. Overlooking what would have been the old Tilery Road.
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Does anybody know when the flats were built on the Hills site please?
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Was Woodhouses store the site of a previous Marks & Spencers? I seem to recall spotting the early M&S ‘logo’ set into the stonework above a side entrance on Wellington St. Presumably it was not worth the bother or expense of having it removed when Woodhouses (or a subsequent tenant) took over the premises,
after Marks n’ Spencers moved to their present site on the High St.
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Keith you are right Norman Holmes bakery was attached to the house my Uncle Dick & Aunt Jessie(nee Goldsbrough)lived before moving to Yarm.
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Pikelet Bakery was in Crosby Street, (once a shop ) off Norton Road opposite the Wild-Ox. A mobile which also sold hamburgers operated out of this building, the smell of frying onions on a cold day was mouth watering !!
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The Pikelet man”s name was Norman Holmes. He had his bakery on Norton Road opposite Tilery road. It was in the end of the back street close to Hills wall. There are new flats built on the site now.
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The “pikelet mans” name was Norman, his “shop” or whatever it was that he made his stuff at was on Tilery road. He was a neat guy ,although he had a rep. as a kind of “barrow boy”. He also sold the best greasy beefburgers loaded with onions outside the Maison on a Saturday night after the dance. He was sweet on my older sister so I used to get “freebies”. Thanks Norman, you and the beefburgers were great!!
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I too remember the pikelet man, but I thought he had box in the form of a barrow rather than attached to a bike. The reason I remeber him was that whilst at Mill Lane before the “scholarship” we were given a a rudimentary “careers” talk about the possibilities of going to grammar school orlater to technical school or into the seniors, and the various possibilities these routes entailed. The worst possible scenario (obviously not a word in use then ) was that we didn”t stick in at any school and we would end up selling pikelets. This confused me because standing in High Street selling pikelets always struck me as an attractive job.
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I can remember the “Pikelet Man” on Woodhouse”s corner – he was a chap selling pikelets, crumpets etc from a box on the front of his bike. This was during the late 1950s or early 1960s. If childhood memories serve me correctly, the pikelets tasted like vulcanised rubber.
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I held my wedding reception in the Sparkes Cafe on the High Street way back in 1959. I lived in Dean Street Stockton and attended Mill Lane School. It is so nice to see some of the old photograhs of Stockton, because when I visited last year I hardly recognised the high street. Well done with the study of Stockton.
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Congratulations Harry. Have an enjoyable day. If you had still been in the Stockton area you could”nt have held the Golden Wedding celebrations in the Cafe. It went a long time ago,sadly.
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Ah! Memories, Memories Alan. Sparkes Cafe was where my Wife and I held our Wedding Reception on September 3rd. 1955, which, if my maths are correct, makes it our Golden Wedding next week. Access for the Bridal Party was along a very narrow back alley which I think may have been called Ropery Street. Our large Family are organising a party for us. Thanks for the memory!
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The third building from the right was Spark”s shop and then the cafe. My parents held their wedding reception there in 1930. I wasn”t there at the time. I arrived seven years later.
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I took a photograph of this last week and it has not changed in almost fifty years. In fact the only annoying thing about the shot of the this in the year 2005 is the silly placed bus shelters that obstruct the view.
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