Nos.43 and 45 Norton Road, Stockton. No.43 is a fish and chip shop, the building has a plaque with Eugene E. Clephan, North End Steam Building Works on the front of it (occupied 1850s-1890s). No.45 is occupied by A.E. Jeyes, Family Butcher. 1974. 
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
Richard Talbot – my g g g g grandmother was Bridget Comaskey, she married Michael Casey my g g g g grandfather in Ireland before 1800, possibly in Co Monaghan. They had a son Bernard born 1800-05, he married and had 10 children all left Ireland in the 1840s. They settled in Glasgow, with them when they left Ireland were Bernard’s relatives from the his mother’s side { Comaskey’s }. It seemed in the early years the close family ties between Casey’s and Comaskey’s remained very very close, when my g g granad and his family turned up in Spennymoor { he was a puddler of iron }. A Comaskey family were close by in Whitton Park, when my grandad first came to Stockton to work in the iron works Portrack 1862 Comaskey here in Stockton just before him or came after he arrived. I wonder if you know any of the Comaskey family history, I feel they are connected to my Casey family somewhere down the line. If you can help PictureStockton have my e-mail address.
My maternal grandmother Margaret Dodds (nee Cumaskey) was the wife of the Borough Hotel landlord, William R. Dodds. He and his family lived there and he ran the business sometime before the 1911 census until his death in 1914. My maternal grandfather Robert Ash (a Stockton fitter & turner) married Margaret Dodds in 1917, strangely enough after moving to Lewisham. I wonder what became of the children – William Jr, Gladys, Ronald & Raymond Dodds between this time and when my mother Peggy Ash was born in 1919 at Lewisham. I also wonder why a Stockton man and woman should suddenly up-sticks to Lewisham. But I do know that the children survived and did well.
I’ve only just noticed this building whilst cycling past it today, and was intrigued by the plaque: Eugene E. Clephan, North End Steam Building Works. What exactly did they do in this company? It’s interesting what you see about town when you look above the shop fronts.
what is being build on the site now? flats? but l”m sure their”s no parking spaces provided. is it a big site? wohat is at the rear of the property? the Buff”s Social Club car park?
Peter went on to open the “Tapas-Bar” in Norton this was originally the Melba-Bar” ice-cream palour ,alongside the Moderne Cinema , the first “Expresso-Bar” in the 1960s outside of Stockton Peter had quite a lot of “Heslop-Brewery” artifacts including both ordinary and marble stopper bottles, and print material on family He is also a very dedicated metal-detector and has assisted local archeaology on local searches in the Durham /Teesside area His “Finds” are vast, from Saxon-beads to Civil-War Musket balls. Coins going back hundreds of years. He said his find of Georgian pennies on the now Holme-house Prison site were due to the tipping of the “night-soil” wagons, when coins fell out of the owners trouser pockets.
I refer to the building to the left in the picture. Over recent years this became Pharoahs Night Club, Then Birches Club and twenty years ago (1986) Fox”s Night Club. I sold it on about 7 years ago and it has since been destroyed by fire. During the time that I had the property I researched the file at Middlesbrough Archives and established that the building was built about 1825 as the Borough Hotel of Stockton. The owner at the time of the census in 1861 was Thomas Heslop who owned breweries in Norton (Norton Grange Brewerey) and Billingham. Residence at the time of the census were from Sedgefield and Thorpe and were probably farmers staying the night prior to the market in the High Street. There were a number of small buildings to the rear of the hotel which, on the plans, revealed that they were used as animal pens ( or folds). A person who looked afer such animals was called a pinderman. Hence the name of the adjacent narrow street which is called Penfold Street.
Love your site, keep up the good work! Would love to see more residential street photos. Also does anyone have a photo of Percy Street, Stockton? My maternal Grandmother worked for a family at 10 Percy Street in 1920 and I have been trying to find out who lived at that address and what would their profession would have been? I Was told Percy St. had mainly large detached Victorian homes. Can anyone confirm this?
Clephans 43-45 Norton Road. Workshops to the rear of this photo accessable down a passage to the right of building , was John Harrisons, Printer and Box-Maker from 1920s moving to Portrack trading Estate in the 1970s This ornate brick fronted building was used for print paper storage and during the war held Goverment paper in case of bombing. The board-room of Clephams was still in place (empty) 1944, on the top floor with oak floor boards and panelled walls, stained glass windows and a magnificent Victorian tiled fire-place, the tiles depicting in colour scenes from Shakespeares plays. The Clephan link is still strong in Stockton as the world famous “Dice-Players”, in Preston Hall is part of the “Clephan Bequest. Passing this building note to the right a two storey house. Legend has it that the stone lintel ,bearded heads are the “Clephan-Brothers” keeping an eye on their business