Five modes of transport actually – there’s some folks using Shanks’s Pony. Seriously though, walking was the commonest way to get about in the olden days and this photo illustrates that fact very well. My Gran always walked to Stockton from Derwent Street to do her shopping. She broke her leg in a fall at the age of 86 but amazingly managed to recover and flatly refused to let anyone do her shopping for her. She said to me one day ‘Ee, I’m finished now Frank. I’ve always walked there and back again with my shopping, but now I have to get the bus back!’. She soldiered on to the age of 97 – though she gave up doing her own shopping at the age of 94. They made them tough in those days – all that walking is certainly good for a body.
I remember your Gran from Derwent Street. I would see her going to your Dads on Norton Road. He would walk her back home. Grand little lady.
Five modes of transport actually – there’s some folks using Shanks’s Pony. Seriously though, walking was the commonest way to get about in the olden days and this photo illustrates that fact very well. My Gran always walked to Stockton from Derwent Street to do her shopping. She broke her leg in a fall at the age of 86 but amazingly managed to recover and flatly refused to let anyone do her shopping for her. She said to me one day ‘Ee, I’m finished now Frank. I’ve always walked there and back again with my shopping, but now I have to get the bus back!’. She soldiered on to the age of 97 – though she gave up doing her own shopping at the age of 94. They made them tough in those days – all that walking is certainly good for a body.
This is a great old photograph showing the High Street with possibly four modes of transport in the same shot.
Tram, horse and cart, pony and trap and a man pushing a handcart.
Has anyone any idea when it was taken?