Known as the ‘Ticket’ or ‘Booking’ Office, however there is no evidence to suggest that this was correct. It was however the building outside which the ceremony took place of the laying of the first rail in Stockton.
Stockton in Steam
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
The upper bay window was used by a railway clerk to check the contents of railway wagons as they passed by slowly to check that the contents matched the paperwork signed by the trader. This was to ensure that fraud was not committed. It”s a bit like modern containers marked “machine parts” when sometimes they contain anything but! There is nothing new in trying to hoodwink the powers that be so as to pay less for your consignment. The so called ticket office could not have sold the first train tickets as the first train over the line on 27/9/1825 was by invitation only. The S&DR did not operate its own passenger trains until 1833 and its stations and ticket offices commenced then.Prior to that horse drawn coaches were operated by licensee”s and it is solely due to their ineptness that the S&DR directors decided enough was enough.