Landmine damage at Head Wrightson, Thornaby in April 1941. Head Wrightson was started in 1860 by engineer Thomas Wrightson when he joined together with Head Ashby & Company. Head Ashby & Company started business in 1840 as a Thornaby Foundry. The university complex is now on the site. 
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
My grandfather, Thomas Proctor, born in Oxford Street 1905 and started working for Head Wrightson at the age of about 12 years old. His job was to collect all the the horse droppings and take them back to the foundry to make moulds for the steel. Working for Head Wrightsons was the only job he ever had, he worked his way up to be on the furnaces, a steel moulder, and eventually he became night foreman and did forty seven years on night shift. He was dedicated to his job, he married my grandmother Louisa Jane York in the 1920s. They rented a house in Summer house square, then Tilery Road, and later they bought a house in Windmill Terrace, number 9. I don’t think my Nana saw very much of Grandad, because of him always being on permenant night shift. My Uncle Tommy was there first born, Thomas Proctor junior born 1927, followed by my mother, Betty Jean Proctor born 1931. They would have had a sister but there was a house fire, mother had gone to bed with a candle to read a comic because there was a coin jamed in the meter, she must have fell asleep and the candle set the bedside table and bed on fire, with the shock of the fire my Nana lost the baby, she would of been called Eunice. They lived in Windmill Terrace for many many years. I was born in 9 Willmill Terrace in 1957 as my mother and father had taken over the house when Grandad took ill and moved to a bungalow in Embelton Close, Hardwick. All the family had wonderful years in Norton and most of the family spent many a night in the Brown Jug. My mother, Betty Proctor, and my father, Harold Burns, were married St Marys Church, Norton Green. They also left Norton to go Hardwick estate, new house with a bathroom. I would love to hear from anyone who remembers any of my family. Happy memories of a time gone.
The photo top left is the top end of the Bridgeyard & the stockyard between the Bridgeyard & Template Shop.
I think this damage was done by a paramine dropped from German aircraft, not a landmine.
This was blast damage from a landmine that fell on land near to Crosthwaite’s Foundry. The blast blew all the glass out, scattering it across work benches, floor, machines and work in progress. The mess was soon cleared allowing vital war work including the manufacture of bombs and sinkers to continue.