The new east gate at ICI, Billingham in the late 1950s. 
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
The new east gate at ICI, Billingham in the late 1950s.
Picture Stockton Archive 
You see those little Buckets on a cable system going across the background of the photograph? Can anyone remember a similar system which used to stretch across the A19 near Seaham in County Durham.They used to tip the coal slag out in to the Sea, in the bad old days. They also featured in the 1971 film Get Carter starring Michael Caine, in the final scenes of that film, the bad guy Eric (with the dark sunglasses, and chauffers outfit!) gets beaten up and killed by Carter, then he is dumped into one of those little buckets and dumped out to sea! I always think of that bit of this film, whenever I see pictures of this system. anyone know when the Seaham System closed down?
LikeLike
This is the East Gate, today we enter through this gate as the North gate is fenced off and the old West gate is a haulage firm gate to the site. East entrance now has a central gate house and outside a new visitor centre.
LikeLike
As this photo shows little signs of activity it was probably taken before 7am or after 5pm. During those hours the gates would be open and there would be evidence of traffic and ICI personnel coming and going. Around 7am when the payroll were arriving to clock-on before 7.12am the area around the East Gate would be a mass of people. Again at 4.30pm when the workers clocked-off the East Gate would be a sea of faces with people making their way to the buses that were located just to the left of the photo. By the mid-1960`s almost 31,000 Teessiders worked in the Chemical and Allied Industries with the bulk of them working at the ICI Billingham and Wilton sites. Very few of the blue-collar workers owned a car and the Stockton and Middlesbrough Corporation Bus Services provided the means for a lot of the workers to arrive at work on time. Those not on the buses usually got to work on bicycles and the roads were awash with cyclists in all weathers. I was a fair-weather cyclist and used the buses throughout the winter months.
LikeLike