Hi Bob. Yes. Maurice was my uncle, married to Beryl with a son Peter who, I believe, has a painting and decorating business. Maurice died from a heart attack whilst in the Highland Lad in Norton watching the Boro get through to their first Wembley cup final. Alas, he never got to see the Boro at Wembley. I went there for him tho” and said a little prayer for him when the teams came out. WE STILL LOST THO”
Arthur. You must be related to Maurice Oakley. He lived in Leven Road until marriage and then lived in Albany Road. I worked at Hills with him until his death.
Burden”s music shop in Yarm Lane was where my mother worked for a while in either the late 30″s or early 40″s. Jean Robinson she was then, later to become Jean Oakley when she married my dad (also Arthur Oakley – from Leven Road in Norton), in 1945. I was born in Bickersteth Street in 1946 and moved to Cecil Street when I was 4.
I remember Mr Camplin well. He sold me my first electric guitar back in 1957. A Rosetti Lucky Seven with Cathedral strings. He was always very helpful to us young musicians. I was only eleven at the time. Veteran drummer Leo Duffy also worked there. He was a great character.
Keith Roberts – Burdons music shop in the sixties. My memory is a little different to yours. I remember the manager as Mr. Camplin and the guy who sold the pianos was Mr. Chin. Counter sales were two girls Maureen and Beryl. Anybody else remember????
Further to my last comment, I was looking at C.L. Prosser”s website in which it is mentioned that they had the job of demolishing Parkfield Foundries. Possibly removing more scrap metal from the site than they ever delivered. How ironic that would be.
The two large doors, mentioned by Jim McCurley gave access to the electricity supply and there were a number of large transformers inside that building. When I first started work at Parkfield in 1974, mercury arc rectifiers were still in use, which even then, were obsolete technology. It was like Frankensteins laboratory in there, with the arcing of the huge glass rectifiers. The left hand end of that building was used as the testing lab, where I spent many happy hours malingering, and chatting up the lab girls! The two large silos seen in two of the pictures supplied sand to the Light Foundry sand mill. The Light Foundry was fully mechanised, unlike the Heavy Foundry, which still used traditional hand moulding techniques. I have a small claim to fame in the signs that can be seen on the walls in photos 1 & 3. They read “Parkfield Group PLC, Private Car Park” These, and a few others were signwritten by me in 1985, as part of a general tidy up in preparation for a visit of the then PM, Margaret Thatcher. Years later, I found one of these signs in the rubble of the by now demolished foundry. I wish I”d kept it for posterity! The Parkfield Group, was a short lived business empire created by a wealthy businessman (who”s name escapes me) who also owned Air Florida and Parkfield Pathe which bought the famous Pathe newsreel archive. There was an extensive advertising campaign on TV, narrated by David Frost, for their “Year to Remember” series of home videos. The Parkfield Group was listed on the London Stock Exchange before it got into financial difficulties. In it”s final years, the foundry was owned by Buchan, and the large Parkfield Foundries signs on the roof and office gable end were removed. The final picture shows the main office block. The gates on the left, partly obscured by a lorry, are the entrance to Prosser”s scrapyard, which was still in business in 2005. Prossers was one of the companies which supplied steel scrap to the foundry. Obviously a very short journey! My other claim to fame is that I occasionally drove one of the foundry”s forklift trucks out on the road, between the foundry and the scrapyard, to test the accuracy of Prossers weighing scale. (we weighed the truck on our on scale, then compared the results to Prossers)
My dad was a fettler at Parkfield and worked there from 1972 until he was laid off (with all the other guys) around 1991. My husband also worked on the furnaces from 1986-1989 My dad loved the place.
Burdons Music Shop was near to the entrance of West Row and on the opposite corner was the Garrick Pub. In its years before closing down it had its front window regularly broken by the same man who threw a building brick through it. The owner of the shop apparently had reported a bus Inspector for not doing his job right and the brick thrower had taken umbrage to this. I have to mention that each time he broke the window he waited to be caught by the Police.
Dear Harry and Ged, hope you don”t mind me reminding you of the music shop you mentioned. The one in Yarm Lane was Burdens Music shop it next door to The Green Bushes Pub and Whiteley”s was situated in Finkle st next to a chemists shop which was in turn next door to the Yorkshire Bank. I bought my first of many guitars of the manager of Burdens a Mr Chamley a nice man who always helped out us budding Stockton musicians.
This was the view from my bedroom window during the 1970″s all the way up to the mid 1980″s. Just seeing it brings back very happy childhood memories . Are you reading this dicko? Better times eh mate ?….
G”day to you again Harry! I think this really is our beloved Ashmore”s gate, though it is hardly recognizable as such without the streets in the picture. The two big tanks just inside weren”t there in our day – they were added after Ellicott Street was knocked down in 1967, which is just as well as they would have destroyed the natural beauty of the area (har har!). Also what looks to be two large doors to the right of the gate in slide 1, I think they were there for ventilation, were in the backstreet leading up to Bowesfield Lane, opposite Middleton”s front door. I also believe the second gate, in slide 4, was the one at the other end of the back street, at the bottom of Vine Street. This is a terrific site. After I told you about it Harry I lost it somewhere in the cyberspace and forgot about it but then my friend Kevin McCullough, once of Suffolk Street in Oxbridge and now of the San Francisco Bay area, emailed me it again. I”ve also looked into Janet McNeilly”s Bowesfield Lane School site. Though I didn”t go to that school myself, being left-footers Kevin and I went to St. Cuthbert”s, many of my childhood friends did and sure enough, there they are!
Harry, I believe you are right about Whitley`s Music Shop. What a memory. I lost patience with my Licorice Stick in my twenties and concentrated on my guitar. I was never what you might call “professional” with either instrument but was able to entertain myself and, on drunken occasions, our friends in Germany. Lots of my German friends speak English with a Teesside accent. My daughter now plays my last guitar far better than I ever did and also possesses a far better singing voice than I did. Your friend in Estepona is a couple of hundred miles south of me. We live between Valencia and Alicante in a very small wine-producing village. I have almost 1000 vines of my own and contribute to the making of the local wine – very nice too. You are so right about the dangers of Bushfires, we had one dangerously near our home just a week ago. The heat was tremendous and I feared for my bin-liner. Cheers Harry.
Hullo there Jim. Nice to see your name on Picture Stockton to which you introduced me some time ago. Ah, Yes, memories of Ellicott Street and Ashmore”s Foundrey. To be honest, I have had difficulty in identifying the locations shown on the slides, but memories of the gates which, dependent upon the Sporting Season, were used as either Goalposts or Cricket Stumps are still with me. As is the five o clock “Stampede”as the workmen “Homeward plodded their weary way”. My memories go back a little further than yours, to the days of the Depression, when there were fewer workers and some of the local children (OK me as well) would ask “Any biscuits left Mister?”We were “For it” if our Mums found out. By an almost unbelievable coincidence, Jim lived in 19 Ellicott Street and I lived in No. 18 in the same Street. Now he lives in Canada and I live in Australia. Our Far flung Empire, but we still think of Stockton as “Home”. G”Day Ged, I was interested in your adventures with the Clarinet as this was the instrument that I took up. Did actually take lessons. My old Licorice Stick is now being played by one of my Grand Daughters who is making a better job of it than I ever did. Thinking deeply on the Music Shop in Yarm Road. Could this possibly have been Whitleys?. Sort of rings a bell, but I will not be in the market for any Penitent”s clobber if I am in error. Change of pace. I am in frequent contact with a Stocktonian living in Estepona. Would this be your stamping ground. If so,take care with those Bushfires.
Parkfield Foundries was Ashmore Benson Pease and Co when I was a kid in the fifties. The foundry gate in slides 1 and 2 was at the bottom end of Ellicott Street. I lived in number 19 which was two doors up on the right hand side as you looked at the gate. It was our goal when we played football and we drew wickets on it when we played cricket. At five oclock the workmen would stand inside until the buzzer went and the gate was opened. Then they would run, not walk, run up Ellicott Street in their big boots and we kids had to stand on the doorsteps to avoid getting run down.
Hi Bob. Yes. Maurice was my uncle, married to Beryl with a son Peter who, I believe, has a painting and decorating business. Maurice died from a heart attack whilst in the Highland Lad in Norton watching the Boro get through to their first Wembley cup final. Alas, he never got to see the Boro at Wembley. I went there for him tho” and said a little prayer for him when the teams came out. WE STILL LOST THO”
Arthur. You must be related to Maurice Oakley. He lived in Leven Road until marriage and then lived in Albany Road. I worked at Hills with him until his death.
Burden”s music shop in Yarm Lane was where my mother worked for a while in either the late 30″s or early 40″s. Jean Robinson she was then, later to become Jean Oakley when she married my dad (also Arthur Oakley – from Leven Road in Norton), in 1945. I was born in Bickersteth Street in 1946 and moved to Cecil Street when I was 4.
I remember Mr Camplin well. He sold me my first electric guitar back in 1957. A Rosetti Lucky Seven with Cathedral strings. He was always very helpful to us young musicians. I was only eleven at the time. Veteran drummer Leo Duffy also worked there. He was a great character.
Keith Roberts – Burdons music shop in the sixties. My memory is a little different to yours. I remember the manager as Mr. Camplin and the guy who sold the pianos was Mr. Chin. Counter sales were two girls Maureen and Beryl. Anybody else remember????
Further to my last comment, I was looking at C.L. Prosser”s website in which it is mentioned that they had the job of demolishing Parkfield Foundries. Possibly removing more scrap metal from the site than they ever delivered. How ironic that would be.
The two large doors, mentioned by Jim McCurley gave access to the electricity supply and there were a number of large transformers inside that building. When I first started work at Parkfield in 1974, mercury arc rectifiers were still in use, which even then, were obsolete technology. It was like Frankensteins laboratory in there, with the arcing of the huge glass rectifiers. The left hand end of that building was used as the testing lab, where I spent many happy hours malingering, and chatting up the lab girls! The two large silos seen in two of the pictures supplied sand to the Light Foundry sand mill. The Light Foundry was fully mechanised, unlike the Heavy Foundry, which still used traditional hand moulding techniques. I have a small claim to fame in the signs that can be seen on the walls in photos 1 & 3. They read “Parkfield Group PLC, Private Car Park” These, and a few others were signwritten by me in 1985, as part of a general tidy up in preparation for a visit of the then PM, Margaret Thatcher. Years later, I found one of these signs in the rubble of the by now demolished foundry. I wish I”d kept it for posterity! The Parkfield Group, was a short lived business empire created by a wealthy businessman (who”s name escapes me) who also owned Air Florida and Parkfield Pathe which bought the famous Pathe newsreel archive. There was an extensive advertising campaign on TV, narrated by David Frost, for their “Year to Remember” series of home videos. The Parkfield Group was listed on the London Stock Exchange before it got into financial difficulties. In it”s final years, the foundry was owned by Buchan, and the large Parkfield Foundries signs on the roof and office gable end were removed. The final picture shows the main office block. The gates on the left, partly obscured by a lorry, are the entrance to Prosser”s scrapyard, which was still in business in 2005. Prossers was one of the companies which supplied steel scrap to the foundry. Obviously a very short journey! My other claim to fame is that I occasionally drove one of the foundry”s forklift trucks out on the road, between the foundry and the scrapyard, to test the accuracy of Prossers weighing scale. (we weighed the truck on our on scale, then compared the results to Prossers)
Roger Felber was the guy
My dad was a fettler at Parkfield and worked there from 1972 until he was laid off (with all the other guys) around 1991. My husband also worked on the furnaces from 1986-1989 My dad loved the place.
Burdons Music Shop was near to the entrance of West Row and on the opposite corner was the Garrick Pub. In its years before closing down it had its front window regularly broken by the same man who threw a building brick through it. The owner of the shop apparently had reported a bus Inspector for not doing his job right and the brick thrower had taken umbrage to this. I have to mention that each time he broke the window he waited to be caught by the Police.
Dear Harry and Ged, hope you don”t mind me reminding you of the music shop you mentioned. The one in Yarm Lane was Burdens Music shop it next door to The Green Bushes Pub and Whiteley”s was situated in Finkle st next to a chemists shop which was in turn next door to the Yorkshire Bank. I bought my first of many guitars of the manager of Burdens a Mr Chamley a nice man who always helped out us budding Stockton musicians.
This was the view from my bedroom window during the 1970″s all the way up to the mid 1980″s. Just seeing it brings back very happy childhood memories . Are you reading this dicko? Better times eh mate ?….
G”day to you again Harry! I think this really is our beloved Ashmore”s gate, though it is hardly recognizable as such without the streets in the picture. The two big tanks just inside weren”t there in our day – they were added after Ellicott Street was knocked down in 1967, which is just as well as they would have destroyed the natural beauty of the area (har har!). Also what looks to be two large doors to the right of the gate in slide 1, I think they were there for ventilation, were in the backstreet leading up to Bowesfield Lane, opposite Middleton”s front door. I also believe the second gate, in slide 4, was the one at the other end of the back street, at the bottom of Vine Street. This is a terrific site. After I told you about it Harry I lost it somewhere in the cyberspace and forgot about it but then my friend Kevin McCullough, once of Suffolk Street in Oxbridge and now of the San Francisco Bay area, emailed me it again. I”ve also looked into Janet McNeilly”s Bowesfield Lane School site. Though I didn”t go to that school myself, being left-footers Kevin and I went to St. Cuthbert”s, many of my childhood friends did and sure enough, there they are!
Harry, I believe you are right about Whitley`s Music Shop. What a memory. I lost patience with my Licorice Stick in my twenties and concentrated on my guitar. I was never what you might call “professional” with either instrument but was able to entertain myself and, on drunken occasions, our friends in Germany. Lots of my German friends speak English with a Teesside accent. My daughter now plays my last guitar far better than I ever did and also possesses a far better singing voice than I did. Your friend in Estepona is a couple of hundred miles south of me. We live between Valencia and Alicante in a very small wine-producing village. I have almost 1000 vines of my own and contribute to the making of the local wine – very nice too. You are so right about the dangers of Bushfires, we had one dangerously near our home just a week ago. The heat was tremendous and I feared for my bin-liner. Cheers Harry.
Hullo there Jim. Nice to see your name on Picture Stockton to which you introduced me some time ago. Ah, Yes, memories of Ellicott Street and Ashmore”s Foundrey. To be honest, I have had difficulty in identifying the locations shown on the slides, but memories of the gates which, dependent upon the Sporting Season, were used as either Goalposts or Cricket Stumps are still with me. As is the five o clock “Stampede”as the workmen “Homeward plodded their weary way”. My memories go back a little further than yours, to the days of the Depression, when there were fewer workers and some of the local children (OK me as well) would ask “Any biscuits left Mister?”We were “For it” if our Mums found out. By an almost unbelievable coincidence, Jim lived in 19 Ellicott Street and I lived in No. 18 in the same Street. Now he lives in Canada and I live in Australia. Our Far flung Empire, but we still think of Stockton as “Home”. G”Day Ged, I was interested in your adventures with the Clarinet as this was the instrument that I took up. Did actually take lessons. My old Licorice Stick is now being played by one of my Grand Daughters who is making a better job of it than I ever did. Thinking deeply on the Music Shop in Yarm Road. Could this possibly have been Whitleys?. Sort of rings a bell, but I will not be in the market for any Penitent”s clobber if I am in error. Change of pace. I am in frequent contact with a Stocktonian living in Estepona. Would this be your stamping ground. If so,take care with those Bushfires.
Parkfield Foundries was Ashmore Benson Pease and Co when I was a kid in the fifties. The foundry gate in slides 1 and 2 was at the bottom end of Ellicott Street. I lived in number 19 which was two doors up on the right hand side as you looked at the gate. It was our goal when we played football and we drew wickets on it when we played cricket. At five oclock the workmen would stand inside until the buzzer went and the gate was opened. Then they would run, not walk, run up Ellicott Street in their big boots and we kids had to stand on the doorsteps to avoid getting run down.